Sprinkler systems use an average of 18 gallons of water per minute. That is 1,080 gallons per hour! The average household  (without factoring in irrigation) only uses 485 gallons per week. In other words, sprinkler systems use more water in just a half hour than your whole household uses in one week! If your system automatically runs for just one day for two hours on a lawn and landscape that does not need it, you are wasting 2,160 gallons of water!

Due to severe droughts and water restrictions, the irrigation manufacturing industry has been forced to produce more efficient products. These products are designed to reduce waste due to overwatering and to maximize the performance of your system. Western Pennsylvania has not experienced many water supply problems, and will probably not in the foreseeable future. However, new technology to improve water efficiency can be put to good use by saving our customers money while improving the appearance of lawns and landscapes.

Custom Turf has been encouraging our customers to install rain sensors for over 10 years now!

Why? Because rain sensors are a great first step in ensuring that you are only watering your lawn when necessary; overwatering does little more than waste money and water and make your lawn more susceptible to disease. Rain sensors work by measuring the amount of rainfall that your lawn receives and turning off your sprinkler system, when necessary. After all, it certainly doesn't make sense to water your lawn when Mother Nature is taking care of the job!

Over the last few years, manufacturers have produced several new Smart/ET controllers. Smart controllers are irrigation clocks that automatically adjust irrigation run times in response to environmental changes. Smart controllers use sensors and weather information to manage watering times and frequency. As environmental conditions vary, the controller increases or decreases irrigation. The smart controllers receive the information from either a local mini weather station installed on your home, or via an antenna from a local paging weather signal. Smart controllers have the ability to turn off your sprinklers automatically during rain, high wind or low temperature.

Smart controllers reduce outdoor water use by an average of 20 to 40 percent. They also reduce over watering, which can cause fungal disease and insect problems.

This new technology takes the guesswork out of homeowner programming!

Another new development in the irrigation industry is pressure-regulated sprinkler heads, or PRS heads. Sprinkler heads are designed to function best at a certain pressure; however, because of several factors, it is nearly impossible to achieve ideal pressure at each head. Some of the factors that affect water pressure include: the number of heads per zone (four heads on a zone will utilize more water than three heads on a zone, for example); the placement of the heads on a zone (the last head of a zone will naturally have less pressure than the first head); and lawn topography (water will lose pressure traveling uphill to a sprinkler head and will gain pressure when traveling downhill).

These factors can affect the efficiency at which the heads will run, thereby resulting in wasteful watering. Custom Turf now installs pressure-regulated heads to ensure that each head is operating at maximum efficiency. This practice has been documented to reduce water usage by as much as 40 percent.