Sprinkler Systems

[Shannow]

Originally Posted By: ARB1977
A good rule of thumb is water your lawn one inch per zone per week. I water mine twice per week 15 mins per zone and I have 7 zones. Rain sensors are good but it take some water in order to make them work. By the time a heavy down poor happens the rain had stopped.

Our county is under stage two water restrictions....only water twice per week.


800 square yards, that would cost me $1,400 per annum just to keep the grass up....

 

[DBMaster]

Originally Posted By: ARB1977
Rain sensors are good but it take some water in order to make them work. By the time a heavy down poor happens the rain had stopped.

Our county is under stage two water restrictions....only water twice per week.


My city had mandatory restrictions for the first time this summer because the Dallas Municipal Water District required it of all member cities. They were in place from July 1 - August 31. Many of my neighbors were blatantly watering on their "no watering" days. My rain sensor is only there because I used to travel more and it would, generally, keep the system from running in the rain like I see so many around here doing. Several cities in the area now require ground moisture sensors on new systems.

If rain is in the forecast, I shut off the system. If it just rained like last week, I shut off the system for a week. As I said earlier, I am just a compulsive BITOGer. Keeping up with it must require too much brain energy for those around me. I guess I'll just have to chalk it up to the universal apathy I seem to sense around me.

 

[DBMaster]

Also, around my area I was advised to run only ten minutes per zone. The heavy clay soil cannot absorb water too rapidly so watering longer just creates more runoff. If you want to water longer than that you set your timer to run a second full cycle. Judging by the floods in my neighborhood's streets and alleys I have to assume that my neighbors did not get the same level of training from their sprinkler companies.

 

[DBMaster]

Oh, and guys, sorry if I did seem like I was dissin' you. That was not my intent. If anyone would understand how a person can obsess over things beyond his control I figure some of you here would.

This is something that is beyond my control. My expectations of my fellow citizens are beyond reasonable, I think.

 

[Garak]

I still don't know how or why people do it, DBMaster. My water bill is high enough, and I completely neglect my lawn. I'd hate to see what those people who water religiously pay.

 

[Mamala Bay]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I still don't know how or why people do it, DBMaster. My water bill is high enough, and I completely neglect my lawn. I'd hate to see what those people who water religiously pay.


Exactly high water bills why water when not necessary. The worst I've seen were on military posts, utilities are paid by the uncle sam. So there was a lot of abuse as well with electricity. Aircondition 24/7..enough with that.

There was a big story on the local front page news. Threaten to start charging all utilities to military personels living on post. That put an end to the abuse.

 

[Garak]

Yep, it's pretty easy to have a nice yard and a cool house on someone else's dime.

As for me, I'd just as soon pave the yard. I've never understood the logic of watering and fertilizing the heck out of grass just so you can spend more time cutting it. It's not a golf course, after all.

 

[Patman]

I live in a nice area where a lot of people have automatic sprinkler systems and it bugs me a lot that people set it to run every single morning. It especially bugs me to see them running when we've had a lot of rain (such as last Saturday when we got 50mm of rain, more than enough to feed the lawn for at least a week now that it's not hot out anymore) What bugs me even more are the people who don't have them set correctly and they end up watering half of the road near their house!

There is absolutely no need to water your lawn every single day. Even in the heat of summer you can scale it back to once every 3 or 4 days and still be fine. And if it happens to rain during that time, they could skip one of the waterings for sure.

 

[Garak]

I guess the lessons of the 1980s sunk into me here pretty good. There were times with voluntary water rationing, and then it ended up going compulsory. I recall one time there was voluntary rationing, and then the city stated the supply was good, so they eliminated the voluntary rationing. The next day, they had to put in place compulsory rationing since darn near everyone turned on their stupid sprinklers at once and strained the heck out of the supply.

 

[Spazdog]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
Also, around my area I was advised to run only ten minutes per zone. The heavy clay soil cannot absorb water too rapidly so watering longer just creates more runoff. If you want to water longer than that you set your timer to run a second full cycle. Judging by the floods in my neighborhood's streets and alleys I have to assume that my neighbors did not get the same level of training from their sprinkler companies.



But if you don't water (or have soaker hoses around the circumference of your house) that expansive heavy clay soil will lead to a cracked foundation.

I'm really more worried about my trees and foundation than the lawn. Having a semi-green lawn is just a bonus. (and compared to some of my neighbors with a [darn] the watering restrictions attitude, it is only semi green)

 

[DBMaster]

The foundation, especially post tension slabs, don't need much water around them. I never said I didn't water. I just don't over water.

 

[Mykl]

Originally Posted By: Mamala Bay
Exactly high water bills why water when not necessary. The worst I've seen were on military posts, utilities are paid by the uncle sam. So there was a lot of abuse as well with electricity. Aircondition 24/7..enough with that.

There was a big story on the local front page news. Threaten to start charging all utilities to military personels living on post. That put an end to the abuse.


CONUS base housing is generally a rip off anyway, so forcing Uncle Sam to make up the difference in higher utility charges makes the trade at least close to even. They make you pay a lot of money for those tiny houses.

Not that I'm defending waste, but even running water systems daily or having extravagant Christmas light setups running every evening for a month doesn't really make up the difference in what you have to trade to have a house on a military installation.

 

[Artem]

Originally Posted By: Garak
I still don't know how or why people do it, DBMaster. My water bill is high enough, and I completely neglect my lawn. I'd hate to see what those people who water religiously pay.


Since mine uses well water, the only thing that takes a hit is my electric bill.

Originally Posted By: Garak
Yep, it's pretty easy to have a nice yard and a cool house on someone else's dime.

As for me, I'd just as soon pave the yard. I've never understood the logic of watering and fertilizing the heck out of grass just so you can spend more time cutting it. It's not a golf course, after all.


I like having a picture perfect, thick as carpet lawn. I never fertilize my lawn (only the winter guard additive before winter). The mulched grass clippings are more then enough to keep the grass healthy.

I mow mine every 4 days. I run through it, letting my self propelled Honda Lawn Mower do all the work. 20 minutes of exercise and a nice upper body tan later, I'm done, and I have a HUGE backyard.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: Artem
I like having a picture perfect, thick as carpet lawn. I never fertilize my lawn (only the winter guard additive before winter). The mulched grass clippings are more then enough to keep the grass healthy.

I'd like that as well, but the time is the issue. Given my strange hours, my neighbours would have fits if I were cutting the lawn at what I'd consider a normal hour.

I agree with mulching, for sure. But, I have no well, and the city might not like if I drilled one, either.

 

[sleddriver]

Quote:
I never said these people should be pilloried. All I asked was if I was crazy in my thinking that people ought to exercise their brains a bit more than they currently do.

Having been raised by parents that went through the first great depression and WWII, I was taught at an early age to not waste anything. "Close the refrigerator door...turn off those lights...don't waste water...you're letting the A/C out...on and on".

You remember that cartoon from years ago that featured a simple bare chicken bone, spinning in the air? My grandmother could do that. Watching that woman eat chicken was a study in 'nothing left...' She'd work a bone like no other. Amazing...

No wonder I grew up not wanting to waste money, water, food, tools, gasoline, electricity, etc. And I'm no eco-nut either. I was doing this long before it was deemed 'fashionable' or 'green'.

I think it has a lot to do with how you were raised. Growing up today was nothing like it was decades ago. Not even close.

It bugs me too to see sprinklers on in the rain, but what's to do? I have a neighbor who waters his grass a lot. Due to the shade in his backyard and Tx's humidity, he now has fungus problems that have taken out large sections. The mold/fungus/mildew count is NEVER low around here. Matter of fact, it never dips below HIGH. I even have to power wash my driveway every couple of years due to some algae that grows in/on it. It gets slipperly when wet and turns the driveway a very dark grey/green. I've seen house siding around here with large green patches on it!

Getting people to change their behavior will be rife with frustration. Then again, they pay the bills and are stuck with the consequences, not me. One does wonder at times why they never take time to connect-the-dots....

Back to grass & water...I have more in the shady backyard than front. I have a sprinkler system also. But I often leave it 'off', except during the extended heat we're known for. I also stop cutting my grass during these heat waves. It's currently about 5" tall. Why? The long grass helps shade the soil better, the roots grow, more solar area for photosysnthesis, and it takes less water. The sprinkler comes on for about 45min when it looks wilted. That's enough to bring it back.

Lately I've been getting some really good rain over several weeks. A rarity for my area. So the sprinkler has been 'off' for 3 weeks or so. With the Sun now in the Southern Hemisphere, the hot weather has passed, cooler weather will move in and I'll have to water even less.

Weather is a very dynamic system. Using a 'stupid' controller with no feedback doesn't work very well. How many times have you sat at a red light, at 10p, waiting for the green light for opposite traffic, coming out of an office park when there's no one there!! Another example of a 'stupid' controller that's clueless to changing traffic demands. This is 2013 after all. How dumb is that?

/rant

 

[DBMaster]

I must be channeling someone who lived through the Great Depression. Though, some might call me wasteful when I set my A/C to 71 in the summer. I will literally perspire in other people's houses around here as most use 78-80 as their set point.

So, here I sit in my glass house with a bucket of rocks.

 

[Garak]

Well, I don't set my AC below 74 or 75, and don't turn it on until the temperature in the house hits 85 in the first place.

 

[Anduril]

Don't have a sprinkler system because we don't have any landscaping to speak of. With what essentially amounts to 1.5 acres of desert, it'd be too much work keeping it green anyways, plus keeping the goats from eating all of it. The center portion of our yard is covered in gravel and we're in the process of planting a few cactus and other plants that won't require water once they're established. The rest of the yard is eucalyptus trees (there's a lot of them in the area and they seem to be able to find their own water) and tumbleweeds that haven't died yet. We are in a rural area and most yards are similar.

Since we moved here in April, we haven't paid a water bill that's more than $24. It averages around $16-$17.

Air conditioning is virtually a requirement with average temperatures of 100 or higher in July and August. The high this year was 111 (on the day our a/c quit working...) The first month we really the central air (what I thought was a sparing amount) we received an electric bill that was more than double the month before. We didn't do that again.

We have a swamp cooler cool the main living area/kitchen (no humidity to speak of here; this may not work for you TX folks) and window a/c units in the rooms it doesn't reach. I work from home, and it makes no sense to spend the $$$ to cool the whole house when I'm spending 8 hours in one room. Or if we need to cool our bedroom while we sleep. Since doing this, we've noticed a ~$100 drop in our electric bill.

 

[DBMaster]

My house is 1,800 sf and my worst electric bills are usually about $250. Gotta pay to be comfortable and I accept that.

 

[Mykl]

Originally Posted By: DBMaster
My house is 1,800 sf and my worst electric bills are usually about $250. Gotta pay to be comfortable and I accept that.


Have you thought about getting an energy audit? $250/month seems high for under 2000 sf. I'm guessing you can drop that by a fair amount with a little effort.