Lawn watering schedule changes

Depending on the settings, our lawn irrigation system uses between $300 and $400 worth of municipal water every night it runs. This has been an unusually hot and dry summer - through September 1st, Detroit has had 30 days with high temperatures at or above 90 degrees (compared to the annual average of 11 days) while Detroit's year-to-date precipitation is 3.58 inches below normal.  Here at the Manors, our monthly rainfall totals have been 3.45 inches in May, 1.05 inches in June, 6.30 inches in July and 4.70 inches in August for a four-month total of 15.50 inches.

However, as you can see from the chart (click it to enlarge), more than half of that rainfall (8.05 inches) came from just three separate storms.  With our sand, a two or three inch rainfall drains away very quickly and is of no greater benefit to the lawn than a half-inch of rain.

Because of the heavy watering schedule necessitated by this summer's weather (usually at the $400 per night setting), I've been reading our water meters regularly and it is clear that we are rapidly approaching the point where we will have used all of the $37,500 we have in our 2012 budget for watering the lawns. As of yesterday, we had only enough money left to water the landscaping for 12 more nights.  Therefore as of last night, I reprogrammed the automatic timers to run every other night beginning tonight.

I have been manually reprogramming the automatic sprinklers throughout the summer to stretch our budget dollars.  By my records, my reprogramming efforts have saved more than $4,000 worth of water so far this summer.  When there have been forecasts for a high chance of rain, I have turned the system off the night before to keep them from running unnecessarily.  Also, after the occasional good soakings, I have also stretched our dollars by reprogramming them to run every other night for a few days.  The last time I tried this I discovered that after dusk on the evening of Aug. 22nd, someone decided to manually operate a zone valve to provide "extra" water to the lawns in front of their units.  This is unacceptable behavior and it has caused me to decide that in 2013 I will no longer "bust my hump" by reprogramming the irrigation system every time there is an opportunity to save this association some budget money by not watering.

Please do not tamper with the sprinkler system to use extra water or I will be forced to shut the entire system down at the water meters and lock the covers.  I will not allow this association to overspend its budget for municipal water.

A dry June

According to the National Weather Service, 1.31 inches of rain fell at Metro Airport during the month of June 2012, compared to the normal average of 3.52 inches.

Here at the Manors, my rain gauge collected only 1.05 inches of rain during June, which is 2.5 inches below normal for the month. [UPDATE: we received 3.8 inches of rain on Tuesday, July 3rd]

Daily rainfall here at the Manors - May & June 2012

Since the sprinkler system was made operational six weeks ago on May 18th, we have only received a total of 1.25 inches of rain. Basically, it is our sprinkler system that is keeping our lawns green and preventing them from going totally dormant.

I read each of our water meters yesterday and again today.  Using the Township's billing rate of $3.431 per hundred cubic feet of water,  it cost us $397 to water all of the lawns last night.

According to the experts, proper turf management involves watering the lawn with 1" of water per week. This water can come from either rainfall or the sprinkler system.  However a lawn could need more, depending on factors such as soil type, sun exposure, large tree root systems, etc.  For example, a lawn in sandy soil such as ours may need as much as 2" of water per week, whereas a lawn area that is in shade for most of the day may only need one-half inch of water per week.

Since the beginning of June, I have been running the sprinkler system zones at 120% of their normal programmed times ($331 per night) and on June 28th I increased it to 140% ($397 per night).  That means that a typical front yard zone that is normally set to run for 20 minutes will run for 24 minutes at 120% and for 28 minutes at 140%.  At 100%, the lawn in that front yard zone would receive about 0.2 inch of water each night, or about 1.4 inches per week, while at 140%, it is receiving about 2.0 inches per week.

Because of the design of the irrigation system, a rear yard zone that runs for 20 minutes will only deliver about about 0.13 inches of water and in some areas it is even less.  Where we have rear yard sprinkler head on the same zone with heads in the front or side yard, I have to set the timer to avoid over-watering the front or side yard, even if it means dry spots will develop in the rear yard.   Where a zone consists of all rear yard sprinkler heads, I set it to run for 30 or 40 minutes at 100%, depending on whether it includes half-circle or full-circle rotary heads. Actually, they should be set to run for about 40 and 65 minutes at 100% to receive the same amount of water as a front yard zone, however with only $37,500  available to spend in our budget for water this year, I have to manage our water usage judiciously.

This year's budget line item for water was set based upon the average amount we have spent on water over the past four years, plus 9% to accommodate the rate increase that went into effect on Jan. 1, 2012.  From May 18th through June 30th, I calculate that we have used $14,573 worth of water and we still have two-thirds of the season to go.  If the hot and dry weather continues for the rest of the summer and we continue at this rate of water usage, we will exhaust our budget line item amount for water sometime just before Sept. 1st.

Lawn appearance

Note the nice, green swath of lawn behind the tree which received enough shade from the tree on May 17 & 18 to avoid getting dried out like the lawn in front of and farther behind the tree (taken at 3 PM, looking north).

The stressed appearance of the lawns is due to the very low humidity (<30%) we had last Thursday and Friday (May 17 & 18) along with those cloudless skies and temps in the upper 80s.  The blazing sun and hot, dry wind turned the shadeless grass into straw.

While we had received about 0.95 inch of rain between May 7th and 12th, only 0.1 inch of rain fell between May 13th and the 18th.  So the lawn was already dried-out when it got hammered on the 17th and 18th.

The stressed-out areas of lawn will slowly recover now that we are watering it nightly, which began last Friday night (May 18th) after the water meters were installed earlier that day.

Winter's finally over - I hope!

It's been a long, cold and snowy winter! Now that the weather has warmed up - somewhat - I've been out and about assessing some of the snow-removal damage which you may have also noticed.

• I've found (4) broken sprinkler heads that will need replacement. Let me know if you spot any other broken heads that are not already marked with a green flag.
• I also tried replacing many of the pieces of turf that had been peeled back by the snowplow blades. If they don't green-up, the patches will be either seeded or sodded once we have the irrigation system turned on for the season.
• One of the "no-parking" sign posts on Lexington South was hit by the snow removal equipment and will need to be replaced.
  
• Numerous garage doors were scraped and dented by their pick-up snowplow driver. Instead of manually clearing the strip in front of the garage door, apparently the driver tried to drop the blade right next to the door but didn't allow for the pivoting motion and as a result he scraped and dented many of our doors.
  

I personally prepared a list of all garage doors with damage and identified whether or not the doors had already been painted last summer. I also identified several doors that appear to have been damaged beyond repair and which will likely need to have the entire bottom panel replaced. I then held a meeting here last week with Grant Meldrum (the company owner) and Ryan Dorner of Kramer-Triad. We walked the property and inspected the damages. Grant will repair/replace everything I identified and at his expense. The only exceptions are:

• I agreed to replace the broken sprinkler heads so that I know the replacements will be the same brand as the others and that they will be installed slightly below grade so they won't be damaged again next year.
• I will provide him with the one-gallon can of exterior paint that our exterior painting contractor left with me last summer just for this sort of need. He will use it to paint the damaged/replaced portions of doors which were just painted last summer as part of the Phase 1 painting project. He will have all of the other doors repaired on Phase 2 units prior to the start of the Phase 2 exterior painting in May of this year.
  

Grant's personnel will begin working on the garage door repairs mid-month once the weather warms up. Co-owners will be notified in advance if they need to have access to the inside of your garage to perform the door repair/replacement.

Sprinkler System Changes

Today I read all of our irrigation water meters and revised all of the sprinkler system settings. A second watering cycle was added in the middle of the day and all of the overnight cycle start times were moved earlier (some as early as 9:30 PM) so they all finish before 6:00 AM when the pressure in the Shelby Twp. system begins to drop. To view the revised sprinkler system settings, click here.

Between April 21st and today, all of the meters feeding the sprinkler system have delivered 3,678 units of water (367,800 cubic feet). At $2.873 per unit, that comes to $10,576 worth of water, which is about one-third of our 2010 budgeted amount for municipal water. Over those 75 days the system actually watered about 51 times, due to the rain sensors, a couple of weeks of every other day watering, etc. So basically, it costs the Association about $207 ($10,576 divided by 51) each time we run all of the zones in the Manors. With a second watering cycle, our daily cost becomes about $400.

Based on our water consumption to date, I did some calculations to determine how many days we can afford a second watering cycle:

$33,000 - 2010 Budget line item for municipal water
($10,567) - spent to date (one cycle per day)
$22,433 - line item balance
($12,740) - projected spending through Sept. 30 (one cycle per day)
$9,693 - available for second daily watering cycle

$9,693 will fund 47 actual days with a second daily watering cycle, so we should have enough budget to water twice a day for the next 6 to 7 weeks, if necessary.

In 2009, we watered for 20 weeks (May 21st through Oct. 7th) at a cost of $33,000. On Jan. 1, 2010, Shelby Twp. increased our water rate by 9%. To make matters worse, this year we had to start watering on April 21st because of the warm and dry spring. But with careful monitoring and some stingy watering during the past 10 weeks, it looks like we can afford to water 23 weeks this year (up to the traditional Sept. 30th shut-down date) with the more expensive water and still come in at the same total cost as last year.

I'm sure you've noticed lately that the Shelby Twp. water pressure has been very low between the hours of 6 to 9 AM and from 6 to 10 PM. The heads on our sprinkler system requires a minimum water pressure of 35 PSI to operate properly and provide sufficient overlap.

UPDATE: Using a pressure gauge to measure the actual pressure being maintained by the Shelby Twp. water system, I observed that it was below the 35 PSI minimum from 8:00 PM through 10:30 PM on July 6th, bottoming out at 27 PSI around 9:00 PM. At 6:15 AM on the 7th, the water pressure was even lower at 20 PSI and it didn't reach 35 PSI until 9:00 AM. It reached the normal pressure range of 50+ PSI at noon.

With the revised watering schedules I have tried to avoid watering during those low pressure time periods, but it is impossible to do so on Controllers 1 and 2 (serving addresses on Lexington South and Central Park North). That is due to the fact that all zones on these two controllers are hooked up to the same water meter and must run sequentially for 13.5 hours to complete one cycle.

I wish it would rain!

"I Wish it Would Rain!" was a 1967 hit by Detroit's Temptations and I've been humming that melody a lot lately.

Because of the abnormally dry spring, this year we had to start watering the lawns on April 20th, which was a full month earlier than 2009. Since then, we have received 9.3 inches of rainfall in my backyard rain gauge, 60% of which fell over four separate dates: May 2, 11, 13 and June 5 (click on the chart above for a better view of all of the rainfall I've measured from April 20th through July 3rd).

Lately, the rainstorms seem to pass either to our north or south, leaving us with hardly enough rain to skip a watering cycle. The National Weather Service records at their Detroit Metro Airport location show an official rainfall total over that period of 11.6 inches, 2.3 inches more than we've received here in Shelby Township.

Because of the early start this spring and Shelby Township's recent 9% increase in water rates, I've been closely regulating our watering frequency and lengths to keep us within budget. As of July 2nd, I have increased the watering duration by 20% on all zones to get us through the current and forecasted hot and dry spell. I also moved the starting times earlier so that the last zones will finish by 6:00 AM, which is when the water pressure begins to drop.

I am hoping to avoid adding a second watering cycle for as long as I can, particularly since the Township has asked everyone to voluntarily avoid watering their lawns between the hours of 6:00 AM and 9:00 PM. UPDATE: second watering cycle was added July 5th (read this post for more information).

Sprinkler system activated

LBI Irrigation installed our water meters and activated the sprinkler system on April 20th. I immediately began a daily watering schedule because of the dry spell we've had, plus the fertilizer and pre-emergent crabgrass treatment that we received on April 15th needed to be watered into the turf. The zones along Central Park North and Lexington South did not become operational until this morning because of a stuck valve that could not be repaired until yesterday.

Water & Sewer Rate increase

At their Dec. 15, 2009 meeting, the Shelby Twp. Board of Trustees voted to raise the existing water and sewer rates by 9%, effective January 1, 2010. Details can be viewed by clicking here and scrolling down to pages 118 through 125 of their meeting agenda back-up documents.

This news comes after your Association Board of Directors have already prepared and adopted the 2010 Budget, which holds the monthly Association dues to $175. The upcoming budget will be very tight and this will only make it tighter. Unless we have a very cool, wet summer, our typical watering schedule will have to be scaled back to prevent an overrun of our water/sewer line item budget, which was based on the cost of water at the prior rate.

A copy of the 2010 budget will be mailed to you in advance of our Annual Meeting on Jan. 20, 2010, during which we will have considerable discussion about the budget.

Pardon this little bit of political punditry, but our local school districts and municipalities have been rightly complaining about how the Michigan Legislature's inability to finalize their budget prior to the start of the state's new fiscal year causes them severe budgetary uncertainties. Yet by passing the last of the revenue rates just two weeks prior to the start of their own budget year, the Shelby Twp. Board of Trustees demonstrate the same lack of consideration towards those farther down the budget planning timeline.

Sprinkler System "news"

The National Weather Service's current 7-Day Forecast for Utica, MI is unseasonably cool and damp, so as of today I have re-programmed the sprinkler system controllers to eliminate the afternoon watering cycle (except for the lawn surrounding the models on Lexington West). I have also scaled back the overnight watering times to 90% of normal to conserve water and reduce our bills. If and when the weather returns to warmer and drier conditions, I will scale the watering times back up accordingly.

The well-operated system along the berm will soon be undergoing some long-needed repairs to improve the performance of the two zones along the tree line on the top of the berm. Earlier today, Kramer-Triad authorized our irrigation contractor to proceed with the repairs they have identified and estimated. If they are correct with their diagnosis, the cost to fix the zones will be considerably less than the significantly different diagnosis and estimate we received from a different contractor last summer to correct the problems, which we first noticed upon the completion of the switch-over to the well water.

Old Faithful

Under the cover of darkness in the early hours of Oct. 2nd, scrappers stole the water meter, valves and vacuum breaker from a sprinkler meter box on Central Park near Van Dyke. Not content with stealing only the valves on the downstream side of the meter, they also took the valve on the pressurized side, resulting in a 30 foot tall geyser and the loss of hundreds of cubic feet of water. I believe that this meter box is the responsibility of the Master Association and I called it in to K-T customer service for forwarding to the appropriate people. I have confirmed that none of the meter boxes for the Manors sprinkler system were tampered with. Our boxes are now padlocked.

Sprinkler System Winterized

The sprinkler system was shut down and winterized on Wednesday, October 1st. The green pressure tank at the well has been removed and stored inside for the winter.

If you have plants and flowers outdoors, you will have to water them yourselves for the remainder of the growing season.

Please remember to remove and dispose of them immediately after the first killing frost.

Back to Once-a-day Watering

The hot dry spell that started back in the third week of July has finally broken and we are seeing cooler and wetter weather. Therefore, as of Saturday, Sept. 6th, the lawn sprinkler controllers have been reset to water once a day during the early morning hours.

According to my rain gauge, here are the recent monthly rainfall totals for the Manors at Central Park:
May - 3.1 inches
June - 4.6 inches
July - 3.7 inches
Aug - 2.8 inches

Just like the Detroit Lions...

.... our sprinkler system zones are going on "two-a-day" sessions!

Adding 20% more time hasn't produced the desired effect, so starting Tuesday, July 29th, each sprinkler zone will run twice a day, six days a week until the weather cools off.

I have reset the Seasonal Adjustment back to 100% and added a second start time that is exactly 12 hours after the first. Each of the controllers start sometime between 12:15 and 3:30 AM/PM and finish up between 6:00 and 8:45 AM/PM. Specific start and finish times for each controller can be found by going here.

Additional landscape watering

I have recently increased by 20% the length of "on" time for each sprinkler system zone so that our lawns will stay healthy during the toughest part of the summer. Except for Controller No. 2, the start time for the first zone on each controller remains the same, but the succeeding zones will start and finish later than the times shown on the published lists that can be found here.

I will continue to monitor our landscaping watering needs and I will scale back the water usage when appropriate.

No pain at this pump!

Our new irrigation well is now operational and pumping water nightly to the sprinkler zones on the berm along the west side of our property. The well is located at the base of the berm near the corner of Lexington North and Regent Streets. The Board plans to enclose the well equipment with a screen of arbor vitae evergreens so that it cannot be seen from the neighboring units or the street.

Previously these zones along the berm used municipal water but since our water and sewer bills were our largest single budget expense in 2007, the Board decided to invest in the well because it will immediately reduce our operating costs and it has an attractive payback period.

The well water has a high iron content that can cause staining on buildings and sidewalks, therefore we do not intend to use it for watering any landscaping other than on the berm.

Changes to the Sprinkler System

With the recent installation of sprinkler zones and sod at ten new units, the sprinkler controllers have had to be re-programmed. Because of the added zones, I have had to move the start times earlier and where possible, I have selected the start times so that the last zone on the controller will finish by sunrise so that they don't interfere with our early risers who are out and about then. You can read more about the new settings, plus the latest on the well, by going here.

From that page and the others it links to, you can tell that I've spent considerable time documenting the entire sprinkler system so we will all know how and when it operates and where to go if the water has to be manually shut off due to a broken part in the system. I've also been working to identify and fix sprinkler heads that are stuck or buried so that the system will operate as it was originally intended.

If you spot a problem with a sprinkler head or an unwatered area, call me first at 726-0317 and I will come over and take a look at it. If I am unable to fix the problem myself, I will then submit a service request to Kramer-Triad who will contact H2O Irrigation to perform the needed work.

Sprinkler system operating days & times

Updated May 21st at 6:45 P.M.
Updated information is shown in italics and strikethroughs.

All of the sprinkler system controllers are now up and running and almost all of the stations zones are now functional. Most of the non-functional zones have been shut off until broken spray heads can be replaced (a service order has been submitted).

I have a key to all of the controller boxes (except for the one which controls the zones for the units on Central Park North, which uses a different key that I am still waiting for). so I can make adjustments to the station zone settings as needed. If you notice a broken head gushing water, call me and I will disable the affected station zone and submit the service request to Kramer-Triad. If I am not home, please leave a message and I will get to it as soon as possible.

The controllers have been re-programmed to water on Tuesdays through Sundays. The controllers will begin watering at around 4:00 A.M. on those mornings. There will be no watering on Mondays (to facilitate the landscaping service).

A Sprinkler System Settings link has been added to the "Useful Links" section on the right where you can look up detailed information about each controller's stations (zones) and watering times. So far, I have only documented Controller Nos. 6 & 8, but I will be adding the others in the days to come.

The controller boxes are each equipped with their own rain sensor, which will cancel a watering program that is
a) already in progress (shortly after it detects the start of rain)
b) about to start, if the sensor detects that it is raining or if it has not dried out yet from a very recent rain.

After the sensor had dried out, the sprinkler controller will automatically initiate the next regularly scheduled watering program. Therefore, if you do not see the sprinklers running at their regular day and time, it's most likely because the program has been canceled by the rain sensor.

When the weather gets warmer and drier, I will add a second watering program in the afternoon. This cycle will probably start around 4:00 P.M. and run only on Tuesdays through Fridays. I will post the details here when I add the second program.

Sprinkler System Start-up

The water meters for the sprinkler system zones were installed on April 25th. H2O Irrigation Inc. began work the following week to test each zone and make necessary repairs to broken heads. During this process, Shelby Township inspectors red-tagged two of the meters and stopped all work until we made changes to the valve arrangements on our side of those two meters. Those changes were made on May 8th and H2O is scheduled to return on May 12th and 13th to complete the start-up work.

Due to the insistence of the Shelby Twp. water department that we revise valving that had already passed their inspection in 2004, we have incurred additional work and expenses that have delayed the system start-up by more than a week. The sprinkler systems should be functional by May 14, 2008.

A well has been drilled at the base of the berm near the intersection of Regent and Lexington North. Once completed, this will be used to supply irrigation water for the grass and trees on the berm in the northwest quadrant of the site. This will result in a significant savings on our municipal water billings.