Don’t be spooked by your irrigation controller. There’s an easy switch that can save you water and money.
It’s finally October and although afternoons haven’t cooled off much yet, days are getting shorter, the nights longer and overall plant stress is decreasing as the dormant season approaches.
And that means you’ll want to reduce the run time of your irrigation system. Because the frightening fact is a typical irrigation system can use 10 to 30 gallons of water per minute. Eek!
Now is the time to conquer your fear of the irrigation controller and get to know the seasonal adjust setting.
With it, your sprinkler system can automatically adjust your basic run times based on a percentage. For example, if you have a zone set to run for 10 minutes and adjust the seasonal percentage from 100% to 70%, the run time will decrease from 10 minutes to seven minutes. And all the other run times on that program will adjust as well.
Some controllers allow you to pre-program seasonal adjust in advance for each month, so the controller adjusts the percentage automatically for you — thus saving you a trip to the controller.
Dialing down the irrigation this time of year not only saves on your monthly water bill and protects your grass from fall fungus and other hazards of cooler days, but it can also help you when winter averaging rolls around.
As always, before making changes, the best way to get to know your sprinkler system is by checking your owner’s manual. Some controllers may have slightly different settings when it comes to seasonal adjust.
October is typically the beginning of “seasonal adjust” season in San Antonio and by November it can be set to 40% or lower. If you want to save even more water and money, just shut off your irrigation system completely. Have no fear — your landscape is preparing for dormancy now anyway.
SAWS offers residential customers free irrigation consultations. Call 210-704-SAVE to schedule your appointment and one of our conservation consultants can help you with seasonal adjust recommendations or other irrigation settings that can benefit your landscape and wallet.
The eerie walk to your irrigation box will be no more.
Casey Cuellar is an intern working in SAWS Communications.