Water Efficiency and Drought Guide

The right order of operations

Water efficiency work has a natural sequence based on cost against saving. Doing it out of order is the most common reason a conservation program disappoints, because the expensive steps get taken before the cheap ones.

Where water is actually being lost

On most commercial properties that have not been audited recently, the losses are not subtle once someone actually runs the zones and watches. They are simply invisible because nobody does that.

• Valves that do not fully close, leaking continuously underground
• Broken and sunken heads spraying into the air or straight into soil
• Spray heads watering pavement, walls, and parking surfaces
• Excessive pressure atomizing water into mist that evaporates before landing
• Controllers running the same schedule year round
• Zones mixing turf and shrubs, so the shrubs are overwatered every cycle
• Watering during the day or evening rather than pre dawn

Working within watering restrictions

Southern California water agencies set their own restrictions, and they differ meaningfully between districts. A property in Los Angeles under LADWP operates under different rules than one a few miles away in a different district, which means compliance cannot be assumed from a regional generalization.

Restrictions typically govern allowed days and times rather than volume, which makes cycle and soak scheduling more important. When the permitted window is short, splitting run time into absorbing cycles is often the only way to deliver adequate water without runoff.

Proving the savings actually happened

Efficiency work that is not measured is efficiency work that ownership has no reason to believe in. Establishing a baseline before the work is the difference between a documented result and a claim.

1. Record consumption for at least a full year before the work as a baseline
2. Document what was changed and when, so effects can be attributed
3. Track consumption after the work against the same period the prior year
4. Normalize for weather so a wet year is not credited to the program
5. Report the result with the method stated, not just the number

What your water district can change, and when

Water rules in Southern California are set locally, not at the state or county level, and that catches a lot of people out. Two properties four miles apart can be under different day limits and different penalty structures.

Rules also change with conditions, sometimes in the middle of a season. A schedule that was legal in April can be over the limit by August without anyone at the property doing anything.

The practical effect is that a landscape program has to be able to move. A property watering three days a week does not simply run the same cycles less often. It needs longer, better placed cycles, on zones that were grouped sensibly in the first place.

The meter problem

Most commercial properties have one water meter. Building use and irrigation run through it together, which means the landscape share of the bill is a guess.

That is a bigger problem than it sounds. It makes every efficiency project unprovable. You cut irrigation use by a third, the bill drops by eight percent, and nobody can say whether that was the irrigation or a quiet month in the building.

A dedicated irrigation meter fixes it permanently. It is a small project, often eligible for a rebate, and it turns every future water claim from an argument into a number.

Without a separate irrigation meter, every water saving on the property is an opinion.

The order to do things in

Water projects have a natural order, and doing them out of order wastes money. The rule is simple: fix, then tune, then upgrade, then redesign.

Fixing is repair. Broken heads, leaking valves, heads spraying pavement. It costs little, needs no approval, and until it is done nothing else you do will show up in the numbers.

Tuning is scheduling. Seasonal run times, cycle and soak on slopes and clay, and turning off zones that no longer need to run. Also nearly free.

Upgrading is hardware. Smart controllers, better nozzles, drip conversion in beds. This is where capital starts.

Redesigning is the last step and the largest. Regrouping zones, converting turf, changing the planting. It only pays once the first three are done, because a beautiful new design on a broken system is still a broken system.

1. Repair every break and leak first, because nothing else is measurable until you do
2. Reprogramme for the season and the soil, which costs only time
3. Turn off zones that no longer serve a planting
4. Upgrade nozzles and controllers once the system holds pressure properly
5. Convert beds from spray to drip
6. Only then consider regrouping zones or converting turf

What restrictions actually cost a property

Restrictions are usually treated as a compliance problem. On a commercial property they are also a planting problem, and the second one is more expensive.

Cutting water evenly across a site kills the thirstiest planting first, which is usually the turf and the newest beds. The result is a property that looks under water rather than one that looks efficient, and replanting costs far more than the water saved.

The properties that come through restrictions well are the ones that decided in advance what to protect. Entry planting and anything recently installed get held. Back of house turf takes the cut. That is a decision worth making on paper before it gets made by default in August.