IRRIGATION: No Wasted Opportunity |
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By Jonathan Katz jkatz@gie.net 9/1/2005 8:34:40 AM The irrigation industry has benefited from the wonders of modern technology - from climate-sensitive controllers to variable-arc nozzles. Many experienced irrigation contractors know that these high-tech components can vastly improve the performance of an irrigation system. But convincing a property owner that irrigation system upgrades are worth the investment can be another story. Without hard data that the system is wasting water, a customer might mistake the contractor for a snake-oil salesman. By measuring a system's efficiency, landscape and irrigation contractors can provide customers with visual evidence that their systems are underperforming. And as water rates continually rise in many drought-stricken regions, contractors have an opportunity to sell long-term water savings with different irrigation solutions. "From an economics perspective, at least in the West, the availability of water is going down and the price of water is going up, so contractors can provide a service to their customers by minimizing the amount of water the landscape will need to perform its function and value," says Dennis Pittenger, area environmental horticulturist at the University of California Cooperative Extension, Riverside, Calif. Indeed, if contractors and their clients don't become more water-efficiency conscious, they can both suffer the consequences, says Tom Ash, director of conservation, Hydropoint Datasystems, Petaluma, Calif. "We need to make irrigation systems as efficient as possible, and if we don't, public agencies are going to increase and speed up the regulation of landscapes," he says. "So for the landscape industry, it's kind of a double-edged sword - that efficiency creates more business and helps the community to manage its resources as best as possible." MEASURED FOR SUCCESS. Before conducting any sophisticated evaluation of an irrigation system, contractors can sometimes expose an efficiency problem by simply observing the irrigated areas. Contractors should look for brown spots in the lawn or asphalt erosion, which can be a sign of water runoff, Ash says. While the system is operating, contractors should check for water runoff onto the sidewalk or street and look for any leaks or heads that aren't working properly. From there, contractors can recommend to a client or potential customer an irrigation audit. One common audit method is the catch-can test, which measures the system's uniformity. Oftentimes, when a system isn't dispersing water evenly, it must operate at longer periods to compensate for the areas that aren't receiving enough water. The catch-can test is the best way to measure this, say several irrigation experts. "It can be valuable for contractors if they think they have an irrigation problem because they can pinpoint where the problem is," Pittenger says. Brian Vinchesi, president of Irrigation Consulting in Pepperell, Mass., agrees. "The best way to do an audit is when you put out cups to determine how fast the system is distributing water and how evenly," he says. "It's probably the most time-consuming method, but it will give you a very accurate representation of what is going on with the system. There are some cities even requiring you to do that now." Using this procedure, a contractor would place one can 2 to 3 feet from the irrigation head and another halfway between the heads. Contractors can use plastic drinking cups, coffee mugs and soup, tuna or cat food cans to capture the water. They can also use conical catch cans with graduations marked on the sides, but these cost at least $1 to $2 each, Pittenger says. The next step is operating the system. The best time to perform the test is in the morning when wind is minimal. Contractors should operate sprayheads for 10 to 15 minutes to get an adequate sample in each container. For rotary heads, contractors may need to run the system an extra 10 minutes because they have slower precipitation rates, Pittenger says. If the system has a controller, the contractor should use a stopwatch to verify the controller clock's accuracy, Pittenger recommends. The catch-can volumes can be recorded by sticking a ruler in the can or by simply looking to see if one can has more water than the other. "When I tell people to do audits, I tell them don't even do the math - just look because that will tell you even more than the math will," Vinchesi says. With this information, contractors can make recommendations for upgrades to a system, but they should be prepared to spend some time getting to this point. The catch-can test can take one hour or more to complete for each zone, Vinchesi says. Because of the time and labor involved, a more practical evaluation method could be analyzing a customer's historical water use, says Larry Keesen, president, Keesen Water Management, Denver, Colo. "It's too time consuming to do the catch-can test," Keesen says. "I can tell more on total water usage and by checking the pressure and looking at the system. Sometimes the catch-can test doesn't give you enough information. I think there are easier ways." Instead of the catch-can method, Keesen divides the total square footage of a property's irrigated areas by the total gallons of water used for the year, which he obtains from the customer's water bill. If the property's meter measures indoor and outdoor use, Keesen says he averages the usage for the winter months - when outdoor systems are used less frequently or not at all in colder climates - and subtracts that number from the other months. The equation gives Keesen the total gallons used per square foot, which he converts into inches. He then compares that number to the evapotranspiration (ET) rate for his area. Many university extensions and agricultural departments provide ET rates for particular regions. Contractors can also check with irrigation manufacturers to determine their ET rate. Typically, a system is inefficient if it's using 20 to 30 percent more water than the ET rate, according to Keesen. If this seems too complicated, several Web sites, including www.h2ouse.org, provide water budget calculators that contractors can use to show customers how much water they're wasting. The calculator allows contractors to input the square footage of the customer's landscaped areas and water-usage information obtained from the customer's water bill. It then provides a figure for how much water is being overused or underused on the landscape. This method should require less time and money than the catch-can analysis. Keesen says he can produce an irrigation efficiency analysis in two hours, whereas a catch-can audit could take an additional hour or more. Keesen charges an average of $150 per site, which includes checking the system's water pressure, operating the system and observing the system for leaks or other malfunctions and providing a water usage report. For a catch-can audit, Keesen says he would charge $75 to $100 more than he would for a water-usage analysis. SHOW AND SELL. The payoff for irrigation audits is an opportunity to sell water-saving components or, in some cases, complete system overhauls. The first step is demonstrating to the property owner why the changes are necessary and how they can benefit from them. It's easy to tell a customer that a new part or system will result in significant savings. But if contractors can't prove it, customers might be skeptical. To show this, contractors can compare the customer's water usage to what a similar-sized landscape should consume based on data from the local water department, Vinchesi says. In areas where water restrictions are tight, such as California, customers may face increased water rate hikes if they're using more than their budgeted amount. They can also show customers the results of Web-based calculation guides. If the system shows visual signs of inefficiencies, such as puddling or pooling, contractors should walk clients to the areas where the problems are evident, Vinchesi says. Contractors can also use a soil probe to show clients where water is seeping past the root zones. Once contractors convince property owners their systems are inefficient, they can begin selling water-saving solutions. Contractors can offer new irrigation heads or adjustable-arc nozzles that provide better uniformity. But when contractors make these changes, they sometimes need to adjust the controller schedule to match new precipitation rates. This can present another sales opportunity for contractors, Ash says. Weather-based or ET-based controllers can automatically change irrigation schedules as the weather changes without the contractor returning to the site. Some of these controllers can reduce water waste by 40 to 50 percent, according to Ash. "That's a huge water-saving benefit for the customer, and it's good for the contractor in that he doesn't have to work harder," Ash explains. Some of these controllers cost up to $650, but contractors can usually buy them for less from local distributors, Ash says. If customers aren't interested in changing the controller, contractors can try selling system management services, Vinchesi says. "Most homeowners never change their controller, no matter how the weather changes," he says. "So you can sell a service where you will change the schedule on a weekly or biweekly basis. That should make the system more efficient because it's being scheduled better." However, contractors might have better luck selling a regular maintenance schedule to commercial accounts than homeowners because of the cost involved, Vinchesi says. If the system is poorly designed or improperly installed, contractors may be able to sell the client on an entirely new system, Keesen says. The bottom line, Ash says, is that contractors can open up a new business opportunity for the entire industry. "It's kind of like the computer industry," he explains. "When a computer can't run as fast, you buy a new one. That's the model the irrigation world should try to emulate. We need to keep on top of it as an industry. I think sometimes people in this industry are afraid to think like that. We say, 'This controller lasts 20 or 30 years,' when we should be saying, 'When new technology comes out, I'll let you know.'"
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