Water Bill

[WaianaeCrider]

The BWS put in a new digital meter and my last two bills were abit over $600 for approx 72,000 gallons.  Either the old meter was really bad or the new one is very wrong.  Since Covid I have added a large number of palms in two years.  But as we say here in the islands "But Wow Lau Lau" did I really use that m uch water?  This is for two acres and I have no idea how to measure how much water I use.  This is a 2 acre lot.  I have 41 water timers watering from 11 pm to 8 am.  Each has been running for 45 minutes this summer up from 35 during the slightly wetter time of the year.  Each feeds 1/2" poly pipe w/little spray head of either 90", 180" or 360* of spray.  I just cut them all back to 35 minutes.  I think I might have run out of water money to plant anything more, and there is still a fair amount of room. 

   One area I planted a number to Ti plants of different colors and some Dracena as well to fill in under the palms.  I may have to pull them and just have the palms and mulch.  Since I'm not selling anything I can't get Ag Rates on my water and I'm to dam old to start a business (79.5) LOL.  No Cry O L. 

There are still 5 in the green house from the last FB order that need to get planted out.  Then I just might STOP planting.

[D. Morrowii]

I know I’ve added 6 drip timers since spring plus additional hand watering and my water bill has doubled. I’m on a 10,000 sf lot so not even a quarter acre. For the month of August I used 11,000 gallons. 

[Cindy Adair]

Well it is the wetter part of the year in the mountains of Puerto Rico, but my city water bill stays thirty something dollars a month. 

Keep in mind I have no irrigation system and only hand water potted plants in my shadehouse during the short (more dry) season here. 

The plants in the ground tough it out.

I love the afternoon rains that save me so much time and money!

[5am]

Wow! Forgive me for my ignorance of your climate but it really shocks me that you need any supplemental water in Hawaii! Like Cindy Adair above I hand water pots but in the ground it's on its own. (Recently moved so we'll see if I have to change my tune.) Before reading this I always thought of Hawaii as paradise. This kind of shatters that vision. On the bright side it gives me a new appreciation for the local palms that seem to survive on rain water or whatever groundwater they can reach. 

[96720]

Consider yourself lucky I have 21/2 acres and last month my water bill was $2700 I can’t retire I have to pay my water bill!!!!!

[miamicuse]

I suggest that you look into whether the meter is recording the correct usage.  I can think of several things that could have caused this, if everything was fine but you started to get high bills since they changed out the meter.

(1) A slow leak somewhere that is consuming water that is not obvious.  For example a leaky toilet flapper that is continuously seeping water from the tank into the bowl that spills into the pipes.  When no one is using water inside and outside the house, look at the meter and make sure it is not spinning or turning.  Wait ten minutes and look at it again and make sure the reading stays the same.  Sometimes there are hidden usages such as icemaker fill cycles, washing machine refilling, dishwasher running, so make sure nothing is running.  If the meter is not moving while nothing is running, then you do not have a leak.

(2) If you do not have a leak, then it can be the meter.  When they switched out the old meter to the new, did your water bill reflect this?  I had this happened to me once.  The city always calculate the usage from one meter reading to the next.  So if the old meter reading was 2275890, and on the day they removed the meter, the reading was 2276890, then the usage on the old meter is 1000 gallons.  Then a new meter is installed, usually it is 0000000, and the day the new meter gets read, it may be 0012500, so the usage is 12500 gallons.  So they should have billed you 1000+12500 gallons or 13500 gallons.  HOWEVER, many city billing and field crews do not communicate, the field crew replaced the meter and said nothing, or the billing received the new reading of 0012500 and the old reading was 2275890, who knows how they even calculate your usage...they might have assumed your meter went from 2275890 to 9999999 and started from 0000000 again and bill you accordingly, and since meter reading and billing dates do not coincide, part of your bill is always projected from recent usage rates, so this effect can linger on for months.  In my case I had to get the city to find the field crew who replaced my meter, to go find the old meter, and get the reading off it to adjust my bill.

(3) Could the new meter be defective?  That's possible.  You can test it out.  Stop all water use in the house.  Then go to the meter and record the reading at that time.  Then gather a few five gallon buckets.  Let's say 4 old paint buckets, turn on the garden hose and fill them all, once they are all filled, you should have consumed 5X4=20 gallons.  Go to the meter again, and look up the reading then, it should be the old reading plus 20.  If not, then the meter is suspect.

(4) You can also estimate how much water is consumed when you irrigate the same way.  Set up your timers and valves to do a manual cycle, one zone at a time.  Do a meter reading after each zone, and you can see how much water is consumed per zone per irrigation event.  Add them all up will be your total usage if you cycled through all zones once.  If one of your zones is extremely high, this may indicate a pipe leak or a burst hose that needs repairing.

Finally, if you are on city sewers, then part of your bill of water consumption goes to the sewer treatment.  Actually where I am the sewer component is higher than the water component.  The city assumes every drop of water you use runs back down the drain that has to be treated.  Obviously, this is the case for showering and toilet flushing, but not when you fill a swimming pool or irrigate your garden.  You might ask your city to install an irrigation meter next to your standard meter, and the advantage of the irrigation meter is you do not pay for the sanitation component which should cut the bill in half at least.

Good luck.

[Chester B]

53 minutes ago, 5am said:

Wow! Forgive me for my ignorance of your climate but it really shocks me that you need any supplemental water in Hawaii! Like Cindy Adair above I hand water pots but in the ground it's on its own. (Recently moved so we'll see if I have to change my tune.) Before reading this I always thought of Hawaii as paradise. This kind of shatters that vision. On the bright side it gives me a new appreciation for the local palms that seem to survive on rain water or whatever groundwater they can reach. 

Read up on Hawaii, it has too many different ecosystems/climates to mention here.  From desert to rainforest and everything in between.  Mean rainfall can range from about 10 inches a year to over 400.  Looking up Waianae I see average rainfall of 21", so definitely a need to water.

[Merlyn]

You can get a reasonable calculation of what your water usage *should* be by counting the number of each type of spray head multiplied by the rated GPH on each one.  For example, if you have 20x90 degree + 11x180 degree + 23x360 degree just figure out the GPH for each type and multiply it out to get the total gallons per hour estimate.  There are "low flow" 90 degree heads that spray the same distance as the high flow ones.  I am using the Rainbird MPR series which are lower flow for a given radius than some others.  So a 15' radius full 360 degree MPR flows 3.7gpm at 30psi, and 23 of these at full flow (not adjusted down) is 85.1 gallons/minute or 3,829.5 gallons in 45 minutes.  That's probably way more than you are using, but the gallons add up fast!

[D Palm]

When lived in the city and had city water the town provided an annual water consumption use for the previous 12 months.  Maybe you can contact them for this info.

I have been on well water for the past 6 years it's lumped into the electricity bill for pump usage.  I have used slightly less watts (compared by month of previous year) than last year and my bill is $70 higher.  They sent a telephone notification that the rate is going up again in October.

Could be energy inflation or could be something else like a calculating error.

[WaianaeCrider]

3 hours ago, 5am said:

Wow! Forgive me for my ignorance of your climate but it really shocks me that you need any supplemental water in Hawaii! Like Cindy Adair above I hand water pots but in the ground it's on its own. (Recently moved so we'll see if I have to change my tune.) Before reading this I always thought of Hawaii as paradise. This kind of shatters that vision. On the bright side it gives me a new appreciation for the local palms that seem to survive on rain water or whatever groundwater they can reach. 

Sam not all of Hawai`i gets lots of rain.  Each island is either one or a combination of volcanic mountains.  Depending on which side of the mountain you are on decides what your weather will be.  On the Windward (east) side you get a good amount of rain and on those mt tops a lot also.  The summit of Kaua` gets way over 300" a year.  I live on the Leeward (west) side of O`ahu and there are two mountain ranges running north and south.  Moist air has to get over both before reaching me.  Most of the moisture falls on the west side of each mt range.  By the time it get to me there is little moisture left.  Here in Wai`anae at about 380' elevation I average about 25 inches a year.  Most comes in the winter in a few heavy showers.  Last month we had about 0.5" and so far this month we have had a bit over 2" and that came in two days.

[WaianaeCrider]

3 hours ago, 96720 said:

Consider yourself lucky I have 21/2 acres and last month my water bill was $2700 I can’t retire I have to pay my water bill!!!!!

WOWZER!  The wife would KILL me spending that much on water.  LOL  I pay all the bills so unless I tell her she has no idea.  I'm retired and although as a retired school teacher I'm not rich I could probably keep this up and maybe plant a bit more.  LOL  We don't really go out to eat anymore since Covid.

[WaianaeCrider]

2 hours ago, Merlyn said:

You can get a reasonable calculation of what your water usage *should* be by counting the number of each type of spray head multiplied by the rated GPH on each one.  For example, if you have 20x90 degree + 11x180 degree + 23x360 degree just figure out the GPH for each type and multiply it out to get the total gallons per hour estimate.  There are "low flow" 90 degree heads that spray the same distance as the high flow ones.  I am using the Rainbird MPR series which are lower flow for a given radius than some others.  So a 15' radius full 360 degree MPR flows 3.7gpm at 30psi, and 23 of these at full flow (not adjusted down) is 85.1 gallons/minute or 3,829.5 gallons in 45 minutes.  That's probably way more than you are using, but the gallons add up fast!

I use these little guys:    https://www.amazon.com/Lhx-Sprinklers-Miniature-Atomization-Irrigation/dp/B087CWFKML/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3DSS2CJT52GL3&keywords=irrigation+sprayer+heads&qid=1663096564&sprefix=irrigation+spr%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-4

They don't spray far maybe 2-3 feet depending on how many on each line.  I guess I could do some calculations.  Mahalo

[WaianaeCrider]

2 hours ago, D Palm said:

When lived in the city and had city water the town provided an annual water consumption use for the previous 12 months.  Maybe you can contact them for this info.

I

Each bill shows useage for the past 11 months so the big change came w/the new meter.  I believe I got a way w/a meter that was SHOT giving me LOTS more water than it was recording.  So I guess it's "pay back" time.  LOL    No CryOL.

 

[Merlyn]

36 minutes ago, WaianaeCrider said:

I use these little guys:    https://www.amazon.com/Lhx-Sprinklers-Miniature-Atomization-Irrigation/dp/B087CWFKML/ref=sr_1_4?crid=3DSS2CJT52GL3&keywords=irrigation+sprayer+heads&qid=1663096564&sprefix=irrigation+spr%2Caps%2C178&sr=8-4

They don't spray far maybe 2-3 feet depending on how many on each line.  I guess I could do some calculations.  Mahalo

Yeah, unfortunately there isn't a GPM or GPH rating on those, but the Rainbird "Close In Micro Spray" MSFFSTKX or MSFHSTKX or MSFQSTKX (360/180/90) micro sprayers are reasonably close at 0-4' spray distance.  I found a rating for the 180 degree at 11gph, so theoretically the 360 degree is 22gph.  That would make each 360 degree sprayer = 16.5 gallons in 45 minutes, so 23 of them is about 380 gallons.  If you knew how many of each type you could get a ballpark calculation.  2400 gallons per day is a lot of micro sprayers!

[WaianaeCrider]

8 hours ago, Merlyn said:

Yeah, unfortunately there isn't a GPM or GPH rating on those, but the Rainbird "Close In Micro Spray" MSFFSTKX or MSFHSTKX or MSFQSTKX (360/180/90) micro sprayers are reasonably close at 0-4' spray distance.  I found a rating for the 180 degree at 11gph, so theoretically the 360 degree is 22gph.  That would make each 360 degree sprayer = 16.5 gallons in 45 minutes, so 23 of them is about 380 gallons.  If you knew how many of each type you could get a ballpark calculation.  2400 gallons per day is a lot of micro sprayers!

Next weekend I think I'll put some kind of plastic bag around a few of the emitters and see how much water they collect in say 5 minutes.

[Kailua_Krish]

On 9/12/2022 at 7:39 PM, WaianaeCrider said:

The BWS put in a new digital meter and my last two bills were abit over $600 for approx 72,000 gallons.  Either the old meter was really bad or the new one is very wrong.  Since Covid I have added a large number of palms in two years.  But as we say here in the islands "But Wow Lau Lau" did I really use that m uch water?  This is for two acres and I have no idea how to measure how much water I use.  This is a 2 acre lot.  I have 41 water timers watering from 11 pm to 8 am.  Each has been running for 45 minutes this summer up from 35 during the slightly wetter time of the year.  Each feeds 1/2" poly pipe w/little spray head of either 90", 180" or 360* of spray.  I just cut them all back to 35 minutes.  I think I might have run out of water money to plant anything more, and there is still a fair amount of room. 

   One area I planted a number to Ti plants of different colors and some Dracena as well to fill in under the palms.  I may have to pull them and just have the palms and mulch.  Since I'm not selling anything I can't get Ag Rates on my water and I'm to dam old to start a business (79.5) LOL.  No Cry O L. 

There are still 5 in the green house from the last FB order that need to get planted out.  Then I just might STOP planting.

I have a feeling its correct. I water my plants once every 5 days and my bill is usually 2-300 dollars and Im on an 8000 sq ft lot. Its why I dont have many of the water hungry palms and I think i get more rain than you (40in but sandy soil).

The sewer fees are really what get you. You can actually have your irrigation water metered separately but its a whole process but may be worth it for you given the size of your lot.

[John hovancsek]

I am so glad I have a catchment tank but rarely have to water I pray for no rain

[WaianaeCrider]

3 hours ago, Kailua_Krish said:

I have a feeling its correct. I water my plants once every 5 days and my bill is usually 2-300 dollars and Im on an 8000 sq ft lot. Its why I dont have many of the water hungry palms and I think i get more rain than you (40in but sandy soil).

The sewer fees are really what get you. You can actually have your irrigation water metered separately but its a whole process but may be worth it for you given the size of your lot.

The Ag lots up here are not on the sewer so that fee is all water.

[Looking Glass]

I have a separate irrigation meter.  Here it saves a lot, because the sewer fees are based on water usage, and they don’t charge the sewer fees on a designated irrigation meter.  

I’m on a 7500sqft lot, but I only irrigate the front half for now.   I also hand water the palms a lot, but the spigot I use is tied to the irrigation meter.  

We get about 62 inches of rain a year, but it was in the 80 inch range sometimes, in recent years.   The rain comes in deluges often, followed by long dry spells. In June of the year we had 10+ inches in 2-3 days, followed by about 2 inches in 2 months.  Two Novembers ago we got 20+ inches in a few weeks, with 12 inches in a day.  

My soil is sandy, so drains very fast, but holds water for maybe a couple days at most, when it’s hot out.  

I irrigate every 2-3 days, or 2-3 days after a rain, so it’s very random.  I’ve got 23 lawn sprayers, and can use 2,000 gallons in a wet month, or 8,000 in a dry month.  Including hand watering.   

The irrigation system here was set up for grass, not garden beds or trees. When I redo the back, I’m going to set up that section for trees and shrubs only.  Drippers and micro-sprayers all the way.   I’ll also focus more on native, Carribean, Round Island, and other stuff that can tolerate our dry spells better.  
 

 

 

[rprimbs]

Are you sure that you don't a leak in the system.  The new water meter might just be coincidental.  I had a leak like that and I spent over a thousand dollars in two months.  Do you have a "leak detector" on your water meter,?  Is it continuously spinning?

[jwitt]

As one married to a native Wai`anaean, I envy what one could grow in your spot using desert/dryland tropical plants and possibly without supplemental water.  I also can only dream of what you actually grow.  A tropical desert with high dew points!

Meanwhile, back to reality called New Mexico,  I pay about $200 for 16000 gallons and really no outside irrigation outside of a postage size lawn.  Mostly laundry and au au.   And no where near the number or variability of your plantings, not even in the same universe.  

You win!

Wonder what this would look like with Pele fern added. I can dream!

 

 

 

Edited September 15, 2022 by jwitt
Added pic

[WaianaeCrider]

1 hour ago, rprimbs said:

Are you sure that you don't a leak in the system.  The new water meter might just be coincidental.  I had a leak like that and I spent over a thousand dollars in two months.  Do you have a "leak detector" on your water meter,?  Is it continuously spinning?

The new meter seems to be able to "report" 1000 gallons of usage as the smallest amount.  I've go to call the to see about that.  I shut down the irrigation lines on Sunday and the meter has NOT changed as of this morning.  Hard to tell if there is a leak w/this new STUPID meter.  The old one had a dial that moved and you could see each gallon of flow.  The meter is digital, nothing spinning that shows.

This is what our rainfall looks like:

RAINFALL
Month
		2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2020	2021	2022	Average
January		7.10	16.60	1.30	5.70	0.10	1.01	1.49	9.61	0.69	2.49	5.07	9.35	4.26
February		14.60	4.60	3.00	0.50	1.73	0.31	1.12	4.63	0.76	3.21	3.50	0.43	3.16
March		0.50	3.00	18.40	2.00	1.61	1.04	1.60	2.23	5.57	4.75	2.11	0.79	3.57
April		0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.36	0.72	1.94	1.34	1.30	0.73	0.46	0.10	0.57
May		3.80	0.30	0.00	3.20	3.38	0.34	1.31	3.40	0.52	0.22	0.16	1.03	1.39
June		0.00	0.40	0.00	0.00	0.24	0.07	0.36	2.30	0.76	0.38	0.04	0.06	0.38
July		1.10	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.70	0.04	0.12	0.62	0.35	1.47	0.30	0.10	0.39
August		3.30	0.20	0.00	2.90	0.87	1.39	0.05	0.14	0.31	0.01	0.49	0.43	0.81
September		1.80	4.00	0.10	0.10	0.36	0.11	0.57	0.11	0.74	0.02	0.34		0.75
October		1.00	2.80	7.10	0.30	0.55	0.28	0.42	0.64	0.00	9.99	0.15		2.11
November		15.70	3.40	3.00	6.43	1.15	0.69	0.76	0.06	0.11	0.49	0.22		2.91
December		7.40	0.00	0.15	3.73	15.75	1.67	9.50	0.55	?	0.25	13.47		4.77
Total		56.30	35.30	33.05	24.86	26.80	7.67	19.24	25.63	11.11	24.01	26.31	12.29	24.19

[WaianaeCrider]

1 hour ago, jwitt said:

As one married to a native Wai`anaean, I envy what one could grow in your spot using desert/dryland tropical plants and possibly without supplemental water.  I also can only dream of what you actually grow.  A tropical desert with high dew points!

Meanwhile, back to reality called New Mexico,  I pay about $200 for 16000 gallons and really no outside irrigation outside of a postage size lawn.  Mostly laundry and au au.   And no where near the number or variability of your plantings, not even in the same universe.  

You win!

Wonder what this would look like with Pele fern added. I can dream!

 

 

 

Nice palm.

When I bought 40+ years ago I know I could not afford to water 2 acres on a teachers salary so I began collecting succulents.  Then somehow around 1998 I got hooked on palms.  I stopped buying succulents and started w/the palms.  If the meter is correct maybe I should go back to succulents or give up gambling on my bowling days, stop smoking $9 cigars and see if I can pay for the water.  LOL  Might have to somehow re-allocate my retirement income.

 

[DoomsDave]

@WaianaeCriderFWIW it looks like you're getting a relatively square deal. I've got half an acre, and my water bills are about $240 a month, though they can jump if we get a heat wave like recently. $600 for a month for two acres sounds reasonable, especially if you have lava type soil. (If you don't, please advise, curious to know more.)

We're in the midst of a water crisis over here, so you certainly touched a dry, crackly nerve . . .

[Johnny Palmseed]

You say you are showing 72000 gallons per month. What was your previous usage? You also say that you are watering 41 zones for 45 minutes each from 11pm-8am. How are you accomplishing this? I assume that you are watering 10 or 11 zones each night? If you are running water almost constantly every night for 9 hours, then you can easily get to 72000. Assuming 10 zones per night for 45 minutes each, at only 5 gallons per minute you would be using about 2250 gallons per night. If you water every night, that would be 67,500 gallons in a 30 day month.
If your water authority is anything like here, they have a staggered billing system where the heavy users pay a significantly higher premium. For example, our utility charges based on 4 tiers. The first is 0-5000 gallons @ $4.07/1000. It doubles at 6-10000 gallons @ $8.04/1000. 11-20000 gallons is @ $11.40/1000 and above that is $14.86/1000. So you can see that 5000 gallons would only be $20.35 but double the use to 10000 and the charge is triple @ $60.55. 72000 gallons would be $947.27 plus the $17.61 meter charge for a grand total of $964.88. And I live in a state that has so much water it allows billions of gallons to be pumped out of the ground for free so that companies can sell it in plastic bottles. So I would say your charge of $600 is a relative bargain.

[Matt in OC]

Paid $250 for 33,000 gallons over a two month period. 7,000 sft lot. Two lawns, lots of palms, four people. 

[Kailua_Krish]

9 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

@WaianaeCriderFWIW it looks like you're getting a relatively square deal. I've got half an acre, and my water bills are about $240 a month, though they can jump if we get a heat wave like recently. $600 for a month for two acres sounds reasonable, especially if you have lava type soil. (If you don't, please advise, curious to know more.)

We're in the midst of a water crisis over here, so you certainly touched a dry, crackly nerve . . .

Waianae has clay. Only Big Island really has lava rock soil. 
 

Also we’re in a minor water crisis here. The Navy dumped jet fuel into our drinking water so some of the wells are shut down and they’re trying not to overdraw the other ones to avoid pulling the fuel into the rest of the aquifer. 

[WaianaeCrider]

11 hours ago, DoomsDave said:

@WaianaeCriderFWIW it looks like you're getting a relatively square deal. I've got half an acre, and my water bills are about $240 a month, though they can jump if we get a heat wave like recently. $600 for a month for two acres sounds reasonable, especially if you have lava type soil. (If you don't, please advise, curious to know more.)

We're in the midst of a water crisis over here, so you certainly touched a dry, crackly nerve . . .

As you can see by the above post it's been a dry year.

As to my soil type.  I'm not sure what you call it.  It's a redish brown clay(?) like soil.  When it dries it cracks and becomes VERY hard.  Volcanic for sure as is all the soil in Hawai`i.  Well along the coasts you could have pure sand.  Of course there are many types of volcanic soil I guess. 99% is basalt but in various stages of decomposition running from hot flowing lave to 10 million year old red clay (?).

[DoomsDave]

14 hours ago, WaianaeCrider said:

As you can see by the above post it's been a dry year.

As to my soil type.  I'm not sure what you call it.  It's a redish brown clay(?) like soil.  When it dries it cracks and becomes VERY hard.  Volcanic for sure as is all the soil in Hawai`i.  Well along the coasts you could have pure sand.  Of course there are many types of volcanic soil I guess. 99% is basalt but in various stages of decomposition running from hot flowing lave to 10 million year old red clay (?).

 

15 hours ago, Kailua_Krish said:

Waianae has clay. Only Big Island really has lava rock soil. 
 

Also we’re in a minor water crisis here. The Navy dumped jet fuel into our drinking water so some of the wells are shut down and they’re trying not to overdraw the other ones to avoid pulling the fuel into the rest of the aquifer. 

Thanks, I stand corrected, which is nice to know. Good to know your soil is reasonably good, from what I can tell. I'd hate like hell to have to garden on lava rock here in the Land of Decreasing Water.

Clay soil has been a blessing, for the most part, in large part because it holds water and nutrients well. My palms appear to appreciate it!

[ruskinPalms]

Interesting topic. My water bill runs about 100 to 130 (with a family of 5) per month for a 7500 square foot area. I do have reclaimed water for what it is worth and that part of the bill is very minimal. For the record, my irrigation has been shut off since June. Just no need to irrigate during the rainy season. Also off most of the winter because cool and moist aren’t good for most of the palms I’m growing. Mostly used during the warm/hot/dry times in fall, winter and spring. I think the water table is not deep at all here and bigger palms have no problem getting all the water they want (foxtails, royals, bizzies). Smaller ones don’t seem to suffer either. My yard runs on the wet mucky side for the most part. Lots of builder fill/clay overlying the native coastal sand. Probably 18 to 24 inches of fill before I hit native soil when I’m digging here, thicker closer to the house. 

Edited September 16, 2022 by ruskinPalms
Clarification

[WaianaeCrider]

Did some inspection today.  Found one timer who's valve didnot shut off all the way.  Changed that.  Replaced the washer on two timers where they connected to the faucet and stopped the "dribble".  Found a tiny leak on one section of  plastic PVC pipe.  Replaced it.  Found faucet that needed fresh Teflon tape on the threads.

Got leakage down to 1 gal/hr.  That's only something like 8700 gallons a year.  Seems to be one spot where a shade tree grew over or around a section of PVC and it may be leaking.  Tomorrow I'll see about routing the pipe around that area.

Finally figured how to read the new meter and will begin close watch on usage and keep looking for leaks.

[Kailua_Krish]

On 9/16/2022 at 9:39 AM, DoomsDave said:

 

Thanks, I stand corrected, which is nice to know. Good to know your soil is reasonably good, from what I can tell. I'd hate like hell to have to garden on lava rock here in the Land of Decreasing Water.

Clay soil has been a blessing, for the most part, in large part because it holds water and nutrients well. My palms appear to appreciate it!

Oh I feel that. I have Florida type beach sand in the part of Hawaii I live in without that Florida type rain. All my palms are iron deficient and drought stressed 🤣

[WaianaeCrider]

AS stated above I did some leak inspections and fixed what I found.  Then yesterday i found a "tee" that was dripping just a little.  Not really dripping, kinda oozing.  Fixed that an hour ago.  Began keeping data on water usage for past two days.  Extrapolating for a month I can't see 72,000 gallons last month.  Wonder if the "fixes" I did already made that much difference.  Can't wait for the next bill.

Irrigation takes place at night from 11 pm to 8 am

Day	Start	Finish	Usage
Monday Irrigation	198299.35	199762.14	1462.79
Monday	199762.14	199945.99	183.85
Tuesday irrigation	199945.99	201887.69	1941.70
Tuesday	201887.69
Wed irrigation			0.00
Wed			0.00
Thrusday irrigation			0.00
Thursday			0.00
Friday irrigation			0.00
Friday			0.00
Sat irrigation			0.00
Sat			0.00
Sunday			0.00
TOTAL FOR WEEK			3588.34

[5am]

35 minutes ago, WaianaeCrider said:

AS stated above I did some leak inspections and fixed what I found.  Then yesterday i found a "tee" that was dripping just a little.  Not really dripping, kinda oozing.  Fixed that an hour ago.  Began keeping data on water usage for past two days.  Extrapolating for a month I can't see 72,000 gallons last month.  Wonder if the "fixes" I did already made that much difference.  Can't wait for the next bill.

Irrigation takes place at night from 11 pm to 8 am

Day	Start	Finish	Usage
Monday Irrigation	198299.35	199762.14	1462.79
Monday	199762.14	199945.99	183.85
Tuesday irrigation	199945.99	201887.69	1941.70
Tuesday	201887.69
Wed irrigation			0.00
Wed			0.00
Thrusday irrigation			0.00
Thursday			0.00
Friday irrigation			0.00
Friday			0.00
Sat irrigation			0.00
Sat			0.00
Sunday			0.00
TOTAL FOR WEEK			3588.34

Looking forward to the completed week’s measurements. 

[iDesign]

3 hours ago, WaianaeCrider said:

Can't wait for the next bill.

Those are words you don't normally hear!

Hopefully your efforts will make a difference in that icky water bill... makes me wonder if there's a leak in my own system somewhere I can fix. 🚰

[WaianaeCrider]

1 hour ago, iDesign said:

Those are words you don't normally hear!

Hopefully your efforts will make a difference in that icky water bill... makes me wonder if there's a leak in my own system somewhere I can fix. 🚰

I layed out these pipes 20 years ago.  Many sections are atop the ground but over time some have been covered.  Hope there are no leaks in those areas.  These were 20' sections of 3/4" PVC joined by "slip" connectors glued together.  Today I fixed one where I guess I didn't slip the main pipe deep enough into the coupler where I cut in to add a faucet about a year or two ago.  Guess it's been oozing that long.

[Merlyn]

7 hours ago, WaianaeCrider said:

I layed out these pipes 20 years ago.  Many sections are atop the ground but over time some have been covered.  Hope there are no leaks in those areas.  These were 20' sections of 3/4" PVC joined by "slip" connectors glued together.  Today I fixed one where I guess I didn't slip the main pipe deep enough into the coupler where I cut in to add a faucet about a year or two ago.  Guess it's been oozing that long.

I've had similar problems with adding a T in the middle of the pipe.  You try to not dig too much, but you need the flexibility in the pipe to bend it up and get the T in the middle so that when it lays flat there's enough glue joint section.  I find that the wet-or-dry adhesive helps there, because it takes 5 seconds or so to set.  So you have an extra couple of seconds to rotate the T around and make sure it's centered and fully coated on the inside.  I quit using the regular fast-set stuff.

I'm still surprised that a few leaks made that much of a difference.  Extrapolating out, you'd see around 16,000 gallons of "normal" use for a whopping 56,000 gallons of leaks?  Yikes!

[WaianaeCrider]

5 hours ago, Merlyn said:

 

I'm still surprised that a few leaks made that much of a difference.  Extrapolating out, you'd see around 16,000 gallons of "normal" use for a whopping 56,000 gallons of leaks?  Yikes!

Yea I'm wondering about that too.

[Johnny Palmseed]

I have had problems from using the wet/dry cement. It seems to make the connection brittle over time. I don’t recall the brand but it was blue. I think it’s fine if you don’t touch it again but I had a coupling shatter when I hit it with a shovel while digging. It was a glancing blow and should not have hurt the pipe since it is schedule 40.