This poster paper presents a residential irrigation "Contractor Visit Program" was initiated in 2003 in response to customer need for help with
irrigation timers and other aspects of in-ground automatic irrigation systems. The majority of water customers in Volusia
County, particularly homes built after the 1980s (which are half of the approximately 200,000 homes) have automatic
irrigation systems. Customers concerned over high water bills, lack of good coverage in their lawns, or other problems
with their irrigation system request the irrigation audits. The Water Authority of Volusia, a voluntary consortium of
14 member governments, 10 of which own medium or small utilities, has a limited water conservation budget and the
need to develop inexpensive customer assistance programs.
The program provides one-hour corrective and educational visits. It targets high water users but is available to any
requesting utility customer. Over 284 visits have been completed as of July 2006, at a cost of under $15,000 to Water
Authority of Volusia, including administration of the program. Common areas of several subdivisions and irrigation
system of member governments have also been audited and system improvements made.
The goal of this program is to respond to an identified customer need for help with timer settings and to provide an
inexpensive version of the nationally recognized practice of providing irrigation audits. The long-range goal of the
Contractor Visit Program is to achieve water use reduction and to document cost-effectiveness of this program. Demand
reduction as a result of the program and cost-effectiveness have not yet been evaluated. However, as a customer service
program that presumably affects some demand reduction the Contractor Visit Program has been a success.
| Edition : | Vol. - No. |
| Number of Pages : | 4 |
| Published : | 06/01/2007 |
