Water Conservation Tips for Salt Lake City Utah Homeowners and Commercial Property Managers

We totally understand the dilemma: you want your yard, lawn, garden and landscaping to look great for the summer, but you also want to be responsible and understand the drought conditions we are facing in Utah require conserving water.  You also don’t want to be wasting money unnecessarily, literally pouring more money down the drain than you have to.  Salt Lake City Sprinkler Repair & Installation Pros is here to help and has the expertise to provide sprinkler system solutions.  Use us as a resource as you consider steps to take to get the most out of your sprinkler system.  We specialize in implementing water conservation techniques and can provide you with a range of options to ensure you’re getting the maximum bang for your buck out of your irrigation system.  Given the high cost of operating an inefficient lawn sprinkler system year after year, taking proactive steps to optimize your sprinklers is an excellent investment.

We’ve made a list of our top suggestions for how to conserve water with your sprinkler system.  As you evaluate the list, there will probably be a few water conservation steps you aren’t taking.  If we can be of service to help get your landscape sprinkler system in peak condition, give us a call or contact us for a free irrigation evaluation.

Properly Maintain Your Sprinkler System

There’s no way around it: failing to perform proper maintenance on your sprinkler system will, at best, result in an inefficient sprinkler system that wastes money.  At worst, you’ll wind up with an enormous water bill and a lot of damage to your landscaping.  Proper sprinkler system maintenance includes conducting a full winterization service of your sprinkler system to ensure pipes and valves don’t crack from the expansion of freezing water still left in your system.  It also includes taking the time to inspect your sprinkler system when turned on in the spring, and throughout the summer, to ensure no leaks have appeared, and that sprinkler heads haven’t broken, or that there aren’t other telltale signs of issues, such as water pressure issues, evidenced by misting sprinkler heads (which may indicate the water pressure is too high and wastes water).  Salt Lake City Sprinkler Repair & Installation Pros offers a full range of sprinkler maintenance service offerings, from our Winterization Service, Spring Start-Up Service, as well as regular summer adjustment visits as part of our full-service sprinkler maintenance package.  Call us today or contact us to find out more.

Update Your Sprinkler System For Efficiency, or Install an Efficient System 

A well designed and installed sprinkler system goes a long way in achieving water conservation and is the foundational step to irrigating in a water-saving way.  There are a lot of band-aid solutions to a sprinkler system that wasn’t designed properly or wasn’t designed with modern technology or water conservation in mind, but to get the most effectiveness from your sprinkler system, you need a well designed system.  A properly designed system will take into account factors such as terrain grade and sloping, sun and wind exposure patterns, soil type, climate, and  vegetation/plant type, needs and placement in the irrigation space.  Salt Lake City Sprinkler Repair & Installation Pros are experts in designing, engineering and installing best-of-class sprinkler systems that are optimized for irrigation efficiency and water conservation.  Click to find out more about our Sprinkler Installation Services.

Properly Utilize Hydrozones

The purpose of hydrozones is to match areas of your landscaping with similar watering needs so that you can tailor watering levels to just the right amount, and not overwater.  This demarcation of hydrozones should identify areas with similar plant types and shade/sun exposure.  In practice, we frequently see irrigation systems that incorporate too much diversity of plant type and shade/sun exposure, and the sprinkler system winds up overwatering large portions of the lawn to adequately water the mismatched area or plant type.

Incorporate Drip Irrigation 

Drip irrigation is a recent development in irrigation technology that utilizes low-pressure, low-volume irrigation to strategically water plants and vegetation in the most efficient way possible based on the type of plant, resulting in extremely high water utilization/efficiency rates and low water loss.  Drip irrigation is particularly well suited to flower and shrub beds, trees, mulched landscaping with intermittent plants, gardens, planter boxes, etc., and can meet the irrigation needs of these plants much more efficiently than if watered with typical overhead sprinklers.  In arid environments such as Utah, where water evaporates easily, drip irrigation is a particularly effective method.  Drip irrigation systems are typically an add-on to traditional overhead sprinkler systems and they play well together.  You can learn more about drip irrigation systems here.

Focus Tree and Shrub Watering On Roots 

Trees and shrubs utilize water best when it is targeted at their roots.  Irrigation methods that spray water at the trunk or leaves are inefficient.  Drip irrigation systems are particularly well suited to delivering irrigation directly to where trees and shrubs need them. 

Water in the Morning

The ideal (and most water efficient) time to water your lawn is in the early morning hours around sunrise, and before the heat of the day begins.  This time of day offers cooler conditions that ensures much less evaporation, and usually wind is less, ensuring the water goes where you want it to go.  Utah’s arid climate makes this a particularly important step since evaporation rates are so high.  This time of day is also best because it balances considerations such as reducing the risk of lawn disease that can occur when watering in dark conditions. 

Ensure Proper ‘Head-To-Head’ Sprinkler Coverage

The irrigation coverage of your sprinkler heads should be uniform across your yard.  Improperly designed sprinkler systems or poorly functioning sprinkler heads (or a variety of other factors) can result in overwatering or under-watering.  Overwatering entails water waste and water pooling, while under-watering will result in dry spots.  Ironically, we frequently encounter sprinkler system owners who wind up running their sprinklers longer than they need to in an attempt to compensate for a coverage pattern that doesn’t properly reach.  We also see sprinklers that are angled improperly, have grass overgrowth that prevents them from spraying properly, or are otherwise placed too high or too low to meet the intended coverage zone.  A sprinkler system tune-up of a well-designed sprinkler system will do a lot to improve the coverage efficiency of your sprinkler system.  We perform a complete tune-up as part of our Sprinkler Spring Start-Up Service, and also offer summer adjustment visits or a dedicated sprinkler tune-up service.

Incorporate Rotary Nozzles 

Rotary nozzles deliver water more efficiently than spray nozzles, which translates to water conserving savings for you.  Rotary nozzles are more efficient because they emit at a slower rate, which allows irrigation to better percolate into the ground.  Updating your sprinkler nozzles with high efficiency nozzles is an inexpensive way to conserve water. 

Make Seasonal and Weather Adjustments to Your Sprinkler Watering Levels

With the varying temperatures and rainfall patterns in Utah, your lawn and landscaping need different amounts of water based on the seasons or how much rain has fallen recently.  Heavy watering in the early spring or late fall, or watering during or just after a rainstorm, or during high wind are examples of opportunities to make adjustments to conserve water.

Adjust Watering Based on Soil Constraints

Soil types vary considerably from location to location, even within the Salt Lake Valley.  Some soil types retain and absorb water better than others.  Irrigating a soil type with poor absorption for too long just results in run-off and is inefficient.  Knowing the constraints of your soil, and adjusting irrigation timing accordingly can considerably improve water conservation.

Utilize Interval Watering

Interval watering means breaking your irrigation cycles up into shorter intervals to allow time for water to percolate into the soil.  For example, if a particular hydrozone requires 15 minutes of irrigation, irrigating in a cycle of 5 minute intervals with 15 minute absorption windows, will increase irrigation efficiency.

Calibrate Sprinkler Timers

The utility of sprinkler timers for conserving water is only as good as they are calibrated to the needs of your landscaping.  We find that many homeowners overwater their lawns, not knowing how much water their lawn requires.  We also find many homeowners who don’t differentiate the irrigation level based on the irrigation needs of the plants in the particular hydrozone.  Fine tuning these details to the goldilocks ‘just right’ level is critical for water conservation.  This calibration can also incorporate the seasonal and weather adjustments, as well as interval watering mentioned above.

Learn Your Lawn’s Watering Minimum Needs 

In frequent drought conditions like we frequently experience here in Utah, being able to know exactly how much water your lawn needs to survive, will enable you to cut back and calibrate depending on the availability of water.  Fine tuning this, after incorporating all of the other water conservation tactics, will enable you to achieve peak efficiency and maintain landscaping, even under drought conditions.  The best way to test whether you have crossed the minimum required watering level is to walk on your grass.  If your footprint doesn’t disappear within seconds, this is a sign your grass is stressed and you’ve gone below minimum watering needs.  Conducting this test in various hydrozones of your yard will assist in calibrating your sprinkler timers for the given hydrozone.

Utilize Smart Sprinkler Technology

In recent years there has been a lot of innovation and new products introduced that incorporate ‘smart’ technology in support of making irrigation systems more efficient.  New smart controllers can adjust watering cycles based upon the temperature and the seasons.  They can also optimize interval irrigation, rotating watering cycles among your different hydrozones to facilitate better absorption.  Additionally, rain and freeze sensors can provide additional intelligence to your sprinkler system to enable it to deliver more precision irrigation.  Making the necessary fine-tuning adjustments to a sprinkler system over the seasons to achieve optimal water conservation takes considerable attention if performed by a human, and invariably, ‘smart’ technology is able to accomplish this with greater precision, and it has the added benefit of making your life a lot easier. 

Avoid Runoff and Waste

Sprinkler systems are amazing tools when properly built and maintained, but can easily become water wasters when things go wrong.  Runoff can occur because of excessive irrigation, poor absorption by the soil, poor sprinkler head targeting or sprinkler head obstructions or from broken sprinkler heads or leaks.  If you notice any of these, pooling water, or water streaming away from its intended target, taking immediate steps to correct the issue(s) will go a long way in conserving water.

Get an Irrigation Evaluation

An irrigation audit or irrigation evaluation of your sprinkler system can give you a lot of insight as to how efficient your system is and what steps you can take to improve irrigation efficiency.  We offer free irrigation evaluations.  You can also take advantage of a free ‘water check’ offered by Utah State University’s Center for Efficient Landscaping and the Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake & Sandy, by clicking here (external site). 

Hire A Professional

As you can tell from the list, there are a lot of moving parts to maintaining a peak efficiency lawn sprinkler system, and ensuring everything is working properly takes time and expertise to execute effectively.  For many homeowners and commercial property managers, the best choice is to hire an irrigation professional to maintain their system for optimal performance.  Our experience is that homeowners and commercial property owners save money in the long run by having their landscape irrigation system professionally maintained by reducing water bills and deferred maintenance costs, as well as by protecting their investment in landscaping.

Salt Lake City Sprinkler Repair & Installation Pros is your partner keeping your lawn and landscaping looking great while conserving water.  Give us a call today or contact us for a FREE Irrigation Evaluation or to schedule a Sprinkler Repair or Tune-up.       

We provide Sprinkler Repair & Installation Services in the following cities & neighborhoods in the Salt Lake City Utah Area

Salt Lake City

Sugarhouse

Avenues

Yalecrest / Harvard Yale

East Bench / St Marys

Sunnyside

Bonneville Hills

Wasatch Hollow

Capital Hill

Westpointe

Downtown

Central City

East Central

Ballpark

Fairpark

Liberty Wells

Holladay

Millcreek

Murray

Sandy

Draper

Canyon Rim

Zions Park

Olympus Cove

Cottonwood Heights

South Salt Lake

Oakdale

Jamestown

Wildwood

Smithfield

Alta Vista

Little Cottonwood Creek Valley

Park City

Jeremy Ranch

Summit Park

Midway

Heber City

Silver Summit

Snyderville

West Valley City

West Jordan

South Jordan

Herriman

Bluffdale

Magna

Glendale

Rose Park

Jordan Meadows

Poplar Grove

Fairpark

Taylorsville

Kearns

Oquirrh

Riverton

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