Water conservation
Florida Water StarSM home
Technical manual introduction
Silver
This program for new and existing single-family residential construction provides water-efficient options for houses and landscapes.
Gold
This program is much like the Silver tier, but the water-efficient options for houses and landscapes conserve even more water.
Commercial/
Institutional
This program applies
to offices, retail and service establishments and institutional and non-industrial commercial buildings.
Florida Water StarSM Technical Manual
Irrigation system criteria
Irrigation systems function to supplement rainfall to meet plant watering requirements. System designs and installations can be basic or complicated, depending on plant needs, site conditions and aesthetic requirements.
Florida Water StarSM landscapes are designed for sustainability, meaning they survive with minimal irrigation. This does not mean that a less superior irrigation system should be installed, but that the irrigation system is more efficient, waters only those areas that need it, and is operated to apply water based on the plant’s needs. A Florida Water StarSM residential project may not irrigate more than one-half acre of landscaped area.
Ongoing operation and maintenance are essential to preserving irrigation system efficiency. Designers, installers and operators should plan to perform periodic analysis of the irrigation system, checking to optimize its efficiency. Routine maintenance of the system hardware, including replacement of broken sprinklers/emitters, leveling and raising of sprinkler heads, microirrigation monitoring and other periodically executed practices, is essential to maintaining the system’s efficiency. Appendix F of the Florida Plumbing Code provides additional information on irrigation system design and installation.
Florida Water StarSM characterizes irrigation system efficiency by the following categories of good practice:
