Saving water? Head outside....

I was reviewing our water bill last August and doing my usual grumbling about the amount of dollars. But, then I saw the amount of gallons. 53,800 gallons, in a month! I was in shock! I couldn't fathom using that much water. I knew the meter and bill were correct, it was me that was broken. I am a water-a-holic.

Not long after that I received a notification from the city that as part of their conservation efforts they would pay me $100 to upgrade my toilet to a low flush model. Now I have two of the old style, high water use toilets...could that be the cause of my high water use? Let see...two gallons per flush extra, so 53,800 gallons, that's 26,900 flushes per month. Hmmmm.

How many time do we flush? I have no idea. but lets say its a whopping 20 times a day, 2 extra gallons each, 30 days. That's 1,200 gallons a month. Now all I have to do is figure out where the other 52,600 gallons went.

Well a quick billing history showed me the effect of the sprinklers on the bill based on seasonal variations so...I headed outside.

Bottom line #1 - In Texas, depending on the ratio of house size to soil area, sprinklers are a big part of your water bill...year round.

I began looking at the idea of finding a green alternative for water supply...rain water capture in cisterns. I looked at how big my roof was, all the gutters and downspouts and decided this was the answer! I headed back inside for some research.

I am going to cut this part short. If you would like to know more detail about cisterns let me know. In the end, capturing enough rainwater to feed my sprinklers would take about $30,000 and still not do all that I needed.

Bottom Line #2 - The problem with rainwater capture is you don't need to sprinkle when its raining regularly. You need to sprinkle when it's dry for weeks. The cisterns need the rain to keep up the supply???? The only way to mitigate this is to have huge storage. Or...reduce the water use. (An ah-ha moment!)

Back outside...I have a half acre of a combination of house, lawn, trees, lots of driveway, and planting beds of different plant material. I am normal in those respects...lots of Asian Jasmine.

First, I turn the sprinklers on to see if I have a major leak. I watch them closely as we move zone to zone...like you would a thief. No big leaks.

I am still in disbelief (denial?) that I can use that many gallons so I go and pry the lid off my water meter, turn the sprinklers on again, and watch. In fact, I time every station (8) as to their gallons per minute and duly note this. I head inside, build a quick spreadsheet multiplying the gallons per minute by the minutes per zone programmed in my controller. (Usually 20). I then multiply that number by the number of times I water per week (once on all but two that get twice) and then per month.

Oh my god, it is me...or more accurately, it's my sprinklers! We use around 9000 gallons inside the house, the other 44,000 gallons went onto the yard!

Now I think of myself as a conservative waterer. I understand you want to water a few times deep rather than a bunch of shallow waterings. So, to review. In August, I watered once a week for 20 minutes on all the zones but two. Those two zones dry out faster so they get one extra cycle per week. That's it!

Back inside. I start looking for a new sprinkler contractor (someone has to be to blame). I call around looking for water conservation savvy sprinkler guys to help me with my water Jones. I don't frankly have much luck. The city may want to conserve water but these contractors know one thing, most customers want FULL coverage, not low water use...after all this is Dallas!

Bottom Line 3 - You will likely need a contractor to help, but you should be able to get a good ROI, if you can find one that even knows what water conservation means.

I find a guy that pops up under Google searches, we talk and he seems knowledgeable, or at least opinionated. He comes out, reviews my system and suggests a pressure reducing valve.

I have heard this before and I know my pressure is around 100 PSI. What I didn't know is that most sprinkler heads were designed for around 34-40 PSI. So what happens is you get all that misting you see above your sprinklers. I had lots of misting. I didn't know how much misting in gallons, but I agree to pay to have an adjustable pressure reducer installed.

$2000 later I remeasure the system output. I reduced the water used by 32%! Next we tune up the system and fix a small leak and gain another 4%. Total for the effort 36%. Around 13,000 gallons per month! For the year I will save $523. So it will be a four year ROI...not bad. (Detailed spreadsheet available).

Bottom line #4 - If your pressure is too high you can waste a ton of water. In fact, I saved 6.5 tons of water per month!

I called the city, proud as a peacock, to wonder where my rebate is for my pressure reducer. The city explains that as the need for water grows in distance from the source, the pressure gets higher the closer you are to the source. So here in Lakewood, I am close to the source so my pressure is really high. And there are no rebates...except for toilets???

I do however request a water audit (free from the city). The guy comes out and gives me some pats on the back and some more tips I will cover later.

Next, my new sprinkler contractor calls me (apparently he doesn't have anybody as concerned about water use as me) and asks if I would like to be in a Beta test of a new water saving sprinkler controller from Rainbird. It's free so I ask him to sign me up!

Its called an ET controller. What that means is it waters based on evapo-transpiration, hence ET. It has a rain and temperature gauge along with programmable parameters for wind (based on zip code) plant type, soil, slope etc. In theory it only waters when you need it!

It also tracks and logs everything, rain, how much it watered and when it will water next and for how long. You don't tell it when or how much to water...it figures that out.

It's late October when this happens and I know what I would normally water...20 minutes a zone once a week. Well the ET waters a whole lot less. 67% less! I save another 12,290 gallons! In November I saved 73% and its been unusually dry. I tested my soil moisture and everything is great! I couldn't be happier. It turns out I was watering way too much.

I went from using an average of 18,500 gallons per month (after the pressure reduction and tune-up) in the winter to 4,898 gallons.

Bottom Line 5 - You can have more impact with an ET controller than anything. It's a great investment with an easy ROI...get one ASAP! You will quit wasting a bunch of water.

So I will save an estimated, 308,856 gallons of water per year or an 80.75% savings. It amounts to $1,158.50 per year. Considering I didn't have to pay for the ET controller or install, I get a nice two year ROI.

In discussing with my contractor how the ET was working etc. I began to wonder how I got to over-watering that much? Then it dawned on me. Today's typical sprinkler controllers only allow you to set your sprinkler to once a week or MORE! I have never seen a residential controller that automatically waters less? You either have to water manually or live with at least once a week watering.

Believe it or not I have plans to change my sprinkler nozzles to a low water use version estimated at another 30% savings. I think the city will provide rebates this year so keep an eye out. There is also an entire sprinkler head with the pressure reducer built in...I haven't priced these against the valve but they are worth considering. (Hunter, MP rotator).

Now that my water use is that low I can now realistically consider rain capture and cisterns. I will be doing some ROI work on that next.

Bottom Line #7 - What I learned from this was the criticality of putting conservation ahead of any other ideas. No matter what you consider in the green movement, just taking a look at how much could be saved will get you to a much more reasonable ROI. Trying to fix the problems without conservation is terribly difficult. For example, if you are going to leave your incandescent lights on all the time you will have a very hard time trying to power all that with photovoltaics or windmills. More on all that later...