You can adjust the thermostat in your home from your cell phone so that it’s cooler when you arrive after work, your doorbell seconds as a security camera to protect you and your loved ones, and your fridge can tell you whether you need eggs or milk before you head out to the grocery story or order online. Our world is increasingly interconnected through Wi-Fi enabled devices, and automation also extends to the outdoors.
Basic irrigation controllers are programmed to run sprinklers at a certain time of the day, and for a certain period of time, regardless if it’s a cloudy day, the soil is particularly dry or wet from a recent rainfall, and any other environmental variants. In other words, they are not particularly “smart.”
But there are now “smart” irrigation controllers that can do much more than that, saving you time and money along the way, helping you reduce your water use and notifying you should a problem arise. Here are five reasons why they make sense.
Conserve water and save money
Everyone welcomes a way to keep more money in their pocket and if they can do so by helping the environment at the same time, reducing the amount of water for their lawn, they’re sure to take it.
Smart irrigation controllers like the Hydrawise controller that is Wi-Fi enabled does the trick. It adjusts watering based on highly accurate, Internet-sourced local weather data for more efficient watering. It looks at the weather forecast for your local area, past history and other factors to ensure your lawn is getting just the right amount of water it needs. So there are no worries about overwatering or watering too little.
No one wants a brown or yellowish yard with grass so brittle, the blades break at the slightest wind. But you don’t also want a soggy, mosquito-ridden lawn that could literally drown your grass either. Either scenarios damage your green areas and can create problems.
The end result is a modern, technologically-advanced automatic watering system that will help you save even more money and save you the hassle of trying to guess how much water is the right amount to keep your lawn green and vibrant all year long, especially in the midst of the heat of summer.
About 60% of water use goes to the outdoors, so reducing watering when it’s not needed, can go a long way. You’re not just keeping more bills in your wallet, you’re helping the planet.
Programmable schedule
And most importantly, it’s a system you can control from your phone, so it doesn’t matter if you’re on vacation away from home, or on a business trip across the state; a cell phone app will help you know that your grass is getting the water it needs. You can operate your system from anywhere in the world as long as you have an internet connection.
You can also set your watering schedule right from your smart phone with the guidance of a smart app, which adjusts the settings to increase or decrease the watering time.
This is even more important during the hot days of summer, when the weather can alternate from scorching, dry heat one day to heavy, sudden downpours the next.
Custom-irrigation
Hydrawise controllers also feature a Virtual Weather Station that uses algorithms, satellite data, physical weather stations nearby and other sources of information to design a custom-made irrigation schedule tailored to your lawn.
The system can also adjust watering to specific areas of your yard that may need it most, such as a region covered by shade or one exposed to more sunlight.
A smart irrigation system takes the guessing out of taking care of your lawn. No more fretting whether you’re watering too frequently, too little, too much or too late.
Self-diagnosis
The automation advantages also extend to professional irrigation installers.
Quench Irrigation experts can design your irrigation system from beginning to end to make sure your entire lawn is watered properly, or review the one you have to update it and make it more efficient.
If you pair it with a Wi-Fi controller that will put the automation in the palm of your hand, it can also connect to your installers, providing them with constant information about the system to detect problems or issues before they get bigger. It can even provide useful information the technician will need to get the system up and running if a failure occurs. If you’ve got a jammed or broken valve, faulty control line, or any other issue, the system can sense it and tell you about it straight away! You’ll receive notifications when your system detects everything from a faulty signal line to a broken sprinkler head that’s wasting water! In that way it helps reduce maintenance and costly repairs.
Gardening contractors can also manage your lawn remotely, being able to make changes daily if needed.
Integration
Smart irrigation systems can also be integrated with a number of smart home systems for much more efficiency and ease of use. A simple voice command may be all that is needed to start or stop irrigating your lawn.
And if internet security is something you fret about, don’t. For instance, Hydrawise keeps users’ data secure by not storing any private user data in its system. The product is also completely separate from the rest of the customer’s smart home network.