Lorne Haveruk - DH Water Management

Transcription

by
Lorne Haveruk
CID, CIC, CLIA, WCP
Irrigation Expert
DH Water Management Services Inc.
www.DHWaterMgmt.com
Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................ 3
Irrigation Systems – An Overview ................................................. 4
Automatic Irrigation Systems........................................................ 6
Automatic Irrigation Controllers .................................................... 9
Which Sprinkler is Right?.............................................................11
Power Side of Automatic Irrigation ...............................................15
Difference by Design...................................................................17
Scheduling an Irrigation System...................................................19
Making Sense of Sensors.............................................................22
Professional Spring Start-up ........................................................24
Know When to Stop Watering ......................................................27
Guidelines For Using Outdoor Water More Efficiently .......................29
Water The Right Amount .............................................................31
Best Management Practices, Who needs them? ..............................34
Your Valued Customers ...............................................................36
Costing Out an Irrigation System .................................................37
Be Last to be First ......................................................................44
Season End Tasks Discussion .......................................................46
Fall Shut-down Steps ..................................................................47
ET-Watering With the Weather, Not by Time!.................................49
Water - Alternative Choices for Irrigation ......................................53
Reclaimed Water for Irrigation .....................................................60
A New Era for Irrigation Controllers ..............................................62
New Era of Soil Moisture Based Irrigation Control ...........................65
New Breed of Irrigation Controllers ...............................................67
About the Author........................................................................70
© 2006 Lorne Haveruk
All rights reserved in all media
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Introduction
Lorne Haveruk has been talking about the need to protect and utilize water efficiently
for more than 16 years. This compilation of articles has come from being on the
leading edge of the irrigation industry known as water management, sometimes
known as the bleeding edge to Lorne, for being a little too far out there.
Since 1999, Lorne has been writing a variety of timely articles for national and
international publications dealing with irrigation topics that have helped to advance
the field of irrigation efficiency and water management.
This e-book, “IRRISENSE”, begins with straight forward articles which slowly lead
into more advanced irrigation topics presented in a logical forward thinking
progression. Once completed, readers will have a better understanding of where
irrigation began and where it is going. Topics discussing automatic irrigation
systems, sprinkler selection, power, professional spring start-up steps, knowing
where the water is going, costing out an irrigation systems, central computer control,
assessing and auditing systems and more are all included in this 70 page book.
Whether you are a professional irrigator or someone interested in getting into the
business or even a homeowner that likes to know more than the average guy, this
book is for you.
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Irrigation Systems – An Overview
The start of modern landscape irrigation systems cannot be traced to an exact time
in history. Water has always been revered as a life giving force. From the beginning
of time, civilizations have created monsters to protect water. Proper usage of water
was rewarded. Lack of respect for water conservation was severely punished.
Water is essential to all life. Without water we would not exist, nor would plants.
Attractive landscapes do more than please the eye. They are essential for our health
and general well-being. Many people consider lawns to be large, inefficient users of
water. This could not be further from the truth. Actually, only 2 % to 5% of total
water is used in the landscape. With wise watering practices this amount can be
further reduced.
Irrigation is primarily used to supplement natural rainfall during the period of
establishment, which is approximately a two year growth period. It is also used in
future years to ensure adequate moisture for plant use during hot, dry periods.
This can be done manually with a hose end device or automatically with an irrigation
system. The primary reason for using a manual system is that it is thought to be a
low cost option to an automatic system. This only holds true for initial capital outlay.
Once you factor in the operating costs (i.e.: labour), a manual system will be less
efficient, more cumbersome, and more expensive than the amortized cost of an
automatic system. Manual systems are primarily operated during the daytime hours,
in general due to staff requirements. This is the wrong time to apply water to plants
due to the high rates of evapotranspiration (ET) present while the sun is shining.
Automatic irrigation systems are a larger capital outlay up-front. The benefits far
outweigh the initial cost of the system. Automatic systems can be programmed to
operate during optimum watering times (11pm to 8am) with early morning preferred
over late evening. Plants like to have the water present in the root zone during the
warmer portion of the day. Automatic systems reduce labour substantially. You do
not have to have staff assigned to watering duties as the system takes care of this.
Staff can be utilized in other areas.
Watering during the early morning allows access to your property for daytime
activities. Watering automatically is generally more efficient than manual watering
for many reasons. Automatic watering is a timed process. Once established a
water-efficient schedule applies only the required amount of water at the right time.
Winds are generally less common during the early morning hours, when compared to
daytime hours. Manual watering tends to be less uniform than properly designed
automatic irrigation systems. Hand watering cannot provide the required distribution
uniformity (DU) that an automatic system can provide.
When designing a sprinkler system you must consider the choice of different
sprinkler designs, because each type of sprinkler has its advantages and
disadvantages and the type of sprinkler will determine its proper use.
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Inground systems require professional design, installation, and routine adjustments
plus regular maintenance to be most effective and efficient. The greatest mistake
made with most inground systems is the “set it and forget it” philosophy that fails to
account for the changing seasonal water requirements needed to maximize plant
growth or even allowing the system to operate during, or following, a multi-inch rain
storm. Another frequent problem is when the sprinkler heads get out of alignment
and apply water to the hardscape.
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Automatic Irrigation Systems
Automatic irrigation systems are comprised of many individual components. When
these components are selected to fit the application (residential, commercial, sports
field, golf, nursery, etc.) they will perform as per the manufacturers’ specifications.
If the right component is chosen to be installed in an inappropriate application, the
system will not work as designed.
Knowing what type of system you want to create, which products work best under
what conditions, choosing the component that fits that application, and having the
system installed by a knowledgeable company that is known for quality work, will
help to ensure that the system waters and uses water as efficiently as possible.
Landscape irrigation equipment is comprised of many components that are designed
to meet the special needs of turf and other types of ornamental plants. The main
components that make up an automatic irrigation system are: water source,
backflow prevention, pumps, main and distribution piping systems, manual and
electric valves, irrigation wire, controller, sensors, sprinklers, soaker hose, drip
emitters, and fittings.
Four system types are:
1)
2)
3)
4)
Spray
Flood
Rotary
Micro
Complete systems may be created using one or a combination of types of product
listed above. Variations in how quickly the different types deliver water, called
precipitation rate, call for separate control for each category. In other words, a
spray sprinkler delivering from 1 to 2 inches of water per hour (in/hr) is not to be
installed on the same zone as a rotary (gear or impact) sprinkler delivering only .26
to .94 in/hr. The driest area will need to be scheduled properly so that it stays green
(.26 in/hr) while the wettest area will be severely overwatered (2.0 in/hr).
The water supply source is the first consideration for automatic irrigation systems as
the interior passageways through fittings, valves, sprinkler bodies, and sprinkler
nozzles can be very restricting, some the size of the head of a pin. If there are
contaminants in the water source, be it from a well, pond, river, cistern, etc., a good
filtration system is required to help keep components clean and operating at full
capacity. City water supplies are generally clean. The debris that plugs up systems
at the beginning is usually from the installation process. Care must be taken to keep
working components clean during all stages of the installation process.
Backflow prevention devices, required by law in most areas when connecting to a
city water source, are devices that prevent water from flowing backwards into a
potable water supply (drinking water). There are many types manufactured. Check
with your local plumbing Inspector to find out what type they will accept.
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Main waterlines inside a building should be copper, or copper/plastic, sized one size
larger than the supply line, to help keep friction loss at a minimum, insulated to
prevent condensation from damaging the inside of a building, and solidly supported
as they absorb most of the water hammer that may occur. Water hammer occurs
when a wide-open outlet closes quickly which can occur if valves are incorrectly
sized. Outside main waterlines or mainlines are generally constructed of polyethylene
(poly) or Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) pipe. Poly is used for most residential and small
commercial sites where the main water line does not exceed 1 ½ inches in diameter.
PVC pipe is generally used for pipe sizes 2 inch and larger in diameter. PVC has a
very low friction loss factor, which minimizes losses in water pressure. Poly is also
more expensive in the larger sizes.
Lateral lines, or the pipelines that carry the water from the electric valves out to the
water distribution component, soaker, drip, micro, spray, impact, or gear sprinkler,
can be made of poly or PVC. Usually size and preference will dictate which is used.
PVC uses glued fittings while poly uses insert or saddle fittings.
Pumps are used to deliver more water to a system, as long as more water is
available, and to increase the operating pressure of a system. There is a great deal
of information available about pumps and the proper uses and selection for your
application. Irrigation equipment suppliers are your best source for pump selection
info and should be used to select the right pump for the project.
Automatic controllers, controllers that can be set to water at a preset time and day,
(and much more), come in many shapes, sizes and configurations. Older styles are
mechanically driven; newer types are solid state with digital displays. The most
advanced are central computer controlled. Automatic controllers offer independence
form watering chores while ensuring water occurs even when owners are offsite.
The controller is similar to an alarm clock. Once a preset watering time is reached
(hopefully in the early AM hours for proper watering) the controller sends an
electrical signal to the first valve which causes the valve to open up. Once a preset
amount of time is reached the signal is stopped to the first valve and is sent to the
next valve to be opened. This continues until all programmed zones (stations) have
been watered (one at a time due to available water, except on systems that have
large water supply lines.) Controller selection is best left to the irrigation equipment
supplier until you become familiar with all of the different types that are available.
Spray sprinklers are the most versatile and commonly used sprinklers today. They
are designed to water smaller areas while supplying a high rate of precipitation. This
is why the average sprinkler run time is around 10 minutes while the average run
time for a larger gear or impact sprinkler is around 30 minutes. As noted previously
the two types are not to be combined in the same zone (station) due to the varied
precipitation rates. Spray sprinklers are stationary.
Pop-up style sprinklers are pushed up by the water pressure once the electric valve
opens and sends water down the lateral lines. Pop-ups come in varied sizes from 3
inches to 12 inches.
Flood irrigation covers any type of application that waters close to ground level. The
flood bubbler (nozzle) is generally installed on a low PVC riser close to the ground.
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These are commonly used where plant material will grow taller than three feet at
maturity, which will affect the water distribution. Other applications where it is not
desirable to spray water on the foliage use this method of irrigation.
Rotary sprinklers are commonly used to water large turf and plant areas where a
heavier stream of water will not damage the vegetation. They are usually slow
rotating sprinklers with high-velocity streams of water. Area of coverage is from 20
feet to 40 feet with a head spacing distance not greater than 35 feet, usually
selected to ensure an even green look accomplished by applying the water evenly
throughout the zones area of coverage. Precipitation rates range form .26 to .94
in/hr. They should not be combined with other types of sprinklers in the same zone.
Micro refers to very low flow rates when compared to spray and rotary irrigation
equipment. Micro products are rated in gallons per hour rather than gallons per
minute like spray and rotary equipment. Micro covers any method which applies
water at a slow rate. Included are drip, trickle, and micro spray products. Micro is
also commonly called low flow or low volume irrigation. This method is used to
water plants and very small areas of coverage individually. The rate of application
must match the overall absorption rate of the surrounding soil. It is very efficient in
maintaining desired moisture levels in the root zone of the plant material. This type
of sprinkler is especially suited for Xeriscape projects where water conservation is
required.
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Automatic Irrigation Controllers
Similar to an alarm clock, an automatic controller, through mechanical or solid state
components activates the beginning of a watering cycle that has been established
with a preset start time, watering day, and preset station run time. Zones (or
stations as they are commonly called) are operated one after the other, depending
upon how the program was set-up. The controller is connected to zone valves with
external wiring or tubing for a hydraulic system.
Most of today’s modern controllers come with standard features which include a 24
hour clock, day selector, adjustable station run time selector, battery back-up for the
clock, date, and program memory, a semi-automatic feature that allows system to
be started manually and continue to operate automatically, and a manual switch
which allows for true manual operation with a station (zone) being manually turned
on and shut off. This feature is used for maintenance and heavy watering of a zone
while staff is onsite.
More advanced features available today are a master valve connection which allows
for the installation of a “master “control valve installed in the main waterline before
any zone valves. This valve works as a backup to any zone valve that fails to close.
It ensures that the water will turn off at the end of the complete cycle. A master
valve is also useful on older systems which, when subjected to continuous pressure
on the main water line side, continually leak small amounts of water. The
disadvantage is that the system is continually pressurized and allowed to
depressurize subjecting the system components to water hammer (excessive
pressure which weakens components over time) by continually refilling pipelines at
full recharge rate.
A pump control post, which accepts control wires for pump start relays, allows the
irrigation controller to activate the pump at the start of an irrigation cycle. This is not
so important within the city limits, but is very important for rural irrigation systems
or where supplied water pressure is below required design parameters.
A controller with multiple programs (3 to 4) which allows for any selected station
(zone) to be omitted from a watering cycle allows the Technician to establish a
program which allows the system to water sunny, shady, sloped, flat, plants, grass,
low water use plants, high water use plants, etc., separate from others. This is only
possible, if at the Design Phase of the irrigation system considerations were made to
allow the system to be broken up into unique hydrazone sections. This is rarely the
case, but needs to become the norm.
Individual station one-minute increment run time selection is very favorable to water
conservation, reducing unnecessarily long and wasteful water application runtimes.
Water Wise use is becoming the number one priority of water suppliers and slowly
but surely, the end user. Irrigation systems that are designed, installed, scheduled,
monitored, and maintained by qualified individuals demonstrate a high efficiency
level of water applied compared to water required. Irrigation systems in the right
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hands are very efficient users of water; in the wrong hands they waste thousands of
gallons every season.
Lightning and power surges can cause problems to irrigation controllers and almost
any electrical instrument exposed to the elements. The better controllers, especially
the ones designed for outside use, install suppression devices to handle the surges.
Remote control devices have become available to operate irrigation controllers from
the exterior of a building without going inside. Various manufacturers produce and
supply these with their own controllers or as add-ons to existing controllers.
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Which Sprinkler is Right?
Do I use a micro or a dripper? Should I use a soaker or a drip tube? How about a
bubbler or a flooder? I think this area needs a mister, a spritzer, or a spray. Should
the other location use an impactor, a gear, or a large rotor to water everything all at
one time? Should it?
Each piece of irrigation equipment has been designed to perform a certain task. If
you know what task the device has been designed for, then you can choose the right
equipment for the right application. It is important to remember that in order to
have the system perform well, you must have designed your system for the right
application. These are the two key words which influence the operational efficiency
of an irrigation system immensely.
We need to stop for a minute to reflect on the question, “Why irrigate”? Most
applications require us to irrigate due to lack of precipitation in the form of rain.
Have you ever stood in a rainstorm where you were wet on the top of your head,
shoulders, back, and down your legs, but the rest of your body was dry, at least for
a little while until the dry clothes absorbed the water?
If you were a plant and the other areas were left dry they would not grow as well as
the areas that received the rain. The performance application efficiency of this
rainstorm trying to get all of you wet but missing 40% of your body would be rated
as an average to good irrigation system. This is very common with many of today’s
older and just installed irrigation systems. Why?
If we do not know the equipment that we have available to create our systems, we
can not hope to be able to create the ultimate watering machine. Our goal as
irrigators is to “THINK LIKE RAIN”.
Soaker hose and drip tape serve the same purpose in different ways. A soaker hose
pipe connected to a distribution pipe (which does not emit water) needs to be
connected to a pressure compensating device and a filter. Without these two items
the pipe can rupture and become plugged over time. A soaker hose leaks water
along its full length if installed correctly. This product works well for hedges and
mass planting areas in narrow beds or road medians.
A drip tape delivers water through a network of tubes using built in emitters spaced
at 12”, 18”, or 24”. The drip tape is very useful when you know your soil type so
you know how the water will percolate within the root zone soil structure and the
spacing of the plant material. Drip tape has been proven to increase crop
consistency and yields while reducing water consumption for growers around the
world. Knowing your soil structure and plant spacings will enable you to determine
which spacing will work best for your application to ensure all plant material will
receive adequate water.
Drip systems efficiently deliver precise amounts of water to plant root zones. These
devices and systems are best suited for potted plants and plant beds where the
plants are spaced out rather than massed together.
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Single and multi-outlet emitters are available in a variety of flow rates, spacings, and
patterns to meet varying water requirements of the many different types of plants,
shrubs, and trees.
It is very important to use pressure compensation devices combined with an inline
filter upstream from the first drip components to ensure the longevity of the drip
emitter, zone, or entire system.
With the increase in use of drip components on many residential and commercial
projects, it is imperative to perform routine maintenance on the irrigation system,
regardless of the distribution devices used, to ensure the system continues to
operate as designed. Periodically, depending upon how slow or fast your landscaping
matures, the systems will need to be retrofitted (redesigned) to ensure the system is
operating at optimum performance levels which help to keep operational costs inline.
As the cost of water continues to increase and the demand for clean water increase,
new products continue to be developed which allow professional irrigators to come
up with innovative ways to deliver the results while using less water.
Pictured here is a low volume microspray used to
retrofit existing spray sprinklers and shrub adapters.
These maxijet micro sprays come with pressure
compensation and screens to adjust pressure and
prevent clogging. The low flow rates reduce runoff in
compacted soils and allow deep percolation of water
passing below the plants root zone in sandy soils.
Optimum operational conditions are 20-50 Psi, 1024GPH, with radius of coverage at 4’-6’.
A bubblers primary use is for irrigating trees, shrubs, and flowers in
small confined planters. With a fully adjustable flow from 0-2.3
GPM these devices are used in a zone with spacings from 1 to 3
feet or close to each individual plant. They apply water very
quickly when fully open. They are not to be combined with any
other type of sprinkler due to the varied application rates of
bubblers and spray sprinklers
Spray sprinklers, sometimes called misters which is exactly what we do not want our
sprinklers to do, are the backbone of the irrigation system. Only within the last 20
years have the more modern impact and gear type rotor sprinklers become available
to the commercial and residential market place. Prior to this time, most irrigation
systems were installed by plumbers using copper pipes for all the piping and brass 1”
pop-up spray sprinklers to distribute the water. If these systems have been properly
maintained they are still in operating today as they were designed many years ago.
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Modern spray sprinklers come in varying pop-up heights from 2” to 12” to water
close to the ground in windy conditions or to rise above the plant material to
distribute water evenly over the intended area of coverage. Designed to be used in
almost any application, they have an area of coverage from 3’ to 17’ with an
operational pressure range from 25 to 70 psi.
At the upper end of the pressure scale, misting will occur. Misting in caused by
excessive pressure breaking the water droplets into very small particles, which are
then distributed as a mist rather than a spray. The problem is that mist is very
easily blown off course by a slight wind or even the operating pressure of the
system. This paid for water is then lost to the atmosphere and is of no benefit to the
plant material waiting patiently for their drink of water.
Nozzles determine performance. Performance determines system
efficiency, among other things. System efficiency determines
operational costs. If there is a single component of an irrigation
system that you need to know, it’s nozzles.
MPR, PC, VAN, U, and other acronyms are common place in
today’s highly technical irrigation water conservation business.
Matched Precipitation Rate (MPR) nozzles simplify the design
process by allowing sprinklers with various arcs and radii to be
mixed on the same zone station or circuit. A ¼, ½, and full circle
spray sprinkler will all deliver the same rate or amount of
precipitation over a given area if designed, installed and used
correctly. This allows for an even distribution of water, which
means that wet areas and dry areas are eliminate to give a lawn
area an even green appearance.
Pressure Compensating (PC) nozzles, screens, or sprinklers
balance the varying pressures at the sprinklers throughout the
zone so that each sprinkler is watering using the same pressure.
This allows each sprinkler to perform the same, if all other
considerations in the designing process have been handled
properly.
Variable Arc Nozzles (VAN) are adjustable nozzles used for all
standard and irregular-shaped turf, plant and shrub areas where a spray sprinkler
would be used. They are adjustable form 0 to 360 degrees and cover areas form 4’
to 15’. Operational pressures range from 15 to 30 psi with 30 psi being the optimum
pressure to allow the sprinkler to perform at its highest efficiency level.
U – Double Orifice (U) nozzles are relatively new to the market place and have
been created to provide close-in watering beside the sprinkler while delivering a
more uniform water distribution pattern throughout the area of coverage. Spaced
from 9’-15’ with a pressure range of 15-30 psi and optimum at 30 psi, these nozzles
are easily interchangeable with standard nozzles. They are best used if you are
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having problems with browning close to the sprinkler, or where a more uniform
coverage of the plant material is required.
Gear driven full or part-circle rotor pop-up
sprinklers are the other backbone of the
irrigation industry for turf applications.
They are used primarily for the distribution of
water over areas ranging from 20’-35’ on
residential and commercial properties. They can
also be used to water large shrub and plant beds
where falling water will not hurt the plants.
Most gear sprinklers are available in pop-up
heights from 3”-12”. They are adjustable from
30 to 350 degrees. Full circles are used for 360
degree watering purposes. Many different
nozzles are available for these types of sprinklers
regardless of the manufacturer. Operating
ranges are from 25 to 65 psi with application rates from 0.50 to 9 gpm. Precipitation
rates vary from 0.20 to 1.81 inches per hour depending upon spacing, nozzle
selection, and operating pressure.
Impact rotors are the easiest medium
sized sprinklers to use and adjust. They
are primarily used on residential
applications (where the noise of the
sprinkler is not a concern) or on light
commercial properties.
Impact sprinklers are noted for superior
performance with effluent or dirty water
from lakes, rivers, ponds, etc. There are
no internal workings that an almost silent
gear driven sprinkler has to jam up from
the debris in the water. Even silt, a very
small fine dirt particle, will cause sprinklers
to stop operating over time. The large
surface area of the sprinkler can be of
some concern in areas where vandalism is a concern. These sprinklers have one of
the best water distribution patterns on the market and are noted for close up
watering during the return cycle. Operating ranges are from 25 to 60 psi, watering
22’-45’, with a flow rate of 1.5-8.4 gpm. Precipitation rates vary from 0.28 to 1.17
inches per hour.
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Power Side of Automatic Irrigation
Irrigation systems come in many differing configurations. The three main types of
powered up irrigation systems are;
1. 110-volt AC types transformed to 24 volts AC
2. Battery operated (almost) wireless systems
3. Solar powered
No matter what type of installation you are undertaking, if the wiring is not done
correctly, as per code (which stipulates length of run, depth of burial, and how to
install to name a few) you are in for a nightmare in the future when servicing is
required.
As an owner, or potential owner of an irrigation system, one of the key areas to
concern yourself with is how the system is wired. This is especially true with larger
systems, as the wiring could be many miles long. A typical golf course can use up to
10-20 miles of wire. Think of the headaches you would have in this application if
common wiring rules and practices were not closely followed.
Electrical 110-volt AC The power side of the system:
What can not be seen or smelt but is always present (when turned on)? Electricity!
The 110-volt AC side of irrigation must be performed as per the electrical code. If
you create a pathway for electricity by touching both sides of the power supply, you
will be the first one to know. 110-volt AC will shock you. 220-volt AC and up will kill
you. Leave the line voltage side of the work to a qualified, fully insured Electrical
Contractor.
Transforming 110 to 24 and the importance of following wire rules:
Most controllers for irrigation projects require a nominal voltage rating of 115V AC on
the primary input side and an output of 24V AC on the secondary side for powering
electric valve solenoids. The internal or external plug-in type transformer does the
job of transforming the power to a useable amount. Most types of electric control
valves have an inrush rating of 6 to 10VA range at 24V AC. The inrush current is
required to force the valve to open while it is under pressure from the water.
Two wires are required to provide the secondary low voltage power supply for valve
solenoids. Wires are generally colour coded to help distinguish between the
common wire(s) and the station wires. One wire (known as the common wire) is
connected to each valve. On large projects you may have many common wires. The
hot wire, any other colour but white, also known as the station wire, is connected to
a valve, which completes the circuit. In some cases, more than 1 valve may be
linked to a single station wire either in the field or at the controller.
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Published wire sizing charts assist in determining what type or types of wire will best
suit the purpose of the installation. High water pressure will require a larger wire (a
lower number is larger than higher number when choosing wire size) because of the
greater inrush of current required to actuate the solenoid. When the wire size
chosen is a smaller diameter wire than what is required, excessive voltage drop
occurs. If this happens there may be insufficient voltage to open the valve.
Battery Operated Systems:
Until recently (the past 5 years) battery operated irrigation systems that were
sophisticated enough to do more than just turn on and off a system at preset times
was not available.
Now, you can purchase a system that uses infrared communication means to upload
existing schedules which can be as intricate as any good quality 110V AC controller.
They are watertight, solidly constructed, small powerhouses that allow Irrigation
Consultants, Designers, Specifiers, and Installation Companies to irrigate locations
that were not available to us in the past due to the lack of a power source.
Rooftop gardens, drip irrigation zone(s), street medians, shopping malls, sports
fields, sites where the wires have been damaged and access is not possible, and
many other types of applications have all benefited from this new form of automating
an irrigation system, be it old or new.
If you have a location that is susceptible to lightning, a wireless system could be the
answer. Do you have a sight where supplying access to your irrigation controller
causes endless problems due to security or lack of staff? With a battery-powered
system, as long as the water is turned on, your irrigation service company no longer
requires access to perform routine check-ups of your system.
These little devices, now offered by the leaders in the industry, are a great addition
which will allow you to be able to handle almost any automation problem. Be sure to
check them out at your local supplier if you haven’t done so already.
Solar Powered. Let the sun shine.
A more expensive alternative to the battery operated stand-alone controller, solar
powered controllers are very rugged and dependable. Used more in the southern
climates where the sun always shines, these stand alone controllers are normally
pedestal mounted with the photovoltaic collection plates focused toward the sun at
midday. Here they collect sunlight, which is converted into power, and is then stored
in batteries. At night when the system starts up, it pulls power from the batteries.
Once all water is completed the controller shuts off and waits for the sun to charge
up the battery system all over again. This cycle continues endlessly, or until
shutdown.
16
Difference by Design
What do I need to know?
Why does one system water extremely well while another system is truly inadequate
for the task at hand? Why, if a system has been designed correctly and watered the
intended area beautifully for the first 5 years, does it now not perform the same?
What do you need to know to be able to design a small to medium size irrigation
system to be used for landscape applications?
Why are there so many different sprinkler systems around?
Irrigation systems are designed in many ways. The size and scope of the project will
determine if an Irrigation Consultant is hired or a contractor does a walk-through
design. Sophisticated design software could be used or it may rely upon the
experience of the contractor. Experience levels and design knowledge vary
immensely. This is why there are so many different combinations of individual items
used to create an irrigation system.
Each system is different due to the varied constraints of the sites watering
requirements.
When designing, the Designer must have a working knowledge of soils, plants,
hydraulics, electricity, available product types, installation techniques, and other
related fields of study.
A typical example of a high end residential system today could involve the use of a
soaker zone for shrubs, drip zone for roses, micro spray zone for potted planters,
spray zone for mass narrow planters, and bubblers for areas which require deep
watering like tree pits. Larger areas require silent gear sprinklers for residential
applications or impact rotors for dirty water applications, usually used when a pump
is involved.
Water sources could be as convenient as a supplied hose bib, where there is no
advantage to plumbing out a new water source due to the limited size of the city
supplied main line, to a commercial project with a 4” to 12” water supply line.
Systems have been constructed utilizing a city source as small as 3 gallons of water
per minute with a supply pressure of 30 psi to 1800 gallons per minute with a
working pressure exceeding 100psi. At the limited water supply level, you have to
have a very good understanding of hydraulics to get the system to work, and at the
large end of the scale you must understand the force behind water and take
measures to ensure your system will remain in one piece.
Difference by design is exactly that. Each design is unique. No two sites are alike
even though they may appear to be. To ensure your system performs efficiently,
supplying the delivered water for a beneficial use like watering plants and not a
harmful use like watering the sides of buildings, fences, patios, decks, windows, etc.,
take the time to do a proper design or hire a qualified designer to prepare the design
for you. Water restrictions and shortages are becoming more and more a normal
17
occurrence rather than a rarity. Ensure that every drop counts so that we may
continue to grow well into the future. You too should “Water Wise”.
18
Scheduling an Irrigation System
Start and go? Not so fast!
During site visits in the spring, early summer, late summer, and fall, on residential
and commercial properties where someone else offsite is responsible for the
watering, have you noticed anything in common during each visit? If your sites are
like most, the watering schedule established in April is still being used in mid
summer, late summer and even during early and late fall. Do you know why? Most
of the time Irrigation Companies are contracted to open and close systems with
required repairs throughout the season. They are normally not paid to come back
and set controllers on a weather-related basis to adjust watering schedules to match
the weather for that week, 2 weeks, or 1-month period. Why? It costs money! The
hidden cost not realized by most is that this excessive amount of over watering is
drowning plants, damaging buildings and road ways, causing excessive amounts of
fertilizer to be required due to the excessive watering washing away the fertilizer,
higher operating costs of the system from larger water bills and longer periods of
operation causing earlier breakdowns of components, plus other considerations.
Scheduling? 10 minutes for plants 30 minutes for grass. Right?
If you know your system design application rate, water intake rate for the plant
material you are watering, soil absorption rate, and the evapotranspiration rate, and
this is what you have come up with, then the above noted run times are corrected.
If not, how do I know what is right?
This question is easily asked but difficult to answer. The interaction between
weather, plants, soils, and irrigation systems in developing efficient irrigation
schedules is very important. Weather, efficiency of the irrigation system and types
of plant materials tell us how much water is required. Soil infiltration rate and water
holding capacity influence the frequency water needs to be applied.
Water Wise system management dictates that an effective and efficient irrigation
schedule be developed ahead of time for each week of the irrigation season and that
the schedule is changed frequently to match the current weather conditions. This is
the foundation of good water management. This way the landscape is balanced with
the irrigation system and the plants are healthier and more robust.
What You Will Need To Know.
There are four factors that will influence how frequently plants will require water.
They are temperature, humidity, sunlight, and wind. If you know these four on a
daily basis you will have a good idea how much water the plants are using and when
the next watering should occur.
Evapotranspiration (ET) is the sum of water lost from the soil surface (evaporation)
and water used by plants (transpiration). Many factors influence ET, such as plant
type and species, weather factors, and the available water (AW) in the soil that the
plants can use. ET is expressed in terms of a depth of water per unit of time, usually
inches per day. Another very useful version of ET is Reference Evapotranspiration
19
(ETO). It represents a specific rate of evapotranspiration in response to the local
weather conditions from a reference crop such as alfalfa or turf, if studies have been
done.
In our region, rain helps to keep everything growing. More recently however, rain
has been less frequent and does not necessarily happen when needed. Irrigation
systems are becoming more relied upon to supply plants with water on a timely basis
so that plants develop as promised. When rain occurs, we need to know how much
of the rain is effective rainfall. In other words, how much rain (water) of the 2”
rainstorm actually infiltrated (absorbed) into the soil and stayed in the plants root
zone (root depth of the plant material). Rain water may be held in the mulch or
thatch layer and may not penetrate the soil, while other water may percolate below
the plants root depth and be unavailable to the plant. This happens often when
frequently scheduled watering occurs.
Plants require water for four major reasons. They use water as a means to transport
dissolved chemicals and minerals from the plant root hairs to the rest of the plant,
for controlling the physical shape and direction of growth, for evaporation from
leaves to control the plant temperature, and for photosynthesis.
I could go on and on about density factors, microclimates, allowable stress,
permanent wilting point, soil texture, soil structure, field capacity, available water
holding capacity, infiltration rate, percolation rate runoff, active root zone, stored
water, safety buffer, usable stored water, distribution uniformity, scheduling
coefficient, coefficient of uniformity, irrigation efficiency, sprinkler system uniformity,
sprinkler distribution profiles and spacing, irrigation water losses, precipitation rate,
and flow rate. I bet you didn’t know that to schedule an irrigation system properly all
of this research has to be done before you even touch the controller. Luckily, there is
a shorter way to come to an answer.
We now want to develop what is known as a Base Schedule, a schedule that is
developed using the above data based on a certain reference month, week, or day. A
schedule would then need to be developed for each month of your irrigation season.
Or if time does not allow for this, then develop a schedule for your driest month and
compare your rainfall data for that month against the other months of your irrigation
season and use a percentage to calculate how much less watering you should be
doing and adjust your schedule accordingly for each month. If your controller has a
water budget feature which works on percentage you can use this to adjust all of
your runtime settings at one time.
To create a Base Schedule:
Plant water needs
• Number of times you run the system per week (based on site needs)
• Reference ET (ETO) (inches of water for the chosen time period)
• ET Modifier (KL) (use 1 as an estimate)
• Plant water needs
(ETO) x (KL) (inches x decimal number
Runtime minutes to provide above plants with needed water;
• Precipitation Rate (PR) (how fast does your system apply water) (Inches)
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Distribution Uniformity (DU)(how evenly does your system apply water) ( less
than .80)
Gross water needed (plant water needs divided by DU decimal number = Inches
of water needed)
Zone runtime (gross water needed divided by (PR) x 60 = number of minutes
you need to run this zone to meet your plant gross water needs)
Operating Frequency (how often do we need to run this zone [station])
• Soil type (sand, silt, loam, or combination) (sand needs frequent watering/clay
requires infrequent watering if you can get the water in.)
• Available water holding capacity (amount of soil moisture a soil stores when it is
full [field capacity] and when it is empty [permanent wilting point]) (same
principal as a vehicles fuel tank) Inches of water to inches of soil.
• Plant root depth (how deep are the roots that can absorb the water held in the
soil around the roots) Answer is in inches.
• Stored water (quantity of water stored within the root zone between full and
empty) Answer is in inches.
• Usable stored water (usable stored water and % allowed to be depleted before
filling up) (how far are you going to allow your fuel tank to drop before
refueling?) Use 50%. Answer is in inches.
• Number of days to water (plant water needs [from above]) divided by usable
water inches). This is how many days you need to water in this period (week).
• Number of minute to water per day (runtime divided by days to water)
• Number of cycles required to apply the required water and allow time for
infiltration without runoff if possible (If you know the infiltration rates of sand
[.75” hr] loam [.50” hr] and clay [.25” hr] you can work out how much water in
inches per minute is being applied from your above (PR) calculation compared to
how many minutes per day are required to meet your plant water needs. If your
soil can absorb .50” per hr., your plants require 1.0” per day, and your zone
applies 1.0” per hr., you will need to theoretically cycle (start and stop) your
system 2 times that day to allow the required 1” of water to be applied without
runoff occurring.
• To work out the runtime per cycle (runtime divided by cycles equals minutes per
cycle)
With practice and hands on experience you will be able to perform these calculations
quickly. You will now have a much better understanding how to schedule a
controller. However, there are other considerations that you will learn from practical
experience and through continuing education courses at Landscape Ontario.
21
Making Sense of Sensors
Let's learn about some of the many types of sensors available for irrigation use. Its
time to start or continue to water wise and ensure every system under our control
has at minimum a rain sensor to save water during wet weather.
Rain Sensor
This device absorbs rain, swells up, cannot push through the top because it is locked,
so it pushes down on the limit switch where there is some room for movement.
Alone, this will save approximately 12% of the water that would have been used
without this sensor.
All automatic irrigation systems should have some sort of a rain sensor installed
during installation or as a retrofit by the Service Company.
Freeze Sensor
In our northern climate, where having automatic irrigation
systems still scheduled to water in the late fall, and
getting caught by an early cold spell, this device could
save you from a nasty legal battle. The potential for icing
up a site is realistic. Think of it, the only difference
between and irrigation system and a snow making system
is the air, and at fall shutdown, we even blow snow if we
are late enough. I would look into at least offering the
freeze sensor to your clients so that you have covered
your bases in case of bad weather (literally and figuratively).
Wind & Rain Sensor
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Rain sensor works as noted above. The wind sensor shuts down irrigation when the
wind blows between 12 to 35 MPH depending on how sensitive you have set it,
automatically rests and allows irrigation to start or continue once the wind speed
drops. This device helps to ensure that the water you or your client is paying for is
going to be of benefit to their landscape and not their neighbors. Nothing against
neighbors, but they might need to pay part of the water bill if the wind continues to
blow favorably towards them.
Portable Soil Moisture Sensor
This new device allows you to take actual soil moisture
percentage water by volume readings. You can then
determine how much water is left in the ground. If
you have been reading these monthly articles over the
past year, you should know how to determine when to
irrigate again and for how long. Being portable, you
can make multiple readings in each zone to get a good
feel for how wet or dry your soil really is, or if it was
an animal that's causing the grass to go yellow and
the plants to shrivel up.
Automatic Soil Moisture Sensor
Know you can go to sleep knowing someone is paying attention.
Or should I say something. This moisture sensing device will
shut off the irrigation once the soil is damp enough and
depending upon how you have programmed the controller, will
start up the irrigation once the soil is on the drier side. Watch
out. We might be out of a job yet.
23
Professional Spring Start-up
The Checklist Method
This article will discuss the procedures and merit of a proper "Spring Start-up" of
an irrigation system. It's one thing to turn the water on, set the controller in April for
hot summer weather and quickly do a visual inspection of a residential or commercial
irrigation system. It is a totally different thing to perform a professional,
established, systematic, step-by-step in-depth start-up of a system.
Spring Start-up. What's All The Fuss About?
During site visits in the spring, early summer, late summer, and fall, on residential
and commercial properties where someone else offsite is responsible for the
watering, have you noticed anything in common during each visit? If your sites are
like most, the watering schedule established in April is watering in mid summer, late
summer and even during early and late fall. Do you know why? Most of the time
Irrigation Companies are contracted to open and close systems with required repairs
throughout the season. They are normally not paid to come back and set controllers
on a weather-related basis to reset watering schedules to match the current weather
for that week, 2 weeks, or 1-month period. Why? This costs money!
The hidden cost not realized by most companies is that this excessive amount of
overwatering is drowning plants, damaging buildings and road ways, causing
excessive amounts of fertilizer to be required due to the excessive watering washing
away the fertilizer, higher operating costs of the system from larger water bills and
longer periods of operation causing earlier breakdowns of components, plus other
considerations.
A systematic approach to a spring start-up performed by a qualified, trained, and
even certified irrigation company that stresses service, would ensure that the owners
are aware of the results of improper watering practices. Now you know what all the
fuss is about!
Performing A Professional Spring Start-up – The Checklist Method:
The following checklist will need to be changed slightly depending upon the type of
site and system you will be starting up.
24
Water Source:
Each water supply is to be thoroughly checked in detail for the following;
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Main waterline still wired shut upon arrival
Ensure all mainline drains are closed inside and out (before opening water)
Open last mainline zone valve(s) or quick coupler(s) to expel trapped air as
line fills
Remove wire and slowly open mainline shutoff valve to allow trapped air to
escape
Once mainline has been slowly filled and trapped air has been expelled, close
the open valve(s) and/or quick coupler(s)
If there is a dedicated water meter for the irrigation water, or the buildings
water is not being used anywhere, and you are sure it is not being used, once
the mainline is fully pressurized (full), check to see if the water meter gauges
are standing still or moving. If no movement, no leaks are present.
If the water meter gauge(s) are moving there is most likely a leak somewhere
in the mainline. Search the entire mainline inside and out to locate the
source of the leak. Many small leaks are located at the valve locations where
the valves are connected to the mainline. A master valve is a fast quick fix.
Repair any leaks found and recheck again.
Recharge mainline
Make sure that a proper identification tag is installed at the shutoff indicating
what the valve controls. Inform onsite personnel how to shut the irrigation
system water off
Controller(s):
Each controller is to be checked for the following;
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Check 110-volt power to controller receptacle is on. Use a multi-meter if
trained or plug in a light or a radio.
If no power, check panel breaker is not tripped. If still no power inform
owner to have a qualified electrician fix the problem.
If still no power run an extension cord to another receptacle to get power to
set up system temporarily
Once 110-volt power is ok, power up controller and test the 24-volt post are
energized with approximately 24 volts. Do not install battery yet as this will
power up the display and you might think everything is working when it is not
If there are not 24 volts inside controller, controller transformer is probably
bad. Replace transformer or take controller to service facility.
Once power is on and the controller is energized, replace the old battery with
a new one that is fully energized
Ensure rain sensor bypass is in bypass while you test system if damp
weather, and is reset to active once work is completed and tested to ensure
the system will not operate during wet weather
Set controller to correct AM or PM time. Double check
Set controller to correct Day, Month and Year. Double check
25
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Turn to test program which should allow for a 5 minute test of every zone
(station) or select a program and input 5 minutes for every station to be
tested
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Start test inspection on semi-automatic program and go to first zone
Once test is complete, reprogram controller with current month watering
schedule supplied by your water auditor
Record Spring Start-up schedule on Customer Schedule Record form and
record all other pertinent information
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Zone(s) Inspection
Every zone (station) is to be fully inspected for the following noted items;
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Sprinklers, emitters, rotors, etc. are plumb (straight on all sides)
All sprinklers are at the correct height. Not high, not low, not blocked
All nozzles are clear and clean so that they cover the area they have been
designed to cover completely
Extend risers (nipples) above 24" are staked and tied off for support
All risers are plumb and will allow the nozzle to be clear of plant material
Replacement sprinklers are as per original equipment to keep system
uniformity (how evenly water is spread out over area of coverage) at the
designed application rate
Quick couplers are flush with grade or slightly lower and have been cleaned
for easy locating
Valve boxes are flush with grade and are clean of debris for easy access
Valve boxes have been numbered to identify the zone number they control
Show client the components which have to be replaced before performing the
work so they understand why something has to be repaired or replaced.
Communication with the customer is key
Site Sketch
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Create site sketch (if not supplied). Indicate locations for the following;
property lay-out, building, driveway, landscape features, water supply, water
shut-off, blowout, controller(s), rain sensor(s), valve boxes, zone numbers
If site sketch is supplied, ensure component locations are accurate. If not
correct add any information you think should be on-file about this customers
system(s) which will help ensure the service work is performed professionally
every time
26
Know When to Stop Watering
Knowing when to stop irrigating is
as important as knowing when to
start. If you know the irrigation
system zone precipitation rate and
the soil infiltration rate, you will
know when the soil reservoir has
reached field capacity.
Typically, when working with clay
soil, the infiltration rate is .25” /hr.
with a spray zone applying up to
1.5”/hr. The spray zone is delivery
water 6 times faster then the soil
can absorb it if left to run for 1
hour. This tells you that runoff will
occur on an almost flat surface after 10 minutes or 1/6th of an hour (60 min. divided
by 6 =10 min.).
By learning how to water more efficiently, we can cut household water consumption
by approximately 25 percent in a normal weather irrigation season. Over watering
creates a shallow root zone. The plants have all the water they need at the surface
so why spend the effort growing deeper to reach excess water. Shallow watering
applied frequently (every other day) causes grass to grow faster requiring more
frequent mowing. It also causes disease problems, which in turn calls for more
pesticides and fertilizers to be used.
Performing a water audit of the zone, utilizing graduated
catch can devices, will generate information regarding
how quickly, or slowly, the zone is applying water to a
given area. With this information, you can then
accurately set a schedule to satisfy the plant water
requirements while, most likely with more than 1 cycle
per day, preventing wasteful run off.
Taking the zone area soil samples with a soil probe will tell
you what type of soil you are working with, how deep the
soil reservoir is, and how deep the plant roots have to be
in order to penetrate the soil.
Commonly, grass roots are between 2” to 3” deep. We
would like to encourage the roots to grow deeper by properly watering the grass. A
good way to encourage the roots to grow deeper is to take a soil sample with a soil
probe about 2 hours after you have applied an irrigation cycle. Measure on the soil
27
sample core how far the water has been able to infiltrate the soil reservoir. Most of
the time it is about 1”. Now what is needed is another application to try to get the
water to move deeper into the soil. Re-measure and reapply water until the water in
the soil has traveled down to 4inches, hopefully 1” deeper than the current root
depth. If you continue this practice of irrigating deeply with multiple applications in
the same day, you will now be able to schedule fewer days per week.
The roots will not grow through dry soil so make sure you are applying a welldistributed water application. If you continue this practice you will find that you will
water less frequently, the roots will grow deeper, the plants will become more
drought tolerant due to the deeper roots reaching a deeper water reservoir, and you
will use less water in the long run. When you apply water correctly and less
frequently there is less water lost to evaporation.
Know you know how to determine how much water is enough and what the benefits
of correct watering are.
28
Guidelines For Using Outdoor Water More Efficiently
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A properly designed and installed automatic irrigation system is more
effective than a hose.
A low-volume irrigation system utilizing subsurface, soaker and drip
components is the most efficient method for watering plants.
Make sure your sprinkler only waters the softscape (plants) not hardscapes
(sidewalks and roads).
Set a timer when manually watering your lawn so you don’t over water.
When using a hose, a nozzle which can be shut off or adjusted to a fine spray
needs to be attached to enable the hose to be shut off after use.
Perform a catch can test using cups or tuna type cans to collect water. You
want to apply about 1” of water per week to your lawn. Time how long it
takes your sprinkler system to apply 1” of water so you will know how long to
schedule your irrigation.
Time how long it takes for water to runoff of your lawn and down the road
where it is wasted. Make sure you water for less time so runoff does not
occur. You may need to water more frequently to prevent runoff.
Lawns need water when the colour of the grass blade is dull, when the blade
rolls up, or when it doesn’t spring back when stepped on.
Trees and shrubs show signs too late to prevent damage. Check the soil with
a moisture probe and water when the top 2 to 6 inches of soil are dry.
Irrigate your lawn down to the bottom of the root zone plus 1 inch to promote
deeper root growth. After about 30 minutes use a soil probe or a sharp
shovel and check how deep the water has penetrated. Watering too shallow
or too deep is inefficient.
Water with the weather, not by time. Do not water on a preset schedule. It
does not match the plant water requirements. Try to water only when the
plants need water by tracking ET (evapotranspiration). ET is the amount of
water that left the soil and plant during the day. It is measured in inches per
day. By knowing that your landscape lost .10” in day and your (AW)
available water was full (100%), and you are allowing your AW to deplete to
50%, your lawn can survive 5 days (5 x .10” = .5”) before you will need to
refill the soil profile.
Put mulch around your plants 2” to 4” deep to help retain moisture.
Swimming pools need to be covered when not in use to prevent evaporation.
Keep pools a little lower than full to eliminate water wastage.
For every 10 minutes you ordinarily water, shorten the time by 1 minute.
This will result in a 10 % savings.
Watering is to end just before the sun comes up at around 5:30 am. This will
allow enough time to get the water into the soil with little lost to evaporation,
plus plants will not be sitting in wet soil during the cool period of the night,
which can affect plant health.
Use warm-up water from your shower to water your plants inside and out.
Repair broken sprinklers and leaks in pipes as these can waste 5 to 10 gallons
per minute. A 1ml drip leak in a pressurized water line can amount to over
15,000 gallons of water being wasted during the irrigation season.
29
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Let the lawn grow to 4 inches then cut to 3” to promote deeper roots which
helps make the grass more drought tolerant by providing a deeper soil
reservoir of moisture due to deeper roots.
Use less fertilizer in times of drought. Nitrogen encourages growth, which
leads to increased water use.
Aerate the lawn to allow water and air to reach the grass roots, while
reducing run-off.
Dethatch grasses in the spring or fall to renovate them and to help water
penetration
Think about planting native plants or drought resistant plants and grasses
that can survive on once-a-week watering.
The goal is to water as infrequently as possible and as deep as the plant
requires.
Trees do need watering, especially in periods of prolonged drought. If they
don’t get it they’ll weaken and become susceptible to insects and other
diseases that can kill them. Deep water established trees every 2 to 3
months during the dry season.
30
Water The Right Amount
Canada is under attack – reads the cover of a prominent American Landscape
Management magazine. Are we next – it continues? Since 1991 when the small
community of Hudson, Quebec passed a bylaw banning the non-essential use of
pesticides, exempting golf and agriculture, the lawn care industry has been fighting
an uphill battle, alone.
Those of us who irrigate can do our part by helping to ensure the pesticide and
fertilizers which are used stays where they were intended to, by only watering when
the plants require water. This is known as "Just in time watering".
In our part of the country, Mother Nature provides what is known as timely rain as
can be seen in the accompanying illustration.
Excessive amounts of water leach
beneficial and needed fertilizers
and other chemicals out of the
root zone and slowly carry them
deep into the ground water.
By knowing how much water is
contained in the ground available
for the plants irrigators can work
with Mother Nature and the
environment beneficially.
(Rain or irrigation water traveling from the surface through the soil)
Plants use water for four major purposes:
1. as a means of transporting dissolved chemicals and minerals from the plant
root hairs to the rest of the plant
2. as a means of controlling the physical shape and direction of growth of the
plant (water pressure in plant cells provides structure)
3. to be evaporated from leaves as a means of controlling leaf temperature
4. photosynthesis
By knowing your sites’ soil properties and plant root depths, you can determine how
much water the soil can hold and how much of that water will be available to the
plants. The soil triangle pictured below helps in determining the major types of soil
you are working with. By knowing the percent amounts of sand, silt and clay, the
soil texture can be determined. Armed with this information you can then schedule
your irrigations to apply only the amount of water required to meet the four major
purposes for which the plants need water.
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(Soil Triangle)
If I know that I have a soil which is 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% clay, by following
each line into the soil triangle, the point at which the lines intersect will tell me what
type of soil I am going to be applying the water to. By knowing how much water
each of the major types of soil can hold and how deep my plant roots are, I can then
determine how much water needs to be applied, similar to filling up a glass. If I
don't know how large a glass I have how can I know when it is full? This is exactly
the same principal when irrigating. If I don't know how large of a soil profile (glass)
I have, how do I know when it is full?
Most often we are working with a clay type soil. The characteristic of clay being very
fine particles tightly held together allow water to infiltrate into the soil at a very slow
rate, .25" per hour, and hold onto water for a long period of time, up to 14 days.
Clay can store only .12" of water per inch of soil where loam stores .21". We all wish
we were watering on loam soil as it allows water to enter quite quickly, holds the
most water per inch of soil and gives up its water to the plant as the plant requires
it, similar to a double coated slow release fertilizer pellet.
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Soil Class
Sand
Sandy
Loam
Loam
Clay Loam
Clay
(Available water
AW
in./in.
0.08
0.15
0.21
0.17
0.12
per inch of soil)
To find out what type of soil you have, do the "jar test". Get a straight sided jar,
take a cup of soil (about 5") from the area where you will be applying water to,
which is representative of the general soil type in the area, not bedding soil or
mulch, and add 3 cups of water. Shake it, not stirred; place it on a level surface
where it will not be disturbed for about 24 hours. Upon investigation you will find
the sand has settled to the bottom followed by silt and then the very fine clay
particles. Measure the amount of each to determine your percentages. Let's say
you measure 2" sand, 2" silt and 1" clay for a total of 5 inches. This would be the
equivalent of 50%. Multiply each soils measurement by 2 to get to 100%. You can
now work out how much of each soil type you have out of 100%. Now you can go
back to the soil triangle and draw lines from two of the soil particles until they meet.
This intersection will indicate the general soil classification for your soil sample
location. Armed with this information you will now know how much water per inch
this soil type can hold for the plants use.
OK, so now what? Do you know how much water your irrigation system applies to a
given area? If not use the following basic precipitation rate formula;
PR =
96.25 x Water
Area
= ______ in/hr
This is my new simplistic way to use the original formula, but this one is easy to
remember. 96.25 is just a number used to get the answer to come out in inches per
hour. Water is the total water your irrigation station applies to the station area of
coverage. For example; a rotor station (zone) with heads spaced at 35' x 35', which
is your Area, applies how much water within this 35 foot section of the landscape?
There is only one deviation, when another station sends its water into the area a
portion of the other station water must also be included. Just remember it's the total
amount of water from all sources in this section.
The answer my friend isn't blowing in the wind, it’s right in front of you. By knowing
how much water the soil can absorb and hold, and by knowing how much water the
irrigation system applies, you can now program this station to apply the right
amount of water. In other words, you now know the size of the glass you are filling.
Call me if you need clarification or my assistance in other irrigation related matters.
33
Best Management Practices, Who needs them?
With impending water shortages looming all over the US and parts of Canada we do.
Georgian Lake is at its lowest level since the 1940's. With more and more irrigation
systems being installed every day, guidelines are needed to ensure the systems use
water as efficiently as possible. Plants require water for all phases of growth during
our growing season.
What are Best Management Practices?
A Best Management Practice ("BMP") is a policy, program, practice, rule, regulation
or ordinance or the use of devices, equipment or facilities which meets either of the
following criteria:
1.
An established and generally accepted practice among irrigators which results
in more efficient use or conservation of water;
2.
A practice for which sufficient data are available from existing irrigation projects
to indicate that significant conservation or conservation related benefits can be
achieved; that the practice is technically and economically reasonable and not
environmentally or socially unacceptable; and that the practice is not otherwise
unreasonable for most water suppliers to carry out.
(MOU CUWC)
The goal of irrigation is to provide the right amount of water at the right time when
the plant needs it. An automatic landscape sprinkler system can be an important
water conservation tool. To assure proper irrigation, a few procedures need to be
adhered to.
•
Watering is to occur, in most cases, during the middle a.m. hours with most
systems completing the watering schedule by 5:30 to 6:00 a.m., prior to the
sun heating up the air causing water loss through evaporation.
•
Where possible, plants are to be separated from the grass areas due to the
different watering requirements. Annuals require daily watering. Perennials
require deep watering once a week. Lawns vary from daily to once per
week. All watering is dependent upon the type of soil, infiltration rate (how
slow or fast the water is absorbed into the soil), and the amount of water that
can be held within the root zone (depth of the plants roots) during a single
application. Sandy soils tend to release water easily due to their particle
size. Clay soils do the opposite. They are made up of fine silt size particles
that bond together to form a very tight seal allowing as little as .25" of water
to infiltrate in a 60 minute period.
•
A rain or moisture sensor device is a must in our geographical location. A
rain sensor will interrupt a preprogrammed watering cycle prior to or while
the watering is taking place if it rains for a long enough period. This saves
money in water not used from your water supply and helps prevent the plant
material from becoming water logged due to a fully saturated soil.
34
•
Soil moisture sensors work on the principal of conductivity. An electrical
current is present in the probes which are placed in the soil. If the device
detects an electrical current, the soil is moist. If no current is detected, the
soil is dry and watering is allowed at the next prescheduled interval.
•
Be sure to select, and have installed, the required backflow prevention device.
•
Design with "water management efficiency" in mind.
•
Use matched precipitation nozzles for individual zones
•
Design systems using hydro zones where possible. Plants requiring the same
method of watering and close to the same volume of water need to be
grouped together so that hydro zones can be created.
•
Consider soil infiltration rate, slope, and sprinkler precipitation rate when
selecting sprinkler heads to help eliminate runoff.
•
Install low-angle heads to avoid high wind and dirt.
•
Install low volume irrigation in long narrow strips, small irregular-shaped
areas and landscape beds to reduce evaporation losses and to avoid applying
water on hardscape.
•
Provide the customer an "As-built" of the irrigation design that specifies the
location and specifications of all application devices, pipelines, wiring, control
valves, backflow prevention devices, and rain/moisture shut-off equipment.
•
Ensure that all automatic and manual zone and isolation valves are installed
in a properly sized valve box for easy servicing and locating.
•
Provide the customer a design performance report of the irrigation system
that includes individual zone precipitation rates in inches per hour.
•
Inform the customer of the importance of routine maintenance
35
Your Valued Customers
As a service business begins to mature, usually 10 years and older, we reach a point
where very important decisions must be made about the future direction the
business will take. Your CUSTOMERS have a major part in where you are heading
and just how successful you will be along the way.
It is a hard lesson to learn, the one about how to try please everyone and end up
pleasing no one. As your business has grown over the past few years, dare to ask
your customers how they are being treated. If you have grown away from your
customers and can't ask them, then you are only a number to them. The first and, if
you are lucky, the second time your company messes up with anything to do with
your customers wants, you will most likely be history. The main reason existing
customers move on is that they feel they are a nobody in your company's eyes. They
just don't exist. Put yourself in their shoes. If you were treated poorly would you
stay?
Contractors without a focused market strategy for retaining clients, especially in
regard to providing timely service when called upon to do so, may find themselves
constantly acquiring new customers while losing long standing ones. Remember the
rule, "80%of your business comes from 20% of your customers". Word of mouth
referrals cost very little. If you receive referrals, you must be doing something
right. If you don't, you had best take a long hard look at what you are not doing.
It's a new year. Let's get it together.
The amount of money that is being spent on landscape nowadays was almost
unheard of in the 70's and early 80's. Now a professional, full-blown city landscape
project costs the same as a small house in the rural areas. The increasing number of
dollars being spent on landscaping necessitates a need for professionally
designed, installed, and frequently serviced systems. Our customers demand
to be serviced professionally, and so they should be.
It's time to properly appreciate the value of the customers that we have. Make an
effort to keep an up-to-date, detailed database on every customer. Let them know
that you appreciate their business. Send out a personal letter or create a newsletter
and send this out a least one time a year. Drop by a client's property to see (not to
work) if they are satisfied with everything you have done for them, and don't charge
them for it. If they refer your company to someone, thank them. If the referral
pans out and you make some money, credit the referring customers account with a
free service visit. Make sure you tell them. You will be amazed how your referral
business will grow over the next few years. However, if you let them down or ignore
your customers your business can grow in the opposite direction just as easily.
There are many more creative ways to let your valued customers know how much
you value their commitment and repeat business. During the cold, dark, winter
months spend a little time to work out a plan how you are going to treat your
customers beginning this spring.
36
Costing Out an Irrigation System
Let’s walk through the steps that need to take place to be able to give a potential
customer a fair price – that is a price that allows you to make a reasonable profit for
the hard work you are about to agree upon. Let's think about the main steps
involved in costing out an irrigation system.
Who are they? Are they someone I want to do business with? Do they live in an
area where I like to do business? If I install a system do they want me to service it
or are they going to do the work? If I am going to do the servicing then do I want to
be driving to their place in spring, summer and fall? How many other contractors
have they called? Do I get to meet them or is this just a drop by and see kind of
deal? How did they get my number – yellow pages? Did they call everyone listed in
the book? If you have staff this can be a staff person responsibility to ask these
questions to qualify the lead – this will save you lots of time and will allow you to
make more money in the long run.
All of these questions need to be thought through to be able to go ahead to step 2.
If you decide that they live in an area where most homeowners do not have
irrigation systems then maybe you do not want to spend the time working out a
price for them – after all it's going to take about four hours time and some travel to
do so – and that costs money. Besides, there is no guarantee that they are going to
have the job done and if they do they may not choose your company.
What are some of the other considerations that come into play here? Well, the main
one will be workload – how much work do I already have booked and how much
more do I need? This is a key decision that will determine how hard you will try to
land a job. Let's say you make up your mind and want to go after this one. What's
next?
Make an appointment and drive on out to meet them. But, before you leave the
yard set the tripometer to 0 so you know the distance to the site and time the ride
takes so you know how long it will take to get there. You need this kind of
information to be able to work out the cost and the estimated price that you are
going to submit, hoping to land this one.Once you arrive make a note of the total
distance and time.
Now, did you bring any goodies to show the potential client to woo them over – clear
cased sprinklers, valves, pieces of pipe, promotional video or DVD, etc? If so hold on
for a second. We need to do a meet and greet and introduce ourselves and our
company. Remember – the first impression is the lasting one and you only get one
chance to make a first impression.
Oh yeah, that dirty installation shirt and pants – lose them! I would hope that you
would keep a spare, clean, not heavily wrinkled set of sales clothes in your vehicle –
and you would change before arrival. I don't think it will go over very well if you do
a strip tease in the driveway and the husband is watching – maybe if it's a desperate
housewife situation you may end up with the job after all.
37
OK, let's begin. You need about one hour to do your work, so if they are retired with
lots of spare time slip them the video/DVD and ask them to watch it while you go to
work.
1. First, we want to see the water meter, be it inside or out. Find out the
size of the meter and the service line size (city water supply line). Write
this down on your "Site Information Form".
Site Information Form
Date:
Salesperson:
Site:
Address:
City:
State:
Contact Person:
Closest Intersection:
Map Coordinates:
Water Meter Location:
Size:
Service Line Size:
Pressure:
Maximum GPM:
Designed GPM:
Can the service line be tapped?:
Electrical outlet for controller [ ] Yes
[ ] No
Controller Location: [Garage] [Basement] [Outside] [Other]
Total Area: Length
(ft) Width
(ft)
Sq. Ft.:
Sleeves Installed Under Hardscape:
Exposure to Sun:
Site Compass Direction:
Predominate Soil Type: Front
Side
Back
Major Plant Types:
Side
Back
Front
Additional Information:
38
2. Next, measure the water pressure and flow with your
pressure flow gauge. This is a gauge that you can buy
from your supply house in most cases. If you don't have
one of these devices don't worry – grab a bucket and a
stop watch. Ready? Go, turn on the water, start the stop
watch, and after 10 seconds stop the water. Measure
the water, say 2 gpm, multiply the volume of water by 6
and you will have the maximum flow for GPM or gallons
per minute, should equal 12 gpm
3. Now, check out where the controller could be installed – downstairs,
outside, in the garage or maybe elsewhere. Be sure to ask the
homeowners so they are in agreement.
4. Check that the receptacle has power, approximately 120vac @60Hz will
do. If it does not work, check another plug close by and ask the
homeowner to have the broken one fixed by a licensed electrician.
5. Let's get out the roll-a-tape or cloth tape
measure and run some measurements. Find
out how long the driveway is from the road to
the outside corner of the garage. Jot this
down. Now measure from the property line
back to the same corner of the garage. This is
known as triangulating so that you can put
these measurements down on a piece of paper
and come up with a plot plan to lay heads out
on so you can come up with a total head count
for the job. I actually do this on graph paper and make a scaled hasty
sketch as I take the measurements and plot sprinklers as I think they will
be placed.
6. Once you have measured the entire
area-and don't leave anything major out
or it will cost you money-continue to plot
sprinkler heads in what are known as the
trouble areas – the spots beside walls,
driveways, sidewalks – known as hard
areas or hardscapes. Some contractors
flag the job as they go so they can show
the potential client where the sprinklers
39
will be placed. If you want to be fancy, flag each stations sprinklers in a
different color for visual effect. To do this you will need to know how to
create zones or stations and that comes next.
7. You measured the water and know how many gallons of water should be
available to design the irrigation system with.
Designers Rule: Use only 80% of the total amount of available
water so that some is left for whatever – next phase of the project,
lower water volume in the future due to age, some device like a oncethrough water-cooled air conditioner – heaven forbid, being used at the
same time the irrigation system is in operation, or anything else that can
affect the volume of water available to operate the system. There is
nothing worse than doing all your homework, designing and installing a
superb system and then turning it on and finding out something is wrong
with the water and the system won't work properly, or as we say as per
design.
Designers Rule: Combine like plant material and exposures
together.
We measured the water and came up with 12 gpm, but this is maximum
water and we are only allowed to use 80%, so let's use 10gpm. This is a
typical 1" water supply with a pressure range of 40 to 80 psi (pounds per
square inch) of pressure. We need flow to get the sprinklers to work and
we need pressure to seal the sprinklers and throw the water the distance
they are designed to do so. If you are going to get more involved than
this, please take an irrigation design class.
Looking at the site drawing for our design, shown in number 5 above, we
can see that we have some small areas and larger areas.
Designers Rule: Choose the sprinkler nozzle that fits the area as
close as possible.
Measure each section, figure out the size in feet and select the nozzle
that fits the section. Then you can select the sprinkler that takes the
nozzle. Here is the break down I use when designing:
Low volume
Sprays
Rotary nozzles
Mid sized rotors
Rotors
Sports Rotors
0' – 5'
5' – 15'
13' – 24'
16' – 30'
22 – 35’
40' – 65'
40
OK, layout the rest of the sprinklers, divide them by the 10gpm we have,
be sure to keep grass and plants on their own stations as well as sunny
areas, shady areas and slopes. These are all to be separate water zones,
or stations, and by the way, sprays put down three times the amount of
water than rotors due to what is known as PR or precipitation rates – so
do not combine them on the same station. The only exception to the
rule is the new rotary nozzles that have matched PR rates with some
rotors and only when matched can they be combined on the same station
or valve.
8. Now count up all of the components that make up this design and write
them down. Start with the sprinkler heads, nozzles, valves, pipe,
fittings, valve boxes, clamps, wire, controller, rain sensor, wire
connectors, screws, nipples, and any and all other components.
Whatever you miss here – you pay for! This is why I have developed an
XL bidding form sold at www.watermgm.com where all of my
components are listed, so it works like a project checklist for most sizes
of residential, commercial, sports fields, institutional or golf projects.
Product
CONTROLLERS
RBESP6SI
RBESP8SI
RBESP 8LX
Cost
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
Quantity
Total
Tax
TOTAL
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
9. Of course you have already established an account with a reputable
supply house that will give you terms, a discount price and will have
everything you need in stock right? If not, do your homework and get it
done.
10. Next, take your cost price and add up the cost of each item. Taxes you
paid need to be included in theses prices so you can recover them. Total
all of the numbers to come up with a material cost price – the price you
paid. Hopefully this should match your suppliers invoice total for the
material you have bought. You can't always buy exactly what you need
so you have to take extra in box lots or bag lots. These can be used for
future jobs and service work, so don't count them as part of the material
cost for this job.
41
11. You’re done right? Wrong! What about your overhead costs, labour
costs, known as fixed and variable costs? You need to know how much
your office, phones, yellow page ads, insurance, bonding (if required)
come to for the year. You also need to know how long it takes to drive
to the job, how much gas, how much labour it costs to get your crew to
the jobsite, vehicle maintenance cost for driving that distance – usually
worked out as so many cents per mile – about 50 cents per mile.
Difficulty per
hour cost
Travel @ $0 per
day
Labour 4 $0 8hr.
day
Overhead @ $0
day
Equipment @ $0
day
Profit @ 0%
Total Quote Price
$0.00
1
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
1
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
1
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
1
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
1
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
$0.00
0%
12. Add up all of these costs and then you now need to decide how much
money you should have left over when you are completely done this
project. In other words how much profit do I need to make to allow my
company to prosper? 100%? You will never land a job. 10%? You will
work yourself out of business because you will not be able to make
enough money. A guideline for you is somewhere between 25% to 35%
markup on the project price. This is for residential. For commercial it
will need to be slightly lower, about 20%. You will need to investigate
your market place and come up with your own percentage points. Large
commercial and golf are their own animals and I tend to leave that work
to the companies that specialize in doing large projects.
13. You will need to have an estimate form that you present to the client
showing the major component make, type, model, and quantities. Do
not leave them with a drawing even if it is a sketch unless they sign with
you and give you a deposit (typically 10% - 40% - the more the better
and whatever your laws allow). OK, I think you’re good to go, so go and
42
get some work and remember keep your prices high because this is not
fun work and we need to make some money.
43
Be Last to be First
Contractors and Installers who are tasked with selling for their company need to take
advantage of a situation that has allowed my company to close a higher than
average number of bids. Strive to be last in when given an opportunity to meet face
to face with the owner or owners to present your bid. Hopefully, this will result in
the project being awarded to you.
This holds true for residential, but commercial can be a different animal because of
the competitive nature of the project. Residential comes with feelings because it is
for your personal space. Commercial is budget driven, non-personal and usually has
to meet with board approval even if it is the owner who wants the system.
Here are the conditions required to be Last to be First:
Qualify the lead.
o Know the 5 W’s
Who is the person?
What kind and quality of a system do they want?
Where do they live or the location of the project?
When do they require the system to be completed?
Why did they call you?
Once you answer these questions you will now have a much better idea how to
approach the design, pricing and presentation of the bid to the potential client. If
they have called everyone in the phone book then I walk away from this one because
it is normally going to low bid and we can’t do quality work at that price level.
Now get prepared and do your homework.
o Do a site visit with the client in attendance - it shows you care and
they look favourably towards someone who is committed.
o Make a scaled drawing even if it is an incomplete, hasty sketch with
head layout and that’s it.
o Get the best pricing you can arrange through your supplier.
Next, arrange a meeting.
o Schedule a meeting with the owner(s) present where they have
allocated 1 hours time for your visit. Do not take longer as you need
to give the impression that you are organized and busy.
o The meeting is not to take place until all other bids are in.
o Review your drawing by walking the property with them and
discussing your approach, noting key items such as how you will deal
with certain landscape features, plant material, additional water
apparatuses you would like to install such as quick couplers for the
fountain fill-up, etc. and stress the water conserving features of your
design.
o Once you are done selling why yours is the only system for them,
present your price.
44
Time to present your price.
o Your price is to be firm with no discussion of discounts. What you are
allowed to do is offer payment options like paying with a charge card
to revive award points, payment with terms like 40% deposit, 30%/
30 days, 30%/60 days. However these terms cost a little due to their
carrying cost.
o If they say yes – sign them up on the bid/contract agreement that you
have already taken the liberty to prepare ahead of time and set the
installation date to which you, as a quality installation company, will
adhere.
Hesitant closers.
o If they don’t sign and want to discuss further, you can take time to
answer a few concerns but usually they are heading in to check the
other competitors bids. At this time you need to either arrange
another meeting or do what I do.
o Thank them for their time and consideration, reassure them that you
will create the best installation for their beautiful landscaped property.
o Now leave them with the bid/contract and say “I must be off to get to
the rest of my sales calls. Our installation schedule is prioritized from
the time we receive the sign bid/contract form at our office, so please,
to get your system soon don’t delay faxing us”.
Time to leave.
o Ok, now be polite, again thank you and leave. They now know if they
are to have your quality system for their home or business that they
have to act fast or wait a long time to have your company install the
system – because you are busy.
45
Season End Tasks Discussion
In our seasonal business, it is very common for people to say and think that it must
be nice to lie around during the 4-month off- season. Nothing could be further from
the truth. Most established companies are fortunate (or unfortunate depending how
you look at it) to get 60 days of slack time per year. Most work 5, 6, or even 7 days
per week (it seems like 8 days a week at times) with an average 12-15 hour day by
the time the days tasks are completed. If you add up all those hours, we work about
13 months in a 10-month season per year. I don't know about you but I am like a
bear in winter during the off season (except when I venture to sunnier climates down
south). Yes, I am starting to be like the Canadian Snowbirds that fly south each
winter.
Many office tasks require attention at the end of a season include paperwork, filing,
data base clean-up, computer systems checked and upgraded if necessary, radio and
phone systems checked and upgraded if required, customer relations, newsletters,
account balances, bad debts, and numerous other items which all need to be
completed prior to the fiscal year end of a business. There are a number of other
tasks that require attention for a company to know where they are, how they got
there, and to be able to accurately prepare the following year's business plan.
Additionally, equipment repairs need to be scheduled and performed so that all is
ready for the spring. Vehicle repairs need to be performed, yellow safety sticker
tested to be in compliance with MOT regulations and clean air tested every 2 years.
Don't forget your trailer has to have working brakes, painted so MOT does not bother
you and they are also to be yellow safety sticker tested. All inventories need to be
counted. This includes all hand tools, torches, drills, and old inventory items. You
should ask your Accounting Firm how they want to see your inventory sectioned.
Broken items need to be repaired and all warranty items not yet returned need to be
as quickly as possible so that your suppliers can complete their year- end.
Now, if you thought you had spare time coming soon, I am sorry to have to be the
one to point out all of the work that a successful company needs to do before winter
hibernation. And we are all successful companies aren't we!
46
Fall Shut-down Steps
“No matter how much we wish and pray, we can not keep old man winter
away.”
Though it may feel like summer just arrived, it’s already time to prepare to winterize
your irrigation system. This step of Irrigation Management is usually best left to the
professionals. At least you can find them in the spring if repairs are required.
It has never been truer “you get what you pay for” than in the spring when you
cross your fingers and pressurize your irrigation system for the first time that
season. Even if it has been properly winterized by a professional irrigation
contracting company, you may still encounter some kind of problem. Most companies
will repair what freezing has damaged if you have a contract with them, they did the
winterization, and no one has touched the water controls.
The failure of installed components to keep the water from entering the system is
unfortunate but not uncommon. Water seems to somehow find its way into sealed
spaces. It’s the mystery of the water business. Most of these costs fall onto the
owner’s shoulders.
It is rare to find an automatic irrigation system that the owner does not have
winterized and which remains intact. As we all are fully aware, water expands when
frozen. Water trapped inside of a valve chamber, PVC pipe, or manual ball valves
tends to crack these components. PVC pipe has been known to herringbone (crack
into many long splinter pieces) the full 20’ length of a PVC pipe and sometimes goes
past the bell end and continues down to the next pipe. Damage caused by water
freezing is expensive to repair many times the cost of a professional Fall Shutdown.
Putting Your Irrigation System To Sleep For The Winter
To winterize a residential system properly (commercial systems differ slightly due to
the size and length of the pipes), the following steps need to be adhered to:
•
•
•
•
•
Turn off all water sources to the irrigation system
Use an air compressor that has a large volume of air at a lower operating
pressure. A 185 cfm @ 75 to 90 psi is desirable.
Prior to opening the air valve on the air compressor, open an irrigation valve so
the mainline does not become overcharged. Remember air, not like water, is
very compressible. If you let the air compressor charge up the mainline without
expelling air through an opening, the mainline pipe burst pressure rating can be
surpassed causing a mainline blowout. The other problem is when the sprinklers
are cold and the plastic is hard and you open a zone with very compressed air
you most likely will end up sending the sprinkler heads to the moon.
The system can be automatically run from the controller with the water off and
the air on, or each valve can be manually opened so that you know each zone is
clear of water. If operating the system automatically remember that the sensors
may not let you start the system until they are bypassed.
Ensure that all water is discharged from the system. This is indicated when the
surging water stops and only a fine mist is being discharged.
47
•
•
•
•
•
Remove the tops off of the rain sensor and store inside the controller cabinet so
that it is in front of you at spring startup.
Only breaks that will allow water into the pipes are repaired at this time of year.
No other work needs to be done at this time. It is best left for the spring startup.
Be certain to wiretie the water turn on valve in the closed position. Even better
is to use a device like the City uses on the water meters. This way you can see if
anyone has tampered with the valves during the wintertime.
If a hose bib is your connection point, and the owner will use the hose bib after
you have winterized the irrigation system, you must disconnect the irrigation
mainline and plug it so water can not enter the piping system.
Any drain that will not allow water to enter the system needs to be wired open.
This will allow any water that seeps into the system to drain if it reaches the
drain device.
Remember – Water has a mind of its own. If you leave an opening it
will find it. Beware!
48
ET-Watering With the Weather, Not by Time!
It just seems like the thing to do, water the plants when they need it. You don’t
water your house plants until they show signs of needing water. If you watered by
time and not by need, your plant pots would overflow with water, soaking your
floors. Which begs the question, "Why do we water by time?"
The easiest answer I can think of is “It's the only way we know how to water
outside.” I believe that the more probable answer is that technology is not in place
to allow people who water, (Irrigators) access to the information required to allow
them to not water by time. The United States has had this information available, in
some form or another, for more than 10 years. Canada, however slow we are to get
on board, is finally showing signs of progress in a few provinces, such as British
Columbia, Alberta and Ontario, with ET weather stations being installed to supply the
information on a public and private basis.
ET weather stations, like this one located in
Toronto, have actual ET weather data
available for a daily minimal charge to
those who require the information. ET
calculations use a formula called the
Penman Montith. The formula requires
information sent from the weather station
to a central controller to work out the daily
ET rating. Rainfall, temperature, wind,
humidity, and sun strength, measured in
Langley's, make up the information. The
answer is worked out in inches of water
evapotranspired per day. Evapotranspired
is the amount of water evaporated form
the soil surface plus the amount of water transpired or used by the plant to keep the
49
plant cool during the hot period of the day. Sounds complicated, right?. It is, but it
is done automatically by the computer. If you use a central computer control
system, the answer is automatically applied to the sites schedules, and a modified
schedule based on ET, not time, is generated and applied. The water savings using
this method of irrigating have shown results exceeding a 70% saving over
conventional scheduling methods.
What happens if I live and irrigate in an area where ET data is not yet available? You
now have to track the rainfall (deposits) and sunshine days (withdrawals) by hand
similar to the way we do ,or used to, track deposits of money in and out of our bank
account. This method is called a soil water budget. "Water Budgets" still require the
use of ET data, so you will have to use historical ET information for your area. This
ET rating will not be accurate enough to result in the highest levels of water saving,
but it will be close.
Water Budgets are based on the amount of water held in the soil that is readily
available to the plant in the form of moisture. Not all water that is applied through
irrigation or falling to earth in the form of rain is captured by the soil and made
available to the plants. If you want to learn more about this topic, grab an irrigation
book and read the soil section. To work out your water budget based on ET you will
need to do three things.
•
•
•
Work out what type of soil you have and how much water it will hold at field
capacity. Field capacity is your soil, similar to a sponge when saturated and
lifted above the water and allowed to drain, but not squeezed.
Estimate deposits of effective rain, rain captured by the soil and irrigation
Estimate withdrawals from sunshine (use historical ET)
Soil Water Holding Capacity
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Use the above crooked chart to determine your soil type. Next find your soil type
below to determine how much water your soil will hold in a 12" depth. Remember
that most turf roots are only 4" deep so you need to divide the total millimeters of
water by 3 to figure out how much water your root zone will hold.
Soil Type
Clay
Loam
Loamy Sand
Millimeters per 12" of Root Depth
18mm of water per 12" depth
Use a rain gauge to measure how many millimeters of rain fall and record this data
in your water budget checkbook.
Historical ET data for my area in Toronto averages out to .10" for spring and fall and
.20" for summer watering months. Remember that this is a daily reading beginning
around May 20 th and ending around October 15th. For other areas check your
weather forecasters or visit the web to locate data.
If no rain arrives and you need to know how much water your irrigation system has
delivered, you will need to know the precipitation rate - the rate at which water is
being applied to a specific area (station or zone). A simple formula for coming up
with this information is:
96.3 x GPM =
in/hr
Area
96.3 is a constant used to get the formula to work its answer to inches/hr
GPM is the gallons per minute of all the nozzles watering into the wetted area of this
station or zone only. It is not all sprinklers.
Area is the size of the station or zone in square feet. Example: Spray zone spaced at
12' apart would be 12 x 12.
The answer is in inches/hour.
Convert the inches per hour to millimeters and add this information to your
checkbook.
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You can now keep track of the amount of water which is deposited into, and
withdrawn from, the root zone. The only thing you needed to do was to fill the root
zone to field capacity before you began to keep track of the deposits and
withdrawals. Oops!
After a long rainfall take a small shovel and open up the soil to one inch below the
root zone. If the soil is wet, the root zone is full. Start your tracking now!
It would be beneficial to create a spread sheet to
track this information so you will know when the
plants require supplemental water. By using this
method based upon actual or historic ET (if you are
diligent) your water use will drop substantially. Good
luck and thanks for making every drop count.
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Water - Alternative Choices for Irrigation
Water, the most neglected of all our natural resources, is quickly becoming a
resource which is in short supply throughout the world. With our growing population
requiring more fresh purified water, priority goes to drinking water first, followed by
all other water needs. From space, pictures show the earth covered in water with
small land masses which we live on. First impression is that there is so much water
why should I care? The truth is that the amount of fresh water is a tiny fraction of
the total amount on the earth's surface.
Irrigation water for growing food is a high priority so that the world population can
be fed. Recreation uses for sports complexes is very important in the eyes of sports
fans as well as being a major portion of the economy. Beautification of private
properties with lush healthy landscapes is under attack in many cities throughout the
world due to the competition for the fresh water.
There is no new water on earth, only water that is cycled between the planet's
surface and atmosphere through evapotranspiration - evaporation of the moisture
from the surface, and transpiration - the water used by plants to maintain
temperature and cell strength. The returning water, be it through rain or snow, plus
any water stored within the earths crust is what we are concerned with to meet
domestic, agricultural, industrial, recreational, landscape and other needs.
There are solutions for the supply of alternative water sources to be used by the
irrigation industry. "Water Recycling" which is the use of existing water not fit for
human consumption, is being widely used throughout the world to meet the nonpotable water requirements. Water reuse practices vary depending upon
regulations in place plus the availability, amount and quality of reuse water for the
region. California and Florida are the most active areas judging by the volume of
water reused.
The Water Reuse Association ( www.waterreuse.org) states "Current and planned
usage of recycled water includes irrigation of a wide variety of crops and ornamental
landscapes, wildlife and fisheries enhancement, industrial supply, groundwater
recharge and many more innovative and creative applications." They go on to say
"The recent surge in water recycling activity can be attributed to improvements in
technology, strong public acceptance and greater recognition of the economic, social
and environmental benefits of recycling." Furthermore, it is noted that recycled
water helps communities deal with drought by storing water in wet times to be used
for dry times. Jobs are created when water recycling is adopted by local
communities, allowing water resources to go to work where they are captured,
rather than having to be pumped long distances, benefiting the environment through
reduced energy demand while contributing to the local economy. Water recycling
just makes good economical and environmental sense and it's about time we all start
to learn how to use this resource and stop treating it so badly, because without
water, there is no way we can go on living.
Now that you see how important a topic recycling our water is, how do I go about
capturing, treating and reusing water for my residence, office building, sports
complex, cemetery, crops or other locations? There are a few systems already in
53
place, ready to be installed, to get you going on a small or large scale. I am going to
open your eyes to a few, which are of the utmost importance to the business of
irrigation, the area in which I specialize, for the efficient use of water, if we are to
continue to have a source of water for irrigation and our livelihood.
Water has many names with a variety of collection methods in use. Water or "H20"
is known as lake water, ground water, river water, ocean water, iceberg water, snow
water, rain water, run-off water, grey water, reuse water, reclaimed water,
desalination water, recycled water, tertiary water, secondary treatment water, city
water, treated water, chlorinated water, polluted water, irrigation water, swimming
water, fishing water boating water, aquifer water, industrial water, heavy water,
hard water, soft water, and probably some other types that don't come to mind right
away. The systems and alternate sources of water in use today to collect, store and
treat the water are what we want to focus on. Some fairly common systems and
sources in use throughout the world are rainwater harvesting systems with cisterns,
gray water, effluent water and desalination water.
Presently, I am involved with a commercial building project where the main irrigation
water supply will be from the collection of rainwater stored in an underground
cistern. A cistern is just a fancy name for a vessel that can store water to be used at
a later date. The irrigation system will be backed up by the city supplied water
which will only be used once the cistern low level indicator activates an electric valve
which will then allow the mainline, not the cistern, to be charged for irrigation use
until the cistern low level signal ceases after a wet period occurs. All that was
involved with this type of a system was a little thought and planning between the
engineers and me to come up with the method. The water savings for this "Water
Wise Irrigation System", as we now call it, will be substantial throughout the life of
the irrigation system matched to the actual plant water requirements.
For any of the alternate water source systems, one must seriously consider what you
want your system to do and how you will provide back-up water if you are designing
the system as a supplemental water source, or in the event of severe drought. I
have done this for the current commercial project on which I am working. Rainwater
Harvesting catchment systems provide a source of high quality water, reduce
reliance on city supplied water, reduce the use of groundwater from wells and
aquifers and other sources, and, in many contexts, are cost-effective. Systems range
in size from rain barrels connected to downspouts to large in-ground multi-thousand
gallon or liter tanks, which use a pump to supply the water to an irrigation system,
hopefully in an efficient nature like a low volume system will achieve.
Cisterns, also known as storage tanks have been used for centuries. Large,
centralized water supply systems have not been around forever. From cisterns out
of rock found in and around Pompeii, Italy as well as many other places throughout
the world, to hollowed out tree trunks, historical precedents abound that trace
people's reliance on rainwater collection, as noted by the Texas Guide to Rainwater
Harvesting. Hawaii, Australia, Bermuda, Virgin Islands and other Caribbean islands
collect rainwater as the most viable water supply option for public buildings, private
houses, and resort water requirements. A major environmental factor for collecting
rainwater is the reduction of storm water, which is the main carrier of contaminants
transported to and degrading waterways.
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As noted in the Guide, "once rain comes in contact with the roof or collection surface,
it can wash many types of bacteria, molds, algae, protozoa and other contaminants
into the cistern or storage tank." They go on to note that "if the rainwater is to be
used outside for landscape irrigation, where human consumption of the untreated
water is less likely, the presence of contaminants may not be of major concern and
thus treatment requirements can be less stringent or not required at all." Rainwater
is near distilled water quality as it contains little dissolved salts and minerals, and
has been shown to be beneficial for people on salt free diets.
A Rainwater Harvesting system is comprised of a catchment area, gutters and
downspouts, leaf screens, cisterns or storage tanks, conveying the water by gravity
or pump and water treatment if required. Many designers assume a 25% loss on
annual rainfall due to type and style of collection system. Collection devices can be
small rain barrels made from 55 gallon drums which can usually be picked up for free
or minimal charge from food manufacturing companies. Concrete reinforced tanks
are built above or below ground, similar to water district storage facilities that are
located under many sports fields. Ferrocement, a type of steel-mortar composite
material to stone cisterns, built right out of the existing stone landscape, and plastic
fiberglass tanks have all been used with success. A typical 12' deep by 12' diameter
tank will hold just over 10,000 gallons of water. For further information regarding
rainwater harvesting, contact the Texas Water Development Board.
Gray water is household water from bath, shower, non-kitchen sinks, and washing
machines as defined by the Office of Arid Lands Studies (
www.ag.arizona.edu/OALS/oals/dru/graywater). Wastewater from the toilet and
kitchen sink is considered "black water" and goes into the sewage system. They
note that each individual of a household produces close to 10,000 gallons of gray
water per year, excluding black water. They go on to recommend that gray water be
used below the surface for subsurface or drip irrigation systems only, not overhead
by conventional spray or rotor sprinkler irrigation systems. A permit is usually
required from local health agencies.
To use gray water, the building plumbing system needs to be modified for existing
facilities or designed as a gray water plumbing system for new construction. In the
future, as fresh water comes under further constraints, progressive builders will
incorporate gray water systems as selling features, helping to promote their product
as environmentally friendly and as a less expense alternative to fresh water once
amortized over the life span of the facility.
There are some important to do's when considering the use of gray water. Apply for
a permit, distribute gray water subsurfacely, use a filter to catch debris that could
plug up the system, routine maintenance of collection system components and the
irrigation system is a must, wear latex gloves when working with the water, cover
the storage tank and use purple colored components to easily identify reuse water
along with tags that say "Non-potable water. Do not drink." It is important to
maintain minimum distances between components of gray water system and play
areas, vegetable gardens and other areas where human contact may occur.
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Effluent water, better known as recycled water, comes with many plusses and
minuses. Wastewater is used water from homes and businesses that is discharged
into the sewer system. It is in abundant supply and highly under-utilized. When
highly treated wastewater (reclaimed water) is utilized, streams, rivers, lakes, and
groundwater resources are less taxed and the environment is spared. Additionally,
purified water supplied by the water provider is not wasted on irrigation that does
not need a purified water source.
"The wastewater is cleaned and treated so that it can be released and reused without
causing a health hazard or harming the environment," as stated in the handbook
describing Water of Santa Barbara County in California. The Water Environment
Federation notes that the benefits of using reclaimed water is "drinking water
sources are conserved, existing water treatment facilities last longer, construction of
new water treatment facilities can be deferred, and a reliable new source of water is
established "Because recycled water can be safely and legally used instead of
drinking water for watering plants and flushing toilets, as well as dust control and
compaction on construction sites, it frees up drinking water, effectively creating an
additional water supply," states Santa Barbara County literature.
The Pebble Beach Project, utilizing recycled water, noted some important conditions
that need to be met due to regulatory operational requirements. They stated, "all
irrigation at night, no irrigation when people are present, no irrigation within 25 feet
of any building, no spray drift onto any building or home, no spray within 50 feet of a
drinking fountain or picnic table, no pooling, ponding or draining into water ways,
and prevent cross-connection to domestic water supply."
Minuses are mostly concerned with the quality of turf, especially on golf courses.
Salt crystals stick to grass blades. Sparse growth of grass populations on greens
and tees has been noticed. Elevated levels of salt have been found in the soil.
Increased predation by nematodes, and increased susceptibility to pathogens was
noticed at Pebble Beach as stated in the AWWA Water Reuse 2000 presentation.
Desalination is the process of removing salt from sea water to create a fresh water
supply. This is only a viable solution for those close to the sea, or for those willing to
treat and pump the water to inland areas. Water is forced at high pressure through
filters with very small holes in them. The holes are the right size so that water
molecules can pass through, but the larger salt particles are filtered out. In the
plant, the seawater is then pumped through special tubes containing reverseosmosis filters that separate the salt from water.
Reverse-osmosis filters contain a special membrane that allows water molecules to
pass through while salt stays behind. The de-salted water is then run through
special filters, treated by the same methods as drinking water, and then put directly
into pipelines which deliver the water where required. As you can see, the
desalination process requires large amounts of energy, so producing desalination
water is expensive. This water source, due to its high cost, would be the last resort
for irrigation use.
Using what water we have more efficiently is what counts. On average most people
are using far too much water per day. Water conservation is something we all should
56
practice. Besides the air we need for breathing, water is the single most important
element in our lives. It's too valuable to waste, so why do we? Here are some
useful facts to reduce outdoor water use. There are many articles available that
discuss other water savings for indoors as well.
57
Guidelines for Using Outdoor Water More Efficiently
•
A properly designed and installed automatic irrigation system is more
effective than a hose.
•
A low volume irrigation system utilizing subsurface, soaker and drip
components is the most efficient method for watering plants
•
Make sure your sprinkler only waters the softscape (plants) not hardscape
(sidewalks and roads).
•
Set a timer when manually watering your lawn so you don't over water.
•
When using a hose, a nozzle which can be shut off or adjusted to a fine spray
needs to be attached to enable the hose to be shut off after use.
•
Perform a catch can test using cups or tuna type cans to collect water. You
want to apply about 1" of water per week to your lawn. Time how long it
takes your sprinkler system to apply 1" of water so you will know how long to
schedule your irrigation.
•
Time how long it takes for water to runoff of your lawn and down the road
where it is wasted. Make sure you water for less time so runoff does not
occur. You may need to water more frequently to prevent runoff.
•
Lawns need water when the colour of the grass blade is dull, when the blade
rolls up, or when it doesn't spring back when stepped on.
•
Trees and shrubs show signs to late to prevent damage. Check the soil with a
moisture probe and water when the top 2 to 6 inches of soil are dry.
•
Irrigate your lawn down to the bottom of the root zone plus 1 inch to promote
deeper root growth. After about 30 minutes use a soil probe or a sharp
shovel and check how deep the water has penetrated. Watering too shallow
or too deep is inefficient.
•
Water with the weather, not by time. Do not water on a preset schedule. It
does not match the plant water requirements. Try to water only when the
plants need water by tracking ET (evapotranspiration). ET is the amount of
water that left the soil and plant during the day. It is measured in inches per
day. By knowing that your landscape lost .10" in day and your (AW)
available water was full (100%), and you are allowing your AW to deplete
to 50%, your lawn can survive 5 days (5 x .10" = .5") before you will need to
refill the soil profile.
•
Put mulch around your plants 2" to 4" deep to help retain moisture.
•
Swimming pools need to be covered when not in use to prevent evaporation.
Keep pools a little lower than full to eliminate water wastage.
58
•
For every 10 minutes you ordinarily water, shorten the time by 1 minute.
This will result in a 10 % savings.
•
Watering is to end just before the sun comes up at around 5:30 a.m. This
will allow enough time to get the water into the soil with little lost to
evaporation, plus plants will not be sitting in wet soil during the cool period of
the night, which can affect plant health.
•
Use warm-up water from your shower to water your plants inside and out
•
Repair broken sprinklers and leaks in pipes as these can waste 5 to 10 gallons
per minute. A 1 ml drip leak in a pressurized water line can amount to over
15,000 gallons of water being wasted during the irrigation season.
•
Let the lawn grow to 4 inches then cut to 3" to promote deeper roots which
helps make the grass more drought tolerant by providing a deeper soil
reservoir of moisture due to deeper roots.
•
Use less fertilizer in times of drought. Nitrogen encourages growth, which
leads to increased water use.
•
Aerate the lawn to allow water and air to reach the grass roots, while
reducing run-off.
•
Dethatch grasses in the spring or fall to renovate them and to help water
penetration
•
Think about planting native plants or drought resistant plants and grasses
that can survive on once-a-week watering.
•
The goal is to water as infrequently as possible and as deep as the plant
requires.
•
Trees do need watering, especially in periods of prolonged drought. If they
don't get it they'll weaken and become susceptible to insects and other
diseases that can kill them. Deep water established trees every 2 to 3
months during the dry season.
59
Reclaimed Water for Irrigation
It's time to begin the discussion on alternate water sources for irrigation starting
with a relatively new water source now known as "Reclaimed Water for
Irrigation".
As clean fresh water sources continue to be overtaxed, the focus of our search for
irrigation water will turn to "Reclaimed Water". Reclaimed water is water that has
already been used once and is then recycled and, depending upon the source,
treated so that it can be put to beneficial use once again. Collection of rainwater into
holding tanks, called cisterns if held in the ground, has been in existence since the
Romans colonized Pompeii. This may be among the purest forms of water currently
available for irrigation use requiring minimal treatment. Tertiary water, which is
treated sewage water, requires sophisticated treatment and would limit access where
irrigation occurs.
Reclaimed water has been used on landscapes and agricultural crops in regions
where a moisture deficit has occurred during the growing season. Designing and
operating irrigation systems to make beneficial use of reclaimed water only makes
good sense when you hear about all of the new water problems occurring daily,
locally and around the globe.
Any source of used water, of which there are more than a dozen, comes with many
regulations and guidelines to ensure public safety. Only currently permitted uses are
allowable when using reclaimed water. Before venturing to far forward into this
newly evolving area of water use, ensure you check all local bylaws that may or may
not allow for the use of reclaimed water. As the pressure for clean water increases,
reclaimed water use will become the accepted norm for supply irrigation water.
Two areas of concern are "Restricted Public Access" where the public is to be
restricted from access where reclaimed water has been used at any time during or
after application.
"Unrestricted Public Access" allows the public access due to the high quality level of
the reclaimed water.
Where reclaimed water is used for golf course irrigation, nurseries, or other publicly
attended areas, the reclaimed water will need to be properly treated and filtered to
remove contaminants and debris which may clog irrigation system components.
Dirty water valves and flow through sprinklers might be required if particulate is still
present in the water after filtering.
There are specific makes of irrigation components that can be put together to create
systems for use with reclaimed water. For unrestricted public access, a sprinkler
and/or drip irrigation system can be used on agricultural crops. For turf and
landscape applications, pop-up sprinklers and spray heads, or drip or trickle, can be
used. Restricted public access areas are allowed to use sprinkler irrigation for forage
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crops, with drip or trickle systems for vineyard or orchard crops. Vegetables must be
irrigated with subsurface systems.
Management of a reclaimed water system is very important. Safety measures must
be undertaken to ensure operational and maintenance personnel health requirements
are met. Areas of use must include proper signage, restricting access into the
irrigated areas to “Authorized Personnel Only.” Water storage must be considered to
ensure enough reclaimed water will be available for irrigation during dry weather
periods. Consideration must be given to what will happen to any excessive amounts
of water during wet weather periods and how overflow or discharge of the reclaimed
water will be handled.
Many considerations must be dealt with prior to implementing a reuse water project.
The benefits outweigh the additional considerations required to use reuse water. In
the future, as clean water becomes more restricted as to its allowed uses, reclaimed
water may be the only source of water for irrigating larger sites. Already this spring
in parts of Canada, watering restrictions are in place which prohibit irrigation due to
the low snow pack combined with below normal rainfall. If reuse water was available
would the restrictions have been necessary?
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A New Era for Irrigation Controllers
“Water is the Kingdom’s most valuable resource, and its management and protection
is of paramount importance,” said Abdullah Al-Hussayen, Saudi Arabia’s Minister of
Water and Electricity. “Unless highly efficient water usage practices can be developed
and maintained in the West, it will not be possible to provide the water needed to
sustain Western ecosystems, as well as population growth,” stated Shelley Berkley,
D-Nev., during her introduction at the 108th Congress (speaking about the western
United States).
Water is in short supply and high demand nearly everywhere throughout the world
today. Water is looked upon as more valuable than oil; without it hard choices will
have to be made. For many years water has been mistreated mainly due to wasteful
practices. These practices now need to change. Complacency has taken hold “no
need to worry there is lots of water” and promoted an attitude. It is for this reason
that technology is here to do what humans will not. Enter the new era for irrigation
controllers. They are SWAT and WBIC. These are both acronyms created to sum up
what the new ET controllers can do to save water by utilizing technology rather than
people. The concept of ET (evapotranspiration) has been around and in use on a
large scale for more than 15 years. The new era of controllers are aimed directly at
the residential market place; the millions of users of low-water consumption that
when grouped together, create the largest water users of all. “SWAT is a national
initiative to achieve exceptional landscape water efficiency through the application of
irrigation technology”, states the IA (Irrigation Association) website.
The major difference, and hopefully for many homeowners the reason to upgrade
their existing controller to a SMART controller, will be not only the water savings
which will help offset the cost of the upgrade, but much healthier plants, a beautiful
garden, higher real-estate value, less damage to driveways and walkways from over
watering and maybe even cleaner streams, rivers, lakes and oceans due to reduced
run-off. When gas prices started to climb through the roof did you stay with old
technology – the old gas guzzler? No! We have all traded in the old, over time, and
upgrade to the new. When you know that your life, or the lives of others, depends
on the amount of water we save, wouldn’t the neighborly thing be to upgrade to the
new technology? Sounds pretty harsh when the story is told this way.
SMART irrigation controllers reduce water use by “watering with the weather –
not by time”. A SMART controller is fed information from an onsite miniature
weather station, sensors, an ET signal sent via satellite to a paging source, or by
whatever other method the more than fifteen (15) manufacturers of the new
controllers have devised to get the information to the controller. ET is a number, say
a quarter of an inch (.25”), which represents how much water was used up,
evaporated from around the plant or transpired from the plant’s surface over a given
time. If we have a storage area (soil plus the roots are known as the root zone)
which will hold one inch (1”) of water (known as available water holding capacity)
waiting for the plant and an irrigation system that can only supply a quarter inch
(.25”) per day, and - here’s the cruncher - we say that the water in the soil cannot
be depleted more than fifty percent (50%) - you can say that at this quarter inch
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(.25”) daily loss rate we need to water every third day to keep the soil reservoir
topped up.
Pilot projects conducted over the past four years have proven that SMART irrigation
controllers reduce outdoor water use by responding to real weather conditions. If it’s
hot the controller waters, if it rained it stays off, if it’s cloudy maybe it will postpone
the watering until tomorrow or if the total amount of ET adds up to more than fifty
percent (50%) it turns on. This is a rudimentary look into how they work, but they
have proven to work admirably. A system priced in the $600 range has proven to
perform very closely to a full scale central control system with a full size weather
station priced around $20,000, a remarkable achievement by the manufacturers who
have produced some remarkable technology at rock bottom prices.
So who are the players and how do you get involved? Currently product is just
ramping up so that these controllers will become more readily available in time.
Some of the forerunners have had their product to market for over a year with the
prototypes around for more than four years. The prototypes have been placed under
an array of tests ensuring that if the controller passes the eight step test developed
by the Center for Irrigation Technology (CIT), under the watchful eye of Ed Norum;
they will work correctly once installed by a manufacturer certified installer.
To assist homeowners in water-scarce areas, incentive programs are being created
paying up to fifty percent (50%) of the cost of the upgrade. Others, like the San
Diego County Water Authority, are offering a residential voucher incentive of $65 per
controller and a business voucher for $13.33 per active station up to forty eight (48)
stations.
Some of the players that have made it onto lists for residential and/or commercial
control systems, indicating eligible weather-based irrigation controllers are, in no
particular order: Accu Water, ET Water Systems, Griswold, Calsense, Aqua Conserve,
HydroEarth, Rain Bird, Alpine Automation, WeatherSet Co., Hydropoint Data
Systems, Rain Master, Toro, Weathermatic, Acclima and Alex-Tronics. The offerings
cover a wide spectrum and price range. There are controllers that come as stand
alone (receive their ET information onsite), while others receive a broadcast page of
weather information collected from an established weather station network. The
latter usually come with a monthly charge for receiving the information, which is
hopefully recovered through reduced water consumption resulting in lower water and
sometimes sewer charges to pay for the service plus lining the homeowner’s pocket
with the left over. A few of the players offer only larger single to multi-site irrigation
system ET controllers. Others require sensing devices to be purchased separate
from the controllers. You have a variety of ways to purchase the new era controllers
from buying direct online from the manufacturer’s website to having a manufacturer
trained and certified installer come to your site to install and set up the system.
Some brands are already available to be purchased at an irrigation supply house
across the counter for those Do-It-Yourselfers.
On the IA website (www.irrigation.org) you will find information concerning the
questions that interested parties have asked such as:
• How does a SMART controller make watering my landscape easier and more
convenient?
63
•
•
•
•
How will installing a SMART controller save me money?
Where do the automatic adjustments come from?
How much do SMART controllers cost?
Which SMART controller works best?
Other questions and answers are listed so if you still have questions, be sure to visit
the site.
How does a SMART controller save money? One of the answers states: “Pilot studies
have shown typical water savings to be in the range of 20% - 40% annually.” I have
worked with ET and central control for the past five years and have personally seen
results greater than a seventy percent (70%) reduction in annual water use. Think
how much you could reduce your water bill payments if you could attain a
comfortable forty percent reduction. For every $100 you have spent, $40 would still
be in your pocket.
“We conserve what we love,” writes Amy Vickers in her comprehensive Water Use
and Conservation Handbook. The Environmental Protection Agency has embarked
upon a star, actually a Water Star program, to help consumers identify efficient
water-use products. The SMART ET WBIC controllers will certainly qualify for a star
or two. The IA sums it all up by noting that, “SMART controllers will change the way
Americans water their landscapes.” It will also do the same for all of North America
plus wherever the new era technology is correctly applied. Marq de Villiers sums it
up by stating, “The trouble with water – and there is trouble with water – is they’re
not making any more of it,” in his book coincidentally called WATER.
64
New Era of Soil Moisture Based Irrigation Control
This winter has seen massive amounts of rain flood parts of California, supplying
more water than the past 10 years combined. Seattle announced they only received
just over 50% of their annual winter rainfall, leading some to predict a very dry
summer. In other areas of North America, trusted water sources have become
polluted. In the Waterloo Region in Ontario, Canada announced that residents “will
not be allowed to water their lawn or wash your car more than once a week this
summer and never on a weekend.” The response is due to the loss of 5% of the
urban water supply last August to industrial contamination. The West coast had a
very poor ski season with limited to non existent snowfall which does not fair well for
spring run-off topping up depleted reservoirs.
The environment is changing, and as David Suzuki’s newsletter highlights; The Earth
is Melting, Arctic Native Leader Warns, (Environment News Service), “An Arctic
native leader offered a passionate plea to the U.S. government and its citizens to
aggressively combat climate change.” Populations continue to grow and tax our
irrigation water supply; this is why we must jump onboard the irrigation technology
train and learn everything we can, then apply what we know. “Water with the
weather, not by time” has been my slogan for more than 10 years – it’s time it
became yours.
There are currently over 20 different models of soil moisture sensing devices to
choose from. In order to choose one, you need to know what you want to monitor
and the accuracy of the reading you require. Maintaining turf has a different
outcome than growing cash crops. If you do not select the right technology for
maintaining turf you may encounter angry clients, but with cash crops you may
encounter bankruptcy.
“Soil moisture sensors have been used in agriculture for years to determine the
correct amount of water to replace in the soil to increase crop yields. This
technology had not been applied to landscapes until recently when a new era of soil
moisture based control systems were introduced,” noted Baseline, one of the newer
breed of manufacturers. Advantages of soil moisture based irrigation come from
measuring water at the soil level so that only the correct amount of water is
replaced. They go on to say that as weather and climate change, watering schedules
need to be adjusted weekly and this is very seldom done. Sensors require no
maintenance and will outlast a sprinkler system and a weather station. Once the
sensor watering is set, very little human intervention is required. The system is self
adjusting for changes in soil and plant needs and moisture levels are more consistent
with soil sensor based watering so plants are healthier.
“Soil moisture sensing is being resurrected as a plausible water-savings tool,” says
David Byma, president of Calsense, which offers the ET2000 field controller with
moisture sensing, “because more storage, ease of use and information processing
has become possible and at cost points that are much more affordable.”
65
Soil moisture levels can be expressed in different ways, depending largely on the
instrument used. Soil moisture content is often expressed as a percent (the weight of
the water in the soil divided by the weight of oven-dried soil × 100). Other soil
moisture monitoring devices use soil moisture tension to indicate soil moisture
levels. Soil moisture tension refers to how strongly water is held on soil particles; the
higher the tension the more difficult it is for plant roots to extract water from the
soil. Therefore, low soil moisture tension indicates moist soil and high soil moisture
tension indicates dry soil. Soil moisture tension is usually expressed in centibar.
(Orloff, S., Hanson, B., and Putnam, D. 2003. Utilizing soil-moisture monitoring to
improve alfalfa and pasture irrigation management. Online. Crop Management
doi:10.1094/CM-2003-0120-01-MA.)
Acclima offers a solution to inefficient irrigation. By irrigating according to soil
root zone moisture requirements, they deliver only the water needed, applying up to
40% less water while maintaining a healthy landscape. The digital TDT Moisture
Sensor technology reads absolute soil moisture to within ± 1%. The sensor is
integrated through embedded software to a computerized controller. The result is a
self-regulating irrigation control system that maintains soil moisture at optimal levels
for plant growth, yet offers significant savings and convenience.
Irrometer’s tensiometers are used to mimic root conditions to monitor soil moisture
and tension. Tensiometers are excellent indicators for irrigation scheduling. With
three depths to choose from, they tell you how hard plant roots are working to draw
water from the soil.
All of this information is very helpful for irrigators regardless of whether they are
growing cash crops or beautiful landscapes. With the ever increasing use of
technology providing information to the end user, sometimes without intervention,
water savings are taking a positive turn – irrigation systems are slowly becoming
more efficient water users and irrigators are beginning to use water more efficiently.
The new era of technical instrumentation is readily available with one focus - saving
water. If irrigators control the use of a major portion of the earth’s fresh water, why
are we not required to be trained to use the new technology? I still see flood
irrigation, over watering, run-off, and watering in the rain taking place, almost on a
daily basis. One day, irrigation will be a respected licensed or certified trade; after all
you can’t live without water – can you?
66
New Breed of Irrigation Controllers
…offer online services for Internet-based irrigation control and water management.
They communicate with remote irrigation controllers using built-in wireless
connectivity, or add-on communication equipment, which allows you to manage
irrigation of your sites from anywhere in the world via the Internet.
The summer of 2005 was off and on in my hometown. One day was hot, the next
wet, the rest of the week cool – a real scheduling nightmare, unless it is done
automatically based on real site specific weather information. To compound matters
even further, I was in Italy working on a project when a call came in to start up a
station on a site that we monitor. The staff person responsible for managing the
system was away and could not be reached. As is my habit, I had planned ahead.
The sites are operated utilizing a central control system which I had earlier linked to
PC Anywhere. With a high speed internet connection I was able to go online and fire
up the station that the Facility Manager was waiting to see turn on. Within a few
minutes a phone call confirmed that he had water, even though I knew before they
did because the flow meter was already indicating that water was moving. Thanks to
modern technology no one was the wiser that I was overseas operating the site's
irrigation system from more than 6,000 miles away and a 6 hour time difference.
With all the advantages of Internet-based access to remote irrigation controllers, the
new control systems provide you with efficient services for weather-based irrigation
scheduling. They gather location-specific weather data and deliver the data to
irrigation controllers that are hard wired or wireless, allowing you to achieve
quantifiable water savings, while reducing the operational cost of weather-based
irrigation scheduling.
This drawing courtesy of
Signature Control Systems, a
manufacturer of electronic
control equipment,
management software and
irrigation equipment,
demonstrates the complexity
that this type of system can
bring and I have talked about
the simplicity of operating the
system once created and
installed.
This type of control system can provide landscape managers, golf course
superintendents, as well as property managers’ direct control of irrigation, fertigation
applications, vehicle tracking, asset and inventory management and many other
market oriented products.
67
Other manufacturers like Rain Bird, Rain Master, Hunter, Motorola, Weathermatic
and Toro all offer their own versions of irrigation control systems and some have
done so for more than 20 years. These manufacturers' products have come a long
way since inception and are now more user friendly while offering some great
features.
A unique feature I was very impressed by is called "Store and Forward". I was
hired as the Irrigation Consultant for a City Parks Department radio-based central
control system bid, selection and implementation. The City Staff desired a system
that was capable of controlling up to 60 parks, ball diamonds and community
gardens initially, with other sites added as future budgets or water savings gleaned
from the central control system performance were realized. Day one of the site
visits, where equipment location and radio strength signals are checked, went well.
Day two, however, was a different story. Located at the far northern end of the
project boundary stood a large 1 mile wide by 1,000 foot high hill of rock. No
problem in most situations, however this time, the radio signals on the back side of
the mountain, where two of the parks are located, were non-existent because the
rock bounced the radio signals elsewhere.
After exhaustive investigation resulting in additional time being required to come up
with a financially viable solution, one of the manufacturers informed me of a unique
feature that their equipment possessed called “store and forward.” Drew Ferraro
from Signature Control Systems told me how store and forward worked and right
away I was sold on the concept.
A government document defines this as:
Store-and-forward (S-F): Pertaining to communications systems in which
messages are received at intermediate routing points and recorded i.e., stored, and
then transmitted, i.e., forwarded, to the next routing point or to the ultimate
recipient.
Wikipedia Online Dictionary says:
Store and forward is a telecommunications technique in which information is sent
to an intermediate station where it is kept and sent at a later time to the final
destination or to another intermediate station. The intermediate station, or node in a
networking context, verifies the integrity of the message before it forwards it. In
general this technique is used in networks with intermittent connectivity, especially
in the wilderness or environments requiring high mobility. It may also be preferable
if there are long delays in transmission and variable and high error rates, or if a
direct, end-to-end connection is not available.
Each controller works like a central control unit which has the capability of
communicating with each other to determine what needs to be done where and by
whom. With store and forward, the radio communication signal could be sent from
one controller to the next and the next literally bouncing the signal around the
mountain. Brilliant! This technology will save the project.
68
So how else can these systems talk? Good question. They are capable of being a
stand alone controller working all alone, not connected to anything else. Another
method is to use hard wires where you wire one controller to the next one and then
connect them to the central computer. You can use a two wire system that
communicates along a two wire path seeking out addressable devices similar to your
house or office address and talks only to that address or device. Regular land line
telephones, preferably with a dedicated phone number not shared by other devices
can be used, even though I have come up with a device which allows sharing of a
non-dedicated line to reduce operational expenses. Cellular phones are utilized
where a phone system is desirable for whatever reason but a land line is not
available or too expensive to install. Ethernet communication systems can also be
used.
A 1990s Ethernet network interface card. This is a
combo card that supports both coaxial-based
10BASE2 ( BNC connector, left) and ( Twisted-p RJ45 connector, right).
“Ethernet is based on the idea of peers on the
network sending messages in what was essentially a
radio system, captive inside a common wire or
channel, sometimes referred to as the ether. Each
peer has a unique 48-bit key known as the MAC
address to ensure that all systems in an Ethernet network have distinct addresses.
By default network cards come programmed with a globally unique address but this
can generally be changed and there are a number of reasons for doing so. Due to
the ubiquity of Ethernet and the ever-decreasing cost of the hardware needed to
support it, most manufacturers build the functionality of an Ethernet card directly
into PC motherboards. Despite the huge changes in Ethernet from a thick coaxial
cable bus running at 10 Mbit/s to point-to-point links running at 1 Gbit/s and
beyond, the different variants remain essentially the same from the programmer's
point of view and are easily interconnected using readily available inexpensive
hardware.” (Wikipedia)
There are so many additional varieties of features offered with
these amazing machines that they will require you to spend
some of your precious time investigating all the possibilities.
The world of irrigation control systems is dramatically
changing from its humble beginnings as a timing device to a
smart one. Given the right information from weather and soil
moisture sensors, this new breed of sophisticated controllers
is much more than a timing device. The new breed knows
when to top up the glass, so to speak, so the plants do not
reach that deadly permanent wilting point (PWP). They also
know when the glass is full. This feature alone will become
extremely important as our worlds water supply is
increasingly called upon to deliver more than what is available.
69
About the Author
Lorne Haveruk CID, CIC, CLIA, WCP
During Lorne’s 17-year career in the Irrigation Industry, he has served to create and
direct irrigation industry training and water efficiency in North America. As a Certified
Irrigation Designer, Certified Irrigation Contractor, Certified Landscape Irrigation
Auditor and a Certified Water Conservation Practitioner with California and Nevada,
Mr. Haveruk is among the highest certified in North America.
Elected to the IA Board of Directors in 2002, Lorne is among only a handful of
contractors to become a board member of the Irrigation Association which is the
heart of the American Irrigation Industry association.
In 1989, Lorne launched a design-build landscape/lighting contract business. During
the past 16 years the company has installed over 1250 systems ranging from sports
fields, golf courses, commercial and residential properties, nurseries, rooftops, as
well as indoor systems.
DHWMS was founded as an Irrigation Consulting business focusing on the efficient
use of water. DHWMS educates and trains those who design, install, service and
operate irrigation and central control systems, while assessing, auditing and
analyzing consumption levels of existing irrigation systems, making every drop
count. Rainwater collection systems, cistern storage systems and reuse water are
ongoing areas of diversification helping to conserver our limited water supply.
DHWMS has completed more than 160 water assessment/audits during the past 13
years. While in Italy he designed a water wise irrigation system for Hotel Presidente
in Siderno, Italy. It was designed to slowly water the new plant material just below
the soil surface, maximizing the water efficiency of the irrigation systems. The La
Quinta Hotel hired Lorne to be rid of a courtyard irrigation system, which continually
washed dirt onto pathways due to excess water runoff from conventional spray
sprinklers. Through assessing and auditing a plan was devised for the more than
600 sprinkler heads.
In November 2003, DHWMS was selected from an RFP issued throughout Canada
and the Untied States to Consult and assist the City of Nanaimo, with facilitating the
sourcing, selection, presentations, tender document creation, implementation, and
operation of a city wide Central Control System (CCS) covering 22 km with 42 park
complexes. Irrigation, lighting, facility access, water supply control, drinking
fountains, water parks, and others will be controlled by this system as it is
implemented. To contact the author email lorne1@watermgm.com
DHWMS was awarded a 4 year Irrigation Assessment/Audit Pilot Project for the City
of Toronto. With live ET [Evapotranspiration] weather input, documented savings in
water range from 25% to 72%. See our project information section on our website
for more information.
70
Currently, DH Water Management Services Inc. is among a few select companies
that offers irrigation central computer control training for private companies focused
solely on water efficiency, as only Lorne can provide due to his many years of formal
and hands on training and experience. DHWMS is among the first Independent
Consulting Firms specializing in the field of Central Irrigation Control system
selection and implementation.
He has served on many boards as board member, committee chair, and as President
of the Canadian Irrigation Association – Eastern Region. He continues to be involved
with the EPA, LO, IA and other groups promoting the efficient use of water. He is an
Author, Speaker and Educator and is well respected throughout the irrigation
industry.
71

Lorne Haveruk - DH Water Management

Transcription

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