Here are just a few tips to help conserve water and money with your irrigation system.
1. Install a master valve: A master valve detects if a zone valve is broken or has a leak and shuts the main system down to prevent severe water loss and damage. These master valves are especially important for irrigation systems for places such as vacation homes where a leak wouldn't be detected for days and therefore running the water bill up high.
2. Install a Rain and Temperature Gauge: These sensors help minimize wasting water. The rain gauge detects if a considerable amount of rain has fallen and shuts off the automatic timer. A temperature gauge monitors the air temperature and humidity to determine the dew point and when the least amount of evaporation will occur. These detectors pay for themselves in about a year.
3. Switch to pop up sprayers: Pop Up Sprayers spray slower and more efficiently than conventional sprayers thus reducing run off water waste.
If you are channeling rainwater from your rain gutters into rain barrels be sure to keep the gutters very clean so that your rainwater is safer and cleaner to use. We've harvested rainwater into barrels for over 20 years and found a great new tool, on the net, that is an attachment for our shopvac and it vacuums all gutter debris into the vac's canister. When full we empty the debris into our compost pile. The Gutter Clutter Buster gutter cleaning tool is so easy to use, we find we use it more often. We vacuum our gutters from the ground and have no need for ladders, blowers, or hand tools and buckets anymore. Best wishes to all who participate in collecting rainwater and utilize the compost bins which will always help conserve our precious water and save yourself money for other fun projects.
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