Smart Sprinkler Controllers
Posted by Norman Fong
Our water bill has been steadily climbing to new record levels. Water rates seem to just keep going up as a new increase was just announced in our area. It was time to look for ways to save water and money. Spring and fall are good times to look into this. There will still be rainy days ahead where we would not want to waste water.
EPA’s WaterSense web site has indicated that as much as 70% of a home’s total water use during the dry season may go towards landscape irrigation. 50% of that water may be wasted due to evaporation. EPA WaterSense Draft specifications for weather- or sensor-based irrigation control technologies are currently under development.
Drip irrigation is more efficient than spray irrigation. Little water drippers connected to a flexible tubing system can direct water to where it is needed. Utilize drip irrigation, flag drippers, spot watering, and micro spray watering heads for particular areas to maximize water savings.
Hand watering is also very efficient but painful.
Some water districts like the San Francisco Bay Area’s East Bay MUD even have rebates for using Self-Adjusting Irrigation Controllers.
Amazon has the Weathermatic line that has won awards from Consumers Digest. They have models that use on site weather stations to taylor irrigation to your microclimante.
Some controllers require a subscription to get weather information. We would recommend avoiding these models.
Rain shutoff devices are also available. These connect to your your ignition system to automatically stop watering if it is raining.
Filed under: Conservation, Effort, Environment, Green, Home, Medium, Water | Tags: Irrigation, Sprinkler, Sprinkler Controller
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7 Responses to “Smart Sprinkler Controllers”
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May 17th, 2009 at 3:17 am
The SL timers started took off last year with irrigation contractors, especially those located in Texas. Since then they have started to report flaws in SL system. There are multiple products out similar to that of the SL controller line and I would advise everything to research all of their options before making a decision. ET based timers are a crucial step in increasing the efficiency of your irrigation system, but PLEASE don’t ignore the more important part of the efficiency % of the system itself. What’s the point of having the fancy timer if your system is not efficient to start with? Once your system is at an acceptable level of efficiency and you combine that with a suitable ET based controller you are well on your way to doing your part of helping to conserve a natural resource. And I guess if it is just about the $$ then you are on your way to reducing your water bills. I am located in the mid-west but I follow irrigation restrictions and laws for everywhere. In some areas if your system meets certain efficiency requirements along with an ET based controller you may be exempt from watering restrictions.
June 15th, 2009 at 4:04 pm
What is the basis for your statement to avoid subscription-based SMART irrigation controllers?
June 15th, 2009 at 4:59 pm
Cost. Paying a monthly fee adds up. There are SMART ones without a monthly fee.
Is this accurate?
January 13th, 2010 at 12:03 am
[...] Save water in your bathroom and kitchen. Check your sprinkler system for leaks. Buy an advanced sprinkler controller that uses weather or soil information to adjust watering times. Switch to native drought tolerant [...]
January 14th, 2010 at 5:02 pm
Sorry for the late response to the question of monthly fees. Most of the controllers on the market that dont have a monthly fee also do not have much functionality. The ones with a monthly fee have much better features, much better customer support, and much better watering algorithms that the company has invested considerable time in developing. Also with the monthly fee you are an ongoing customer of the company and can sometimes benefit from improvements to their software. From my experience, the ones without monthly fees save water by reducing run times rather than watering frequency, leading to shallow rooted plants. Better off with a conventional timer and cutting out one day per week.
February 2nd, 2011 at 9:48 am
[...] Tune your sprinkler system or install a Smart controller [...]
November 14th, 2011 at 4:59 pm
[...] set optimally, and water does not leak. Utilize drip irrigation, flag drippers, spot watering, smart controller, high tech sprinklers, rain shut off and micro spray watering heads for particular [...]