House Hunt: Open Houses in Healdsburg and Yard-Watering $$ Tips

OPEN HOUSES SUNDAY  1 – 4 p.m.

$485,000. 300 Rolling Hill Court, Cloverdale, 2Bdrm, 2Bth C21 NorthBay Alliance

$875,000. 1655 Scenic Lane, Healdsburg, 3Bdrm, 2Bth CPS Healdsburg

$599,000. 402 Haydon St. Healdsburg, 3Bdrm, 2Bth, Wine Country Group

$317,000. 214 Cedar Circle, Healdsburg, 2Bdrm, 2Bth Sweet Real Estate

$699,000. 898 Limerick Ln., Healds, 2Bdrm, 2Bth = 1Bdrm, 1 Bth, Coldwell Banker

$975,000. 2650 Westside Road, Healdsburg, 4Bdrm, 3Bth, Wine Country Group

699,000. 12700 Fiori Lane, Sebastopol, 3Bdrm, 2 Bth, Artisan Sothebys

How to Save on Your Water Bill

This is the perfect Fourth of July weekend project that is fun on a hot day. It will also pay you back huge savings all summer long.

This is a condensed version of what Dr. Burt the Godfather of irrigation studies at CalPoly taught for ages to clients worldwide.

If you follow this easy step-by-step check list, you can easily save 20 percent on your water bill and have a better looking yard.

First turn the water sprinkler system on. Your overhead sprinkler system should distribute evenly.

This is referred to as distribution uniformity or DU. The system should produce droplets of water that are rain like over the entire yard.

Most systems are too high a pressure and produce fog which will just blow away. If your system is blowing fog and not droplets lower the volume or install a pressure regulator.

Simply adjusting the volume almost always works.

Next, stand behind every sprinkler head for a few moments and observe it. Is the sprinkler head a plastic type that pops up?

 If it is a flat metal one, then it and all those like it will need to be replaced. That type uses 40 percent more water than the modern type.

If it pops out of the ground about four inches, you have good ones. The water should only be coming out of the nozzle at the top and nowhere else. The sprinkler should be straight and not bent over as any lean to it will reduce distribution uniformity DU.

DU is the name of the game here with the goal of getting the sprinklers so even in DU that the next step is to back off on the watering.

If you do a good job you should be able to reduce your station run times by 20 percent. Back off the run time until the turf appears a bit stressed then bump it up 5 percent --the turf does not need to be a vivid green.

You may have the type of sprinkler that rotates. The principles are the exact same.

They need to be straight and producing droplets of rain. Remember to check to see if it is a fog or droplets coming out to achieve optimum results.

The one thing that is overlooked with these types of sprinklers is they come with a wide variety of nozzles. This allows you to tune in your exact amount of water need for each area. 

The last thing to check is that all of these rotor sprinklers are turning at the same speed. If some are fast and some are slow, that will take away from the DU.

Now let’s turn on the drip system and see what we can improve here. There may be a cap on the far end of the system to flush the line with.

Open that before you fire up the system and give it a good flushing.  If there is a filter on this system clean it now. You should do all of them that you can. Some sprinkler heads have a screen in them below the nozzle that can be cleaned also.

Next with the drip system all back together go to each drip emitter on the system and check to make sure water is dripping. If not just pull it apart and knock the debris out.

Have a great holiday from www.HealdsburgRealEstate.com