When it rains, does your sprinkler still run?
You’ve all seen the ads showing how many gallons of water are wasted when your faucet drips or toilet leaks – 30 to 100 gallons per day. This is truly wasteful and can be expensive, but it is nothing when compared to running your sprinkler system when it is not needed.
Let’s assume your yard is irrigated with 16 rotors. If each rotor uses 4 gallons per minute and is run for one hour per day, 3840 gallons of water are sprayed each time the system runs and 3840 gallons are wasted each time the system runs while it is raining. At $3.45 per one thousand gallons (a local rate), that would be $13.25 literally being poured down the drain.
Installation of an inexpensive wireless or analog rain sensor can solve the problem, or, better yet, update your old style controller to a very reasonably priced ‘smart’ controller and weather station combination which can automatically adjust run times to match current temperature and recent rain and watering conditions.
Plumbing leaks can be fixed cheaply and by the do-it-yourselfer. So can a sprinkler system that doesn’t run when it should. Or an expert can be called in (a plumber, or an irrigation contractor, respectively) and is well worth money over the long run.
Don’t water when it’s raining. It’s not the green thing to do!!
