Last year, Samuel Lemieux (Irrigation Lemieux) approached us with the idea of installing a weather based irrigation system….We proceeded with the installation and were extremely impressed with the results. By the end of the (2010) season, we only watered the grass 27 times instead of the usual 55 times….We are now looking at installing the system at other buildings.
Tips for Efficient Irrigation
| Correct Run Time | |
| Ensure irrigation run times are set correctly. Spray head sprinklers, for example, water faster than the intake rate of the soil. Watering times of more than six to eight minutes in one-application results in run off and waste. Two operating cycles of 6 minutes are more effective in refilling your soil reservoir than one operating cycle of 12 minutes. Most irrigation systems are set to a standard run time of 15 to 20 minutes on spray heads. | |
| System Maintenance | |
| Ensure your irrigation contractor not only replaces damaged sprinklers but also straightens and aligns sprinklers. Tilted sprinklers are a leading cause of inefficiency. | |
| Replace Nozzles | |
| Damaged sprinkler nozzles should be replaced with high quality, matched precipitation rate (MPR) nozzles that evenly apply water to the landscape. These are inexpensive and can reduce irrigation run times by 20%. | |
| Higher Quality Nozzles | |
| New U-Series Spray Head Nozzles are slightly more expensive than MPR nozzles but will reduce run times by an additional 30%. | |
| Pressure Regulating Sprinklers | |
| Where water pressure is reduced for optimum efficiency, these can save up to 600 gallons of water per sprinkler per year. These upgrades have a very short return on investment in water cost savings. | |
For more information, visit the Irrigation Association website at www.irrigation.org.