Take Guesswork Out of Watering

written by Sumi Das on Monday, May 12, 2003

Smart sprinkler system relies on weather reports to water garden.

It's pouring rain and your neighbor's sprinklers are dousing the yard like water is going out of style. It's enough to make anyone livid.

According to Andrea Pook of the East Bay Municipal Utility District, whose jurisdiction includes Oakland, California, half the water used in California flows into gardens.

But the days of wasting water could be waning. The Weather Reach Receiver from Irrisoft turns the task of watering into a science by regulating your garden's evapotranspiration (ET) rate. The Receiver takes the guesswork out of at least one aspect of landscape maintenance, and tonight on "Tech Live" we'll show you how it works.

"Evapotranspiration is expressed in inches and it's basically how much water plants really need," Pook says.

Evapotranspiration, the amount of water that evaporates and transpires from plants, varies between plant species and climates. If you know your plants' ET rates, you can give them the exact amount of water they need.

Simple technology

The technology behind the Weather Reach Receiver is surprisingly simple. Every hour the Receiver is paged (over a standard Motorola Flex paging network) with a detailed weather report from Campbell Scientific weather stations. The reports include temperature, humidity, rainfall, wind, and even solar energy.

To account for the effect of microclimates, the company sometimes installs multiple weather stations in cities. Detroit, for example, has four stations. To ensure they get the most accurate reports, Receiver users can also buy an on-site rain gauge that measures local rainfall and factors the extra precipitation into the watering schedule. Once the Receiver has the weather report, it controls the irrigation system to perfectly water your precious pansies.

"You can really trust that the system is giving your landscape the amount of water that it needs," Pook says. "So you don't take the risk of watering in the rain or in the winter, or giving it any excess. You're giving it just what it needs."

Price right for serious users

The Murray, Utah, City Hall splurged on one of these smart sprinkler systems.

"We are one of the biggest users of water with our parks and golf courses," city employee Doug Hill says. "The goal [of purchasing the sprinkler system] is to not only to set an example, but save money as well."

The city hopes Murray residents will follow its lead.

Shane Miller, with Aspen Hills Landscape in Utah, takes a green angle on the technology.

"We're depleting what we have as a desert state to irrigate, so we need to conserve as much as we can," Miller says.