Lorne Haveruk - DH Water Management
Transcription
Lorne Haveruk - DH Water Management
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 2 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 3 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 4 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 5 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 6 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 7 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 8 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 9 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 10 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 11 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 12 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 13 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 14 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 15 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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”. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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) © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 20 • • • 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 22 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 24 Water Source: Each water supply is to be thoroughly checked in detail for the following; • • • • • • • • • • 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; • • • • • • • • • 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 25 • 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 • • 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 • Zone(s) Inspection Every zone (station) is to be fully inspected for the following noted items; • • • • • • • • • • 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 • • 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 28 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 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 29 • • • • • • • 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 31 (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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 32 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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: © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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' © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 42 get some work and remember keep your prices high because this is not fun work and we need to make some money. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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! © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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! © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 50 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 39mm of water per 12" depth 30mm 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 51 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 52 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 54 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 55 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 60 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? © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 61 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 © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 62 (.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? © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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.” © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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? © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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 [email protected] 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 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. © 2006 Lorne Haveruk All rights reserved in all media 71