How Much Does It Cost to Run a Sprinkler?

Most home sprinklers cost about $2 to $5 per hour to run, assuming water priced at a mid-range $8 per 1,000 gallons. The reason is simple: your utility bills you for gallons, and most sprinklers push through 4 to 10 gallons every minute. A small hose sprinkler left on for 30 minutes costs about a dollar, while a six-zone in-ground system running its full cycle can cost $10 or more each time. Here's how to work out your own number, what shifts it, and where the money usually leaks away.

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Sprinkler cost per hour at a glance

Cost per hour depends on two things only: how many gallons per minute (gpm) the sprinkler delivers and what your utility charges per gallon. This table shows the hourly cost across a realistic range of both:

The $5, $8 and $12 prices are round illustration points, not quotes from any utility. Water and sewer rates vary widely by city, so swap in the figure from your own bill.

How much water different sprinklers use

The gpm number is the hard part, because it depends on the sprinkler type, the nozzle size and your water pressure. These are typical ranges for common setups, converted to hourly cost at $8 per 1,000 gallons:

These are ballpark figures for planning, not specifications. A zone's real flow is the sum of every head on it, so a zone with more heads or larger nozzles sits at the top of its range, and low pressure pulls it toward the bottom. Your measured number always beats a typical one.

How to calculate your own sprinkler cost

The math is two steps: turn run time into gallons, then turn gallons into dollars.

To find gpm without a spec sheet, use your water meter. Turn off everything else that uses water, note the meter reading, run the zone for exactly 10 minutes, and read it again. The difference in gallons, divided by 10, is your gpm. If your meter reads in cubic feet, multiply by 7.48 to get gallons.

Your bill may also include a fixed service charge and tiered pricing, where each higher block of usage costs more per gallon. Those extra gallons from heavy summer watering are often billed at the top tier, so the marginal cost of a sprinkler can be well above your average rate. Our sprinkler water cost calculator lets you plug in your own flow, run time and rate.

What it costs to water a lawn

Run-time math is useful for a single session, but lawns are usually watered by depth. One inch of water over one square foot is a little over 0.62 gallons (1 square foot × 1 inch is 144 cubic inches, and a US gallon is 231 cubic inches), so the volume scales directly with lawn area:

If that 5,000 square foot lawn gets 1 inch a week for four weeks, the total is roughly 12,500 gallons and about $100 at $8 per 1,000 gallons. Real systems waste some of what they spray, so the water you buy runs higher than the water the grass receives. The EPA estimates that as much as half of water used for irrigation is wasted through evaporation, wind and runoff from inefficient methods and systems, which is why a tuned system can cost far less than a sloppy one covering the same lawn.

Real-world cost examples

Here are four common situations, each at $8 per 1,000 gallons:

What changes the cost

Your rate structure. Tiered pricing, seasonal rates and fixed charges all change the true cost per gallon. If your utility prices summer use at a higher tier, your sprinkler's marginal rate can be double your winter rate.

Sewer charges. Irrigation water doesn't enter the sewer, and many utilities bill sewer on winter or indoor use for that reason. If yours charges sewer on every gallon, your effective rate is higher. A dedicated irrigation meter, where offered, usually skips sewer fees.

Water pressure. Excess pressure atomizes spray into mist that drifts and evaporates, and it pushes more gallons through each nozzle. The EPA notes that irrigation systems operating above recommended pressure waste water, and its WaterSense program labels sprinkler bodies that regulate pressure for that reason.

Climate and season. Outdoor use averages about 30 percent of household water nationwide, according to the EPA, but in dry climates like the Southwest it can reach 60 percent. The hotter and drier your summer, the more run time your lawn needs.

Leaks and broken heads. A cracked head or a weeping valve can run unnoticed for weeks. Because the water goes onto the ground, it never shows up as a drip you can hear, only as a higher bill.

Pumping energy. On municipal water, the electricity for valves and a controller is negligible. If you irrigate from a well or a booster pump, your cost is electricity rather than a water rate. As a rough estimate, a 1-horsepower pump draws about a kilowatt, so at 15 to 20 cents per kilowatt-hour it costs around 15 to 20 cents an hour to run, far less than buying the same water from a utility.

How to lower the bill

• Water less often, but deeper. The EPA points out that it's usually not necessary to water grass every day. Deep, infrequent watering builds deeper roots and cuts evaporation losses.
• Fix leaks and misaimed heads first. They are the cheapest savings, because you stop paying for water that lands on pavement.
• Check your pressure. If heads are misting, add pressure regulation before changing anything else.
• Use a smart or weather-based controller. It skips cycles after rain and adjusts run time to the season, so you stop watering on a fixed schedule regardless of conditions.
• Water early in the morning. Cooler air and calmer wind mean more water reaches the soil.
• Use drip for beds and shrubs. Delivering water at the roots uses far fewer gallons per hour than overhead spray.

The bottom line

A sprinkler's cost is flow rate times run time times your water price. For most households that works out to roughly $2 to $5 per hour of sprinkling, or about $100 a month to give a 5,000 square foot lawn an inch of water each week. Your own figure could sit well above or below that depending on your rates, sewer billing, pressure and how much water is lost on the way. Measure your gpm once with the water meter and you'll be able to price any watering schedule in seconds.