water usage warning letter
 

We received our second consecutive warning letter about our water use. Before we left Florida on August 16th, we seldom had the sprinkler system on because with all the rain we had it wasn't necessary to water.
According to the letter, designer homes should be using 7,200 gallons a month. We are using 27,960???

Seems way out of line. My sprinkler system is set for twice a week. I have six zones and the run time for all six zones is nearly three hours. We were not there for the last two weeks of August, thus the showers, dishwasher, washing machine were not in use. Is my water usage out of line? Is my sprinkler system running too much?

I didn't get the actual bill as of yet so I can't see where the excess water use is. Could have a leak somewhere. Should I worry about it?

Irrigation water and house water are two different charges on your bill, Tom. 27,000 gallons is a lot of watering. I have a very large lot and my last bill for irrigation showed 11,000 gallons for irrigation. Lots of zones for us also. Me thinks you have a leak somewhere.

Your home is new, right? Should be a warranty on sprinkler system.

Tom,

No way should a zone be set for three hours. Way to much. I can see why you get letter. My longest time is 40 minutes!!!!!!!!!!!

I assume you mean the total time for the 6 zones is 3 hours. If you mean 3 hours on each zone it would be taking you nearly a day and a night to water. You need about 45-50 min on rotary heads and 30 on the popups.

Tom , if all of your 6 zones are totalling 3 hours or 180 minutes then each zone is probably set for 30 minutes which sounds normal but then you say this is twice per week which doubles those numbers. Even so that number of gallons seems excessive. I would suspect a leak. Right now during the rainy season, my system is on manual and has been used very little the last couple of months with all the rain we have been blessed with.

Tom,

I miss read your post. Sorry about that. Have someone check your system.

We had a water usage problem when one of the popups was chopped off by the lawn service. The popups often fail to retract and are severed when the lawn is cut.

Have the sprinkler heads and the panel checked. We had ours checked back in June and they found five leaking sprinkler heads, which were replaced. With our lot being about 12,000 sq feet we have not had an irrigation bill higher than 15,000 gallons used yet this year.

Yes, I mean 3 hors total. I have one zone at 46 minutes, two at at 41 and a few others between 15-24 minutes.

Tom,

A couple of things you can do.

1. Look for the water meter cover in your yard. If it is a newer home, it will be flat in the yard and will be a green plastic rectangle. Lift it up using a screwdriver and pliers. Be careful not to break any wires. There on the water meter is a little triangle. When there is no water going through your meter, the triangle is not moving. Where water is flowing, the triangle goes around. Make sure you have no water turned on in the house. If the triangle is turning around, you have a leak.

2. If you do not feel comfortable doing this yourself, call the VCDD Utilities at 748-0000 and ask them to send a technician to conduct a flow test. It is a free service.

Hope this is helpful to you.

I am in NY so doing what you ask me to do is impossible. But have no fear. My friend is going over today to check it out.

This happened to my neighbor and they asked me to help. What I found was that they indeed had the system set to run twice a week in program A.

The also had it set to run in program B :doh:.

There are three programs on the Hunter controller and people mis-configure them, even professionals. Have your friend check all three programs.

You can hire a company like Massy to look after your sprinklers while you're away. They operate them manually from the outside so they don't need inside access to your home. If they find a broken head they will fix it for an additional charge. Hope this helps.

:agree: I would bet money that is exactly what is happening....had the same situation with our system and running programs B & C. $100 extra a month it was costing me.

I forwarded Disney's and AJ's post to my friend who will be stopping over my house to see what the problem is. Thanks to everyone for their suggestions. This is what TOTV is all about.