Saving Money On Water With Smart Sprinklers
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Recently, I’ve closely scrutinized our sprinkler usage. We have a decent-sized lawn, and typically water it every other day for about six months of the year, adding up to an estimated 67,000 gallons of water per year, or about 800 gallons used each time watering our lawn.[1]
About a month ago, we switched to a smart sprinkler controller that uses local weather forecasts to determine when watering is unnecessary, skipping watering on certain days. Setup was relatively easy, comprised mainly of making sure it was hooked up to our existing system, configuring it with our zones and default schedule, and connecting it to our Wi-Fi network.
Since setting it up, it has skipped watering four days in the past month, saving approximately 3,200 gallons in a month, which implies about 19,000 gallons saved (about $48 at our water rates) per year. This is a payback period of about two years for us—we use the Orbit B-hyve—not counting installation (which should be fairly easy to do yourself if you have an existing old-fashioned sprinkler timer). It also reduces our annual household water consumption by nearly 8% per year![2]
For more info on smart sprinkler controllers, I found Wirecutter’s post helpful in understanding what’s available.
I hope this has been helpful. If you liked it, please share it on social media! Also, please send me your feedback, requests, and success stories.
[1] I used the info on this site to estimate. Specifically, I multiplied the size of our lawn (approximately 3,000 sq. ft.) by 0.623 by 1.5 inches per week by 24 weeks, which yielded approximately 67,000 gallons per year, or about 800 gallons per watering.
[2] In fairness, some homeowners already use sprinkler timers with rain sensors, meaning that the practical savings might be smaller. On the other hand, many people have much larger lawns than we do.