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Most everyone understands that water conservation is always a good idea. We’d like to share with you a program that the city of Scottsdale offers to help homeowners conserve. We recently took advantage of the program and it was an eye opener.
We knew we had a problem due to our water bill. Now, keep in mind we moved into our home in October of 2008. Most utilities companies prefer a years worth of activity to see how you consume resources. Now that we reached that milestone we could see the good, bad and ugly of our water consumption.
We had a terrible spike in usage in May of ’09. We immediately turned the irrigation off until we could figure out the problem, since irrigation is a good place to start looking for leaks. To our knowledge, nothing inside the home had changed as far as usage would go.
Ok, now the program: Upon your request, the city of Scottsdale will send out a representative from the conservation unit to review your home’s water situation/usage. Here was the process they followed in our case. Since we suspected a problem, the representative (let’s call him Bob) started at the water meter. We made sure no water was running in the house and then we watched the meter for 10 minutes to see if there was any change. Well, there was. Unfortunately, a change that equaled an additional 9,000 gal a year consumption. OUCH.
Next we could have turned the water off at the house and this would tell us if the issue was between the street and the house or we could start looking at the irrigation, which is what we did.
As a side note: The former owners had the irrigation turned off for many months, so we couldn't get a read on consumption or leaks. Bob began by identifying the zones of irrigation at the dial. We have 10. We then identified which zone ran with which valve. This was fun...mmm. We found three more leaks at the valves. Most were at the adjustment screw or the shut-off knob.
Here’s the eye opener for me... at their source, these leaks seemed very minor to the average person. But, when bob showed us the reading from each valves consumption at the water meter we saw how it added up to the big problem.
A typical Scottsdale water meter (at street-side) has two separate indicators on it. One is a larger dial that looks like a clock arm. This rotates at a much slower rate and indicates usage in gallons. The second much smaller dial spins much more rapidly, so that you can see at any given time if water is running regardless of how slow or how much. This is how we could see the smaller leaks on some of the zones tested. The smaller dial would spin a bit then stop. Then, spin a bit more.
So, now we know where the leaks are, how each zone is controlled (and corresponding valve), which ones need replacing and which ones only need a small adjustment.
We also received better information on how to set up the zones for Arizona vegetation and what programs the city of Scottsdale offers to change to low water consumption plans or removal of grassy areas.
This was a very helpful process to go through. It is a one time free service by the city of Scottsdale for Scottsdale residence. I encourage all homeowners to participate. You may be surprised at how a small leak can add up. Not only may you save on your water bill, but you will help the city conserve one of our most precious resources.
Another tip is to set up your watering zones with plants that have similar water needs all on one zone (i.e. grass separate from native desert plants).
Also, check to see if you have a pressure valve to reduce the water pressure from the street to your home. In our case we did not. If your pressure is too high, you may have a situation where water is actually pushed through your facets, shower heads and irrigation systems at a rate higher than they are made to handle. Your water consumption will be higher, your valves will wear out faster and you stand a chance of your water pipes having a leak.
Lastly, if you have a fountain or other water feature, make sure you have a check valve to prevent any bacteria from traveling back into your homes water source and even back into the cities water source. According to Bob (City of Scottsdale rep) this has happened before in the City. The valve will maintain pressure and separate the water feature source from your home.
We encourage you to have an energy and water consumption audit to start off the new year. There are additional programs available to assist in costs for removing turf and replacing with natural desert. Check it out.
http://www.scottsdaleaz.gov/utilities.asp
City: 480-312-2771
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