Smart Water Tips
Water Smart
The Irrigation Association has named July Smart Irrigation Month. Most homeowners over-water their yard, unwittingly
wasting money every time they take out the hose or turn on the sprinklers. Adopting water-savvy habits and utilizing
Smart Water Technology not only helps reduce this waste, it saves money while promoting a healthier lawn and landscape.
The Irrigation Association recommends home owners and businesses:
Schedule It Right
Modern irrigation controllers allow the user to easily adjust their watering schedules to suit all sorts of landscape watering needs.
- Schedule each individual zone in your irrigation system to account for sun, shade and wind exposure.
- Consider the soil type in each zone, as it affects how quickly water can be applied and infiltrate without runoff.
- Adjust your watering schedules at least seasonally to account for changing water needs. Monthly or
weekly adjustments will save substantially more water and improve plant health.
Water It Right
Providing the right amount of water at the right time will increase the health of your landscape and promote a deeper healthier root system.
- Saturate the root zones. Roots are generally within the top six inches of soil. Then let the soil dry.
Watering too frequently results in shallow roots, weed growth, disease and fungus.
- Don’t water too long. Water each zone several times for short periods rather than in one long session. For example,
rather then watering for 15 minutes, water three times for 5 minutes, allowing time for the water to soak into the
ground before watering again. This reduces run-off.
- Take careful aim. Be sure your sprinklers are not watering driveways, sidewalks, patios, or buildings. It's all water down the drain.
Consider installing "smart" technology that automatically adjusts your system to apply water based on factors such
as evaporation, precipitation, and plant water use to maintain an optimal soil moisture balance.
By replacing only the water that is needed, smart systems, like the ET Manger, offer substantial savings - and convenience.
"Smart" technology includes the new Rain Bird ET Manager and the Weather Reach WR-7. These "smart"
controllers monitor current weather conditions to provide precisely the right amount of water for a landscape.
These Weather Reach Receivers technology are based on the Irrigation Association endorsed, ASCE*-standardized
ET equation, and includes data from all required climatic variables (solar radiation, temperature, wind,
and humidity). An optional rain gauge can be used to measure rainfall on site.
Learn more about Rain Bird ET Manager
Learn more about the Weather Reach Water Management System
*American Society of Civil Engineers
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