Is an automatic irrigation system worth it?
For a 400 m² lawn, roughly how many years until it pays for itself? Let's do the sums.
The investment
A system designed for a 400 m² lawn, installed, typically runs 250,000 to 350,000 HUF. That covers design, pipework, sprinkler heads, the controller and the pressure test.
What it saves
Water. Hand watering is wasteful: we water in the afternoon when evaporation peaks, and we water places that don’t need it. A well-configured system runs at dawn, with different amounts per zone. In our experience that’s a 30 to 40 percent saving.
Time. Two hours of watering a week through the season is around 50 hours a summer.
The lawn. Irregular watering is the most common cause of a patchy, weedy lawn. The material cost of reseeding alone runs into tens of thousands of forints.
The answer
On the water bill alone, payback is 8 to 12 years, which is not compelling. The real argument is the time saved and that the lawn genuinely stays good. If you’re away for weeks at a time in summer, irrigation is effectively compulsory.