Whether it be freezing winter conditions or torrential spring downpours or blistering hot summer days, your plants and landscape need irrigation that is fine-tuned specifically to current weather and soil conditions. It’s called smart irrigation. Whereas traditional irrigation controllers run on a preset programmed schedule, set to water daily, weekly — regardless of whether it’s rainy or sunny — smart irrigation controllers will monitor weather conditions each day of the current season, as well as soil conditions, and also evaporation and plant water use at that time — and automatically adjust the watering schedule to run based on actual, current conditions.
Benefits of Smart Irrigation Systems During Rainy Season
Traditional irrigation is generally pre-programmed to run a pre-set amount of time daily. Even when sunny days turn rainy in the Spring, wasting both money and water. But smart irrigation is automated by cloud-based weather conditions of the day, which saves money and overwatering of plants on days rain is falling.
Featuring accurate, cloud-based, high-resolution daily weather updates to automatically manage irrigation schedules, the WeatherTRAK® LC+ irrigation controller avoids water waste on rainy days, and provides unsurpassed operational efficiency.
Placed below ground in the root zones of the landscape, rain sensors and soil moisture sensors bypass scheduled irrigation programs completely due to either significant rainfall or sufficient soil moisture – and turn off the controller, utilizing current, regional weather data to make adjustments for the scheduled irrigation program.
Benefits of Smart Irrigation Systems in Winter
Obviously, irrigating in freezing conditions not only wastes water but will damage your landscape. Rain/freeze sensors prevent irrigation systems from running, and stop irrigation when temperatures approach freezing to prevent damage to the plants. But even in freezing weather, plants and landscape still need moisture beneath the frozen ground to thrive.
Sensor-based smart irrigation controllers will monitor soil moisture content below frozen ground. When buried in the root zone of turf, trees or shrubs, the sensors accurately determine the moisture level in the soil and transmit this reading to the controller.
Benefits of Smart Irrigation Systems in Summer
When the summer sun is blazing, it’s easy to overwater, for fear of plants and landscape drying up and baking to a crisp. Automatic sprinkler systems can use about 50 percent more water than those without them. But using real-time, local weather data, cloud-based, automated smart irrigation will determine when and how much to water in the summertime to keep plants and landscape green and hydrated, improving plant health, while at the same time reducing water waste.
In the United States, 50% of outdoor water use is wasted due to overwatering caused by inefficiencies in traditional irrigation methods and systems. Clearly, smart irrigation technology is the answer. In fact, several controlled research studies indicate smart irrigation results in substantial water savings from 30 to 50 percent.
Created specifically to meet the needs of the commercial market, WeatherTRAK® LC+ irrigation controller delivers the power of cloud-based, automated technology, improving efficiency by determining watering requirements based on local conditions, computed from a network of more than 48,000 weather stations across the U.S.
Learn more about the smart features of WeatherTRAK LC irrigation controller here: https://www.hydropoint.com/products-and-services/weathertrak-lc/