Category Archives: Water Conservation

Aug 3 2012

Silly you. You thought ½” tubing measured ½”.


Half inch tubing is literally the backbone of many drip irrigation systems. It is by far the most popular size used.  The only problem is half inch tubing isn’t half inch.  It’s close! Closer than ‘hand grenade’ close. More like ‘electric razor’ close.

 

Piping has specific dimensions. Steel, iron, copper, pvc all have set standards set by ASTM International.  This means that the steel pipe you buy in Maine will fit the fittings you buy in Nebraska and connect to the existing pipe in Alaska.

Plastic tubing? No, no real standards.  The size can vary from manufacturer to manufacturer or even within the same manufacturer.  The term ½” is known as the nominal size, or the industry trade description of the product. As they say in the diet commercials, your results may vary. A lot, actually.

Irrigation 1/2-inch polyethylene tubing is available in different configurations:

1/2-inch – .570″ ID x .670″ OD     1/2-inch – .580″ ID x .700″ OD
1/2-inch – .600″ ID x .700″ OD    1/2-inch – .620″ ID x .710″ OD

Why do you care?  Honestly, the sizes are so close they won’t have much effect on water flow, especially the two biggest. You care because fittings don’t always fit. It’s easy to buy a ½” fitting that won’t fit a ½” tube.

It is important when building a drip system to check the internal diameter of the tubing against the size of the fittings you need. While always buying the same brand of tubing and fittings help it is not a guarantee of fit. The two fittings in the picture are from the same company.  They are not interchangeable. If you put the .520” in a .600 ID tube and clamp down tight enough it should hold. You can’t put the .600” in a .520” tube without deforming the tube.

Before you buy your system take a moment and verify dimensions. Look at the barb fittings  and you see the specs are given for each piece. All you need to do is match them to your tubing.

Fortunately, ½” tubing seems to be the only product with this problem. The ¼”, ¾” and 1” are all consistent in sizing.

Jul 9 2012

Why didn’t the soil sensor want to party with the rain and rain/freeze sensors? BECAUSE THEY WERE ALL WET! Hahahaha…get it? All wet? Huh? Never mind….


I could have said “because he was well grounded and they were stuck up!” Would that have been any better? No?  Ok. I’ll stop.

Today’s controllers can do a number of things: multiple programs and start times, rain delays, soak cycles and more. They do it routinely, day in and day out, like nice little robots. But what happens if the conditions change? What if you don’t need more water? Tropical storm comes through and drops six inches of rain and your system is still running? What if your grandma is showing her favorite ice hockey moves on your frozen driveway? Need more ice?

Sensors are the answer. A sensor will turn your system off when there has been enough rain, or a freeze hits or if your soil just doesn’t need the water. This saves money on your water bill and, in the case of freezing, can prevent that lawsuit from when Grandma misses the goal and the puck flies across the ice into your neighbor’s window.

The simplest is the rain sensor. Easy to set, almost maintenance free. The rain sensor connects to your controller, either in a direct wire or wireless connection, and stops irrigation after a certain amount of rain has fallen. You mount it in an open area, such as the eaves of your house. You determine the amount of rain that causes the shut down, usually from 1/8” to 1”. To set the sensor you simply turn the top to the proper setting. That’s it. Rain comes down, sensor gets wet. When it gets wet enough it stops irrigation. Some rain sensors suspend irrigation immediately during rain events without need for rainfall accumulation. It rains, they stop.

Rain/freeze sensor. A rain/freeze sensor handles rain just like the standard rain sensor, either on accumulation or immediately upon rainfall. They add the advantage of shutting irrigation down before the water sprays and icicles and ice patches form on your yard and drive. The most common sensors stop activity when the temperature reaches about 37 degrees. Some models let you choose the shut off temperature, ranging from 35 to 45 degrees. The irrigation remains off until the temperature warms to above the freeze cut off settings. The rain/freeze sensor looks pretty much like a standard rain sensor.

The moisture sensor is a different kind of creature. The moisture sensor is buried in the ground, not up high. It doesn’t care if it rains or freezes. All it cares about is keeping the correct amount of water in the soil. If the soil has sufficient moisture it interrupts the irrigation cycle. Too much water in the soil can be just as harmful as too little. The moisture sensor aims for the proper range of moisture.  When the soil gets too dry it turns the cycle back on. With a direct read on soil moisture you don’t worry about wasting water through unnecessary irrigation.

With the proper sensors you can save water and money by watering only when needed. You also decrease liability by preventing icicles  and hazardous ice patches on the drive and walk.  The only downside is that Grandma might be upset you took her ice rink away.

Jun 22 2012

Can’t afford a trip to the Bellagio? Stream rotors + your music + your lawn chair = you’re there!


The fountains at the Bellagio, Las Vegas, are world famous. They are designed to take you away from stress and trouble with their combination of dancing water, music and light. They are not, however, designed to keep you from gambling.

Each performance is a unique interpretation of a classic piece of music.  Their definition of classic covers a broad spectrum: Mozart, Glenn Miller, the Beatles and more. I hope they are working on Hank Williams. That might take a while. His work is pretty complicated.

If you can’t make it to the Bellagio, bring the fountains to you. Get stream rotors for your yard. You will enjoy the relaxing show and you will water your yard at the same time. Having a beautiful yard helps you relax even more. You benefit in many ways.

Stream rotors are different from standard rotors in that, instead of blasting a great deal of water out of one nozzle, they produce multiple streams of water of lower volume. These streams come out at different angles, some high, some low, ensuring even coverage. If you have sloped land the slow, even coverage minimizes the chance of water runoff. Blasting gallons of water every minute at sloped land just encourages runoff, as the soil cannot absorb the water as fast as it is applied.

In traditional stream rotors the Toro 340 is the answer. Designed to replace impact or gear driven rotors with a ¾” inlet it covers from 15 to 30 feet. It also has 9 easily set patterns to cover most any area. Great coverage, great application.

Don’t have a commercial application? Looking for the Bellagio effect at your home? No problem. In the last few years a number of manufactures have developed stream rotors that fit standard pop-up spray assemblies. The stream nozzles simply swap out with the standard spray nozzles and you are in business. Rain Bird and Hunter have every situation covered.

Not sure why you want to get rid of your old nozzles? Two good reasons come to mind. First, the stream nozzles cover up to 30 feet, where spray nozzles stop around 15 to 17 feet. This means that in many systems you can have the same coverage while eliminating a number of heads, saving water. Second, stream nozzles are not as sensitive to breezes as spray nozzles. The droplets are bigger and heavier; they go where they should when standard sprays are being blown away. Wait, I’ll add a third, no charge.  A zone with stream rotors can use 30% to 40% less water for the same coverage. Less water = less money.

The reason for their efficiency lies in their pattern. Small streams, slow application and constant, even movement add up to  more consistent, usable irrigation.Take a look at the spray pattern below.

Notice how closely it matches the Bellagio fountain pattern? Quality knows quality.

So turn on the stream nozzles, add music, sit back and enjoy the show. You can charge your neighbors admission if you wish. After all, look at the money you saved them by bringing the Bellagio to them.

May 7 2012

Drought? There ain’t no stinkin’ drought. Waiter! Two drops of water, please.


So let’s talk about money. Yours, mine, yours and yours. I do want to go over one water fact first. It’s a surprising fact to many people, even though it’s obvious. Fact: the Earth will never, ever run out of water. Ever. Never. Can’t happen until the Sun novas or the asteroid-to-end-all hits.

Great news, huh? Sure beats the ‘not enough water to water the crops’ and ‘not enough water to drink’ rants you hear all the time now.  Want water? We have water.

All you have to do is pay for it. And it’s going to get very, very expensive. Costs are going up. Eden Prairie, Minnesota: +7%; Clay Center, Kansas: +26%; Hershey, Pennsylvania: +14%; Sacramento, California: +27%.

Eyes glazed over yet? Mine did and I’m writing this. Don’t want to pay? Fine, go get the water. It’s in the ocean (remove salt and fish before use) or the nearest lake (long walk in Arizona) or deep underground. Start digging.

The problem is not the lack of water. It’s the lack of drinkable water in particular areas. Lots of it today in Houston, Texas.  Not so much in San Antonio, Texas.  Or parts of Kansas, Nebraska, Utah, etc. Getting water from one place to another costs lots of money. Lots. Whether you are pumping from underground (now discouraged), piping in from near or distant lakes, or pulling from a river, it’s expensive.

And it’s not just the drought that’s causing prices to increase. Sometimes you are just mussel bound. No, not the gym kind. Mussel. Like aquatic animal. Zebra Mussels have clogged up water pipes at numerous municipal water supplies. The Great Lakes has them. Lake Takoma in Texas has them. They are clogging the water supply lines and are expected to cost the US $5 billion in control efforts and reparation. How big is this monster? About the size of a dime.

What else is causing your water bill to go up? Surprisingly, the fact that we are using less water. Water districts have fixed costs/overhead, such as electricity, payroll, insurance, equipment, fuel, supplies, etc. All budgets are figured on a estimate of how much water is sold divided by overhead equals cost per gallon.  Gallons sold/fixed costs = cost per gallon.

Well, when you use less water (you meaning everyone as a whole), the quantity of gallons sold goes down. This means the district does not sell enough to cover its costs. It now has to raise the cost per gallon to match the fixed costs. So cost per gallon goes up and usually stays there.

Confused? Use the donut idea. Pretend you sell donuts for $.05 (5 cents) each and you clear $.01 per donut. Now say it costs you $1.00 to operate. You have to sell 100 donuts to break even. If Weight Watchers moves into your neighborhood and half your neighborhood joins, you can only sell 50 donuts. This means you only make $0.50.  That’s not $1.00 by a long shot. So you have to raise the price of each donut to $.06 to keep your $1.00  (ain’t finance fun!).

Water costs are going up. Conservation does help, as it means we need fewer pumps and less piping. But, as you can see, it’s not a cure. The reasons are varied and the drought is involved but it’s not the only thing.

That’s it. Not trying to sell anything, except possibly water conservation. Just trying to help you understand where your money is going and why.