Smart Irrigation Controllers

9 years ago

I wanted to start a discussion around smart irrigation controllers that allow home owners to automate irrigation. Which systems have you heard of or have you thought about switching to? Are there any specific reasons/benefits for replacing a current controller for a smart irrigation controller? Excited to hear about your thoughts on this new technology entering the home and garden market.

Best,
Zack

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Hydrawise

8 years ago

Check out the Hydrawise, it is EPA WaterSense approved, so customers in the US may get a rebate. It is a full smart controller, with predict weather. You do not need a subscription plan to use the system and get all the features that the others offer. There is a subscription plan as well that offers features above what others offer, such as flow and electrical sensing alerts sent to your phone or email and up to 5 weather stations.

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Comments (9)

Benjammann
9 years ago
Im on the waiting list for one of dees...

http://www.skydrop.com/

Here is a link that might be useful: Skydrop
Don
9 years ago
I consider a "smart" controller a device that irrigates by zip codes, and allows remote control by smartphone and web browser. Other people might consider "smart" to be better measurement and use of rainfall and temp measured by the controller.

I plan to buy OpenSprinkler, because of how it connects to my home automation system, and it's active user group (look at the forum). The variety of web based system under $300 is surprising. It's hard to keep track of all the players.

Personally, I don't see the need for a complicated interface on the controller itself anymore. I want it on my phone and laptop.

People with a large water bill would undoubtedly benefit from changing out their old controller to one of the new predictive units that use local meteorological info. The questions is "which one". All the companies have access to the same data, so who has built the best model to run your system?

Anyone considering these system should look at how far the nearest Weather Underground station is from their house. Vendors trying to use the most local data possible is going to use this data.

It's also possible to spend $600-700 on a Davis weather station and connect it to Weather Underground. If you then chose a controller vendor that uses WU, your own local data would be combined with forecast models to run your system.

We live in interesting, and complicated times. As a gardener, I plan on continuing to make my own irrigation decisions. I just want a system that can do it easily from anywhere, and can do complicated programs on hot days.
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Marcia, these ET controllers are great, IMO. This is how they work as I understand it: data about your specific landscape (actual types/quantities of plants & trees, turf areas, soil types, etc) is dialed in, then the constant data supplied from a local ET reporting station (temps, humidity, wind, et loss/gain) is then dialed up to a satellite that then beams down to yours & other ET controllers that are linked. The clock is activated only to replace what water that is actaully lost through evapotranspiration (et) for a set period (hours?), and it does this not on a schedule, but only as directed by the et data, so your system could come on anytime, or not at all. I think many new municipalities are drafting regs that will require these systems for commercial installs, and they are offering rebates (like your city is doing) to induce residential users to switch over. I went to 2 different presentations in the last 6 months concerning these systems. Both were done by a consultant, Tim Ashe (?) of Hydropoint, in Petaluma, www.hydropoint.com The seminar I just attended last wed. at the Nevada Landscape Assoc. annual wing-ding adressed the benefit$ to landscapers in retrofitting systems with this controller, and all the positive gain$ as a result to owners and contractors alike). There was a detailed portion of his talk addressing a proper water audit and budget, and realised returns on investment for HOA's and individual's. While the initial install price IS a bit hefty, ($500-$700, sometimes w/ a subscription service tacked on) I think the return on investment such as lowered water bills,healthier, more aesthetic landscapes, reduced paving repairs due to H2O run-off damage,less misdirected fert apps, etc. is significant enough data indeed to convince one to switch over. (One documneted example given was property values of some "test houses" on one street in a retrofitted 80's style track development increased 8%-10% w/in 4 mos. over the same type properties on the next street over, after the retrofit). Once everything is "dialed in" the system works very well. But - you still need to be vigilant about the physical aspect of your system, making sure heads are aligned & functioning properly, valves all ok & drip is up to snuff, etc. I have no first hand residential experience, but the Commercial Maint. div. of our company has participated in a program sponsored by TMWA, the local H2O utility here in Reno. 9 commercial properties (shopping centers, industrial parks) were retrofitted, and the results have been really promising...but it is a bit wierd to see the irr coming on at 3pm on a hot July day...
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Although this is an older thread, I think others may find the answers useful, so I'm adding to it. I can think of several reasons why web-based smart controllers are a bad idea. 1. The primary reason for installing a smart irrigation controller is once you set it correctly you can just leave it alone and let it make its decisions to adjust the watering schedule on its own as the season and weather changes. Why burden yourself with constantly checking and adjusting the settings or monitoring how long it watered on your smart phone? If you accept this point of view, then you'll see that web-based controllers are over-hyped. 2. Furthermore, most of these controllers only work when they can communicate with the server on the manufacturer's website. Almost all of these web-based controller makers are tech startups. How long does an average tech startup stay afloat before going belly up? What would happen to your ability to use your wifi based controller if this tech startup went out of business? 3. All of the web-based controllers rely on forecasting weather to modify the water schedule. They generally rely on NOAA forecasts (ask yourself how reliably accurate are your local weatherman?) They also use neighborhood weather stations to adjust the forecast. But local water stations can by a mile or more away from your home. Anything more than a few blocks away from your location can have significantly different rainfall than your location. My opinion is only rain gauges and weather sensors located specifically at your location are accurate for your own location. 4. The web-based controllers use weather forecast to adjust the duration of watering, but none that I have seen does anything to reconcile difference between forecast and actual realized weather. Let's say it forecasts a rainy day and so the controller skips watering for that day, but if the forecast turns out to be wrong and it doesn't rain and instead turns out to be sunny, then your plants will be stressed. Nor for that matter do these web-based controllers take into the account the actual amount of rain fall. They can't tell the difference between a 1/10" vs. 1" of rain. To them rain is rain, they just stop watering if rain is forecast. If your lawn gets an inch of rain it may be able to skip watering for a few week, but not if if only got 1/10". If you accept these observations so far, you'll see that you'll be better off buying a traditional local weather-based smart controller. By local, I mean local to your own home. For all these reasons above I prefer to use an ET-based smart controller that measures weather conditions and evapo-transpiration (ET) at my own location. The cost for such a system is comparable to the average wifi-based controller. One thing the web-based controllers have are snazzy graphics, but other than that they aren't really that smart. The limitation is largely the result of the fact that the folks who built them are mostly just programmers and not people with a lot of knowledge on soil, plants, etc. Only one web-based controller, the Water Sage, I have seen so far incorporates the same level of sophistication to determine evapo-transpiration, but even the Water Sage doesn't have a rain gauge to reconcile difference between forecast and realized weather. I just installed a Rainbird ESP-SMTe controller. It's a smart controller that measures rainfall and temperature and adjusts the watering accordingly. I have been very happy with it. It doesn't come with a remote control, but my theory is once I program it correctly, I will just leave it alone and not mess with it. I want to kick back and relax and let the smart controller take over. Having remote control capability is not an important enticement to me. I can get a remote control kit if I want to for this unit, but it will cost me too much and, I'd only use it to clean clog drip emitters and I can live without the remote for this purpose. To me web-based controllers still have a lot more maturing to do to match the capability of the best traditional (hardwired) ET-based smart controllers. Maybe in the next five years they will catch up, but none at this time does. Their forte is all based on snazzy, eye candy graphics. This post was edited by potbelly_gardener on Sat, Oct 4, 14 at 0:21
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raingod14
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks for the feedback everyone! It's interesting to hear what people are thinking about in terms of intelligent irrigation. I have to agree that, in these times, "smart" means a controller that can allow the user to water from anywhere, anytime. While also incorporating an intuitive and easy to use software with this hardware to allow users to water more efficiently and when it's best for their lawn and themselves. Thus solving the headache caused by old controllers.

Personally I am on the waitlist for Lono another well priced controller ($199), and many of the zone configurations and capabilities are (in my opinion) better then some of the other players out there (20 zones, daisychaining, ect.).

I think it is also important to use a local weather station that is trustworthy (or as close as it gets with meteorological data/predictions). Along with a service like forcast.io that will be used with many of these controllers for weather and forecast data. To get even smarter about your local weather there is also a home monitor and tracking device for weather like Bloomsky (currently being funded on Kickstarter). This can be synced to interface with these smart irrigation controllers to make build a better watering schedule that is location (zipcode) based.

Please keep the conversation going, I am very interested in hearing from people and their opinions on smart irrigation!

Here is a link that might be useful: Lono
christi74
9 years ago
I am waiting for Eve. i think it fits everything that a smart irrigation controller should - weather, moisture sensors, phone connection. And the fact that it schedules itself is a real plus!

http://www.eveirrigation.com

Here is a link that might be useful: Eve
yellojellole
9 years ago
Just wanted to check-in to see what people have been using since there are quite a few that have come to market. Rachio Iro and Skydrop seem to be popular. I'm still looking for reviews but not many yet.
Michael S
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
I have been running Open Sprinkler 2.0 for about 2 years now. I soldered it together myself. My only complaint is that WiFi is not built in so I had to get a separate TP-Link external adapter to tie the OpenSprinkler into my WiFi network. I have a sound background in networking and the TP-Link was still a bit of a pain to setup. I just swapped to a newer WiFi router. I had to disconnect the TP-link, plug it into the ethernet port on my computer, reprogram it, then reinstall it. Not excruciating but a bit of a pain.

I love being able to turn on and off zones with my cell phone while I am working on replacing my sprinkler heads. The old OpenSprinkler firmware allowed me to turn on and off a zone with a single click. The new firmware requires me to setup a run one program with the 1 station I am working on then run that program. A few extra steps which is a pain but infinitely better than going all the way back into the garage where the controller is to turn on and off zones for testing!

I have not researched any smart capabilities to adjust watering times by reading the weather. I do know my OpenSprinkler web interface does display my local weather. I haven't looked into using that information to adjust the program lengths.
Zhenya
8 years ago
I use IrrigationCaddy. Overall it works well and fully controlled by your computer and smart phone.
D Ahn
8 years ago
I was really intrigued by Eve, but it seems improbable that moisture levels would be even throughout a zone; IMO you would need a larger network of sensors for truly accurate sampling which would be impractical from a cost standpoint.

Smart Irrigation Controllers

Hydrawise

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