High Water Bill…Leak on the Irrigation System or not?
At our company, we receive and respond to many service calls for people calling because of an unusually high city water bill. The most common explanation that most people believe is that this is due to a leak or break on their lawn / landscape irrigation system. While many times it is very possible to have a leak or break causing the excess water usage, this is not always the case.
About 40% the time we find that the reason for the excess water use is due to improper programming of the automatic timer. People that may not understand what they are doing try and re-program their timer, but they usually do more harm then good. Setting your system to run everyday and two or three times a day is not smart. Unless you are applying extra water to new sod or seed, your lawn and landscape needs a dry-out period.
A good rule of thumb is to water once every three days. Depending your your irrigation system, climate, soil conditions, and type of grass this watering program could vary slightly. The key is to water longer and less frequently to encourage the roots to go deep instead of staying shallow.
Okay, that was off the point. The main point here is that I have seen extraordinarily high water bills due to improper programming of the automatic lawn sprinkler timer. If you have experienced a power surge or temporary power outage, your timer may have lost its’ program and went back to default, which is usually about 10 minutes per zone, once every day. There is a back-up battery that is supposed to keep the program for up to 24 hours, but I’ve found that by the time we are called in, most people have dead batteries!
If there is a leak on the mainline of your system, you should be able to observe this by watching your water meter. The little triangle or other device will be spinning anywhere from slightly to very fast, but if it is moving then water is moving somewhere. Make sure there is no water being used in the house or leak toilets so that you know you are for sure dealing with the sprinkler system. Within a minute or two you can usually tell for a decent size leak. If you are unsure. then log the numbers located on the meter and come back in 30 minutes to 1 hour and observe the meter numbers. If there is no leak on the mainline, then the leak or break may be located on one of the sprinkler zones after the valves.
With a little patience and keen observation any problem can be properly diagnosed and solved.
Scott.
