Under Control

Imagine adjusting your irrigation controllers without leaving the office.
What if you could turn off sprinklers during a  rainstorm without getting wet, or turn them on to water in new plantings without stepping on the site. How much water would your clients save if you detected mainline breaks five minutes after pipes burst rather than after a long weekend?

Picture doing all this while sparing your technicians day-long trips to tweak irrigation controllers and saving your customers up to 25 percent on their water bills.

Central computer control allows contractors to remotely control irrigation systems from their office computers. Users log a site’s specifics, from soil type to slope, into the software program, and the computer can then turn on or off controllers, adjust run times, record flow rates and detect system malfunctions. Once the technician does the homework – the property assessment and data entry – the computer takes care of the grudge work.

“The computer runs out to every controller I have in the field and resets the programs for the next day and comes back and isn’t even tired,” remarked Ellen Beighley, president, Irrigation Management Systems, Portland, Ore.

THE BASICS. Central control sounds space age, but the technology isn’t brand new. Popularly used in the golf industry, landscape contractors are beginning to recognize central control can save time and resources on large municipal and commercial sites.

“We have a copy of a water bill for July where the site used 1.1 million gallons of water,” noted Tony Shores, owner, IMC, Kansas City, Mo. “A year later, [after installing central control,] we used 100,000 gallons.”

This efficiency stems from specificity. Central control commands sprinklers to water at pinpointed times for precise durations depending on weather, soil, evapotranspiration(ET) and additional maintenance considerations like planting, mowing or fertilizing. Contractors first record site-specific data during property assessments and transfer this information from paper to the software program. “Smart” controllers – compatible with the software package – are installed on properties and communicate with the office computer via phone line. When the contractor types commands to turn off a specific irrigation system, the computer calls up the controller and communicates the adjustment.

The result: fewer maintenance calls for technicians. “We do remotely what takes a technician on a service call an hour to three hours to do,” said Shores, whose water management company provides central control services to landscape maintenance companies. “We can adjust four taps and nine controllers in less than five minutes. For a mainline break, we can shut it down in three minutes vs. it running all night.”

The computer stores flow rates for each sprinkler head, and daily readings show discrepancies, so Shores can alert the irrigation maintenance company of any potential on-site problems.

Furthermore, central control figures weather variables into the equation. Wind, rain, humidity, heat – a weather station picks up on these conditions and the computer sends messages to each controller to water based on the property’s daily needs.

“Say on Monday it was a nice, cloudy day, wasn’t very hot, and your system is going to run for three minutes – that’s all it needs to run,” Beighley described. “The computer senses all of this.”

To understand how central control synchronizes watering times, visualize a bucket filled with electronic valves, compared John Heidman, CEO, Irri-Tech, Dallas, Texas. “The computer reaches into the bucket and grabs those valves it was told it needs to water that day or at that time,” he related. “It takes the valves from random and plugs them in and starts watering, and when one stops watering the computer kicks it out and grabs another valve. You are not watering at the maximum rate of the hydraulics of the system, so you get more water down quicker and utilize your pump more efficiently.”

Addressing a limited watering window of time is especially important for commercial sites, like retail shopping centers and business parks where pedestrian traffic limits daylight watering, Beighley pointed out. If a shopping center closes at 10 p.m., then the system has evening hours to move through its assigned watering schedule. Residential areas might specify which day the landscape company mows the property or when fertilizer is applied so the computer will instruct the system to turn off or on.

Keep in mind, central control systems aren’t married to programmed watering times. A quick phone call to the technician and a few punches of the keypad can changewatering times faster than a service truck will arrive, noted Andrew Metheny, vice president, Metheny Landscaping, Dallas, Texas. “I had a call from a customer who said, ‘We have someone coming in to stripe the parking lot. Can you make sure the water is turned off?’” he said. “It was after 5 p.m., so we dialed it up on the computer and shut down the controller instead of sending someone out to the property after hours.”
 
THE BENEFITS. Since central control requires a dedicated, detail-oriented “watch dog” to enter data, analyze daily reports and commit to its extensive training requirements, many landscape contractors have yet to explore this option. Water managers use the system more readily.

Scott Leichliter, product manager for central control, RainBird, San Diego, Calif., said a push to conserve water might draw more industry interest. “The more we see the intelligent use of water becoming a theme in our industry, the more people will start to use the technology,” he said, noting ideal sites such as  fast food chains, gasoline stations, retail outlets and strip malls. In the residential sphere, apartments, large estates and housing subdivisions benefit from central control.

Today, system use is somewhat regional, with emphasis in the West, pointed out Brian Vinchesi, president, Irrigation Consulting, Pepperell, Mass.

Also, the training necessary to fully take advantage of central control’s benefits is both time consuming and intense, Parker identified, noting the percent of contractors using it doesn’t exceed the single digits. “Commonly, people make a large dollar investment, but they don’t invest in the training and continual updates, so they only begin to scratch the long-term benefits these products will offer,” he said. Managerial employees in landscape businesses generally assume responsibilities for operating the software and entering data.

Shores has been learning since he started using central control six years ago.

“You learn every day with this thing,” he remarked, adding that he spent time in design and water management classes to familiarize himself withconcepts necessary for the system to succeed. Talking to other contractors who use the technology provided him with additional tips, and he attended seminars and training sessions across the country – he continues to do so to keep up with advancements. “The learning curve can be high,” he admitted.

But this didn’t prevent Metheny from tapping into the technology. When one of his commercial clients requested it, he learned more and ended up buying the system so his company could offer water management to smaller customers who wanted the benefits of central control. Now, 25 buildings are linked to the system – seven different customers, ranging from a high rise with 20,000 square feet of landscaping to an office park with a few hundred acres of land.

For Metheny, the sheer relief on his maintenance crews attracted him to central control. “We try to make it a deal for our clients, and don’t mark up the price too much, because it saves us time and money in the field,” he noted, adding some find the investment worth it right away. “If you have a project that has 50 to 60 zones and you have a mainline break and water runs over a long weekend, you might spend $4,000 on wasted water. But, if you have a flow meter in place, the computer can interrupt it and send you an error message to turn off the system and save the water. There, you just paid off the hardware.”

Today, the expense can be considerable, with systems costing between $10,000 and $20,000 depending on their sophistication, and in-field units running from $500 to $1,500. Additional phone lines for controllers to communicate with the computer can also be an expense, Heidman noted.
All in all, costs are prohibitive for some landscape contractors. “The objective is, what is the payout?” Heidman added. “Can I save enough water and manpower to pay for this conversion in five years?”

Also, contractors take the chance that their clients might not renew their services the following year, pointed out Greg Parker, product manager for residential commercial products, Toro Irrigation, Riverside, Calif. “The higher-end contractors who install [central control] understand the complexity ofthe system and the value it can bring,” he said. “But [some are hesitant] because you can’t get the cost down enough, you can’t hold on to employees long enough to train someone, and you can’t hold onto an account long enough to show your client a reasonable rate of return of value.”

For the investment to pay off for landscape contractors, they must first convince their clients the technology is worth the commitment. “The contractor has to be [the client’s] partner in maintaining and increasing the value of the system as a real estate investment,” Parker said, adding that larger properties see savings more quickly.

Simpler systems will attract more contractors to the product, and more user-friendly software will ease the learning curve and erode the technology’s intimidating reputation, Parker added.

Eventually, central control might be an add-on service option for contractors. “The cost of water and more conservation legislation would have to be in place [for the technology to spread], and also, the cost of these systems have to come down to a price point that is an incentive for the contractor to invest in central control,” Parker noted.

THE PITCH. Showing potential clients hard numbers – real savings – will sell the technology. When customers truly understand the investment, they are more likely to sign on, Shores emphasized.

“When you go into a prospect, it is important to say, ‘This is what it will cost to do central control on your property. This is what your water bills and your annual costs are going to be. This is what we think we can save for you, and this is how long it will take to buy back the system,’” he said, noting that he typically figures in a 25-percent savings.

Paired with sound irrigation design, installation and monitoring, central control can enhance a system’s accuracy, Parker said. “A control product is one very small element of the overall irrigation system,” he noted.

And as water conservation draws more attention from clients and contractors alike, tools like central computer control will gain recognition. After all, most homeowners approach irrigation systems with a “set it and forget it” mentality, and hiring a company to manage their water use will save resources, Vinchesi commented.

“Especially with this year’s drought, property owners and customers are going to have to find better ways of managing their irrigation, and putting the control of the irrigation in the hands of the maintenance or irrigation contractor is one way to do it,” he said.

The author is Managing Editor – Special Projects for Lawn & Landscape magazine and can be reached at khampshire@lawnandlandscape.com.