Irrigation leak?
 

We’re new homeowners here and looking at our water bill. I’m only watering 50 minutes total between the three zones 3 times a week. Does the 5000 gallons seem too high? It does to me since I’m only using a little more than half of that for my potable water. How can I check this? Thanks.

You may be watering too much.


Irrigation Schedules - The Villages Community Development Districts

The amount of water use looks reasonable, but most people only water two times per week. Also, if you have grass, that zone should be watered about two times as long as the shrub areas. You can try it and see if your lawn still looks okay. I don't think you have a leak.

It IS hard to look at an irrigation bill as a newbie and believe you’re using 5, 10 or 15 K of water each month but that is about right for three times a week. Consider a smart controller with WiFi and it will take into consideration the upcoming weather in addition to your smart wick. Example with a smart controller if your watering 3 times a week and the weather calls for rain in the upcoming week it will hold some or all of your irrigation and further reduce water consumption.

IMO no, need look at street when watering? Do you see water running down street 10 mins or more each zone? If so you either watering too much or you’re watering street. My water bill runs between 3800 and 4800. And I don’t run irrigation unless need to, when I do it’s done manually not regularly. I don’t have grass so I just have to water bushes and plants. This is hottest time of year May through September. IMO if you’re water grass be lucky under 7000 gallons or more month.

If you’re for underground leak should be signs of wetness?

A rough calculation says my irrigation system consumes 9gals/min.

50 mins/day * 3 days/wk * 4wks/month * 9gals/min = 5,400 gals/month

Your 5,000 gals is pretty darn close to that.

We use about 1,000 gals/month of potable water for two of us.

A controller with wifi that can use local weather stations to disable watering when rain is forecast will help you to save some water/money.

Get to know your system. Check how much usage per zone/ten minute cycle. Map your sprinkling heads and make sure all are working properly. Check for sprinklers covered by grass or broken. Ie make sure they are performing and aimed correctly.

If your system does not automatically stop running when we have adequate rain, either get that fixed or shut it down manually. At this time of year. you can sometimes go several weeks without watering due to our frequent showers.

Learn how to tell to read the lawns need for water by appearance. Some zones need more than others, size, shade, content (Grass, shrubs, trees}

Best to ask your neighbors of similar size lawns. But count on a hundred or so bucks extra for water if you are watering 2x or 3x times a week, 30min each and more than 3 zones.

We monitor the weather to determine when to water. We got hit once with a giant bill for watering the lawn way to much. Never again.

8 gal/min. X 50 min. X 3 times/wk X 4 wk/month = 4800 gal/month. Yes that sounds plausible. There is no comparison between potable water and irrigation water. You may be watering too much though. Try 2 times per week on the days your area is supposed to water.

Amazing that it costs so much just to water a lawn and shrubs just so it can look pretty. Most of us spend more on care and upkeep of landscaping than we do on electricity and gas utilities.

Looks fairly low

That's about right for 50 minutes 3 times a week. The sprinklers use a lot of water.

We usually use about 7000 gallons so yours sounds reasonable. We water 3x a week 40 minutes each grass zones and 20 minutes each per. 2 different shrub zones. We have St Augustine grass which seems to wilt and stress in these hot months if we didn’t go to 3 days of watering.

Your irrigation usage compared to your potable water usage is totally irrelevant . Also check to see if your irrigation controller is switched to bypass the rain sensor. Your sensor may not work anyway but you can try to manually run the irrigation after a big rain and it won’t run if your sensor is on and in good working order. As others suggested two days a week should be plenty at 50 minutes on three zones total

Any particular brand/model you recommend?

Cindy