Dumb vs Smart Irrigation Controllers
A “Smart” (a.k.a. “Intelligent”) Controller has access to, and uses, past, current, and forcasted future weather data to adjust your irrigation watering schedule. It is “forward looking”, using local weather forecasts and “backward looking”, knowing what has actually happened very near (within about a half mile of) your property. You should never see an irrigation system running on the day after a heavy rain, and of course never on a day when there’s high probability of significant rain.
In addition, it takes into consideration sun loads, winds, humidity and temperature to try estimate what your plants need to remain healthy without over watering them, and then modifies the scheduled times to provide optimal watering.
A “Dumb” Controller was pretty much the standard until a few years ago. It’s not actually dumb; it’s just uninformed – i.e. it doesn’t have access to weather data, past or forecast. All it knows is the day of the week and the time of day . . . period. It doesn’t know that rain is coming, nor how much it has actually rained, so it just waters per a set schedule regardless of the actual weather.
In addition to the weather data, the “Smart” controller will adjust to: the growing season (plants grow less in the cooler months), the type of grass / plants you have in a particular zone, and uses wind and solar radiation readings to estimate “evapotranspiration” losses that are used to fine-tune your schedule. All of this is via an app on your smart phone so you can monitor your system from anywhere – it’s connected via the Internet.
A key element of this savings is connecting your Smart Controller to a weather station that reflects the weather at your particular location. Rainfall amounts can vary significantly across Skidaway Island, and even more so across the area. Connecting your controller to the weather stations at Savannah Airport or Hunter AAF is NOT a good idea, since your plants are not located there. It’s not uncommon for weather patterns to skip our island altogether while dumping significant rain along the I95 corridor.
