Save As

A company called HydroPoint in the U.S.A. has engineered what appears to be the most sophisticated weather-based irrigation system todate: the WeatherTrak. Its most important climate-modeling center was built outside of Salt Lake City and it programs a supercomputer to simulate local weather for every square kilometer across North America. 

The center communicates via a two-way satellite link with control boxes that operate different areas of a client’s irrigation systems, with wires running underground from the outdoor boxes that open and close valves. Every night the routine is the same: the climate center broadcasts local weather-related information to a microprocessor inside each controller, detailing precisely how much water the particular area needs and when, taking into consideration the type of plants, soil and ground slope. The system can have a two-way dialogue if you choose that option.On detecting moisture the irrigation is put on hold and the center is notified.

Who would benefit from such complex irrigation system? Businesses, municipalities and sports venues waste billions of gallons of water each year due to badly timed lawn irrigation. With smart controllers on water lines like the ones created by HydroPoint the right amount of the precious liquid can be delivered at the right time. 

Looking at the two dozen independent studies showing what sort of return the WeatherTrak can help you obtain, the data reveals that the system can cut back water use by anywhere from 14% to  82%. Of course, your financial savings will be as big as the volume of water that you were wasting. In the U.S.A., water usage has been very loosely controlled to date, but with  increasing prices attitudes are starting to change with businesses and homeowners trying to find new efficient ways of saving water and money.