artificial grass in california

To calculate how much water you use for your lawn, you need to know two things: the size of your lawn and the amount of water your sprinkler system delivers. You can measure the size of your lawn by multiplying its length and width in feet. For example, if your lawn is 20 feet by 30 feet, then its size is 600 square feet.

To measure the amount of water your sprinkler system delivers, you can use a simple method called the catch-can test. Or, you can follow the steps below:

1. Identify your meter: Locate your water meter and note down the current reading.
2. Track your watering: For a specific period (e.g., a week), record the duration and frequency of your watering sessions.
3. Calculate usage: Multiply the watering duration by the flow rate of your sprinkler (usually found on the manufacturer’s website or manual). Multiply this product by the number of watering sessions in your tracked period.
4. Convert to square footage: Divide the total water usage by the area of your lawn (in square feet) to get your water usage per square foot.

Alternatively, you can use the Catch-Can method. You will need a few empty cans or containers of the same size, such as tuna cans or coffee mugs to start. Place them around your lawn at equal distances from each other and the sprinkler heads. Then, turn on your sprinkler system for 15 minutes and measure how much water is collected in each can. Get the average water depth in inches. Multiply that by 0.623 to get the amount of water in gallons per square foot. For example, if you collect an average of 0.5 inches of water in each can, then you are using 0.5 x 0.623 = 0.312 gallons of water per square foot.

To get the total amount of water you use for your lawn per year, multiply the amount of water per square foot by the size of your lawn by the number of times you water your lawn per week and by 52 weeks. For example, if you use 0.312 gallons of water per square foot, have a 600 square-foot lawn, and water it twice a week, then you are using 0.312 x 600 x 2 x 52 = 19,468 gallons of water per year.