Photo courtesy of Vectorworks
When it comes to irrigation design, guesswork is sometimes key, but irrigation design technology can help make that guesswork more concrete.
“The benefit of irrigation software is very key, especially when we start getting into very high efficiencies,” says Bryan Goff, director of design + sciences and president at Grey Leaf Design in Woodbury, Minnesota.
Goff says he uses design software to help determine where the irrigation is needed, especially if a property has slopes and areas with run off.
The software he uses allows him to check with the EPA’s water requirements, as well as local zoning requirements for how his design is on the front side.
Goff’s company recently did a site analysis and audited a system to see what specific heads were bad. It also helps if a customer calls with a bad irrigation head backing up into a basement.
“He might not know exactly what it is or what we need to do,” he says. “Instead of just saying a head in the back, we can email him a base map and he can pinpoint on that map through PDF that it’s head 147.”
“Many people look at irrigation design as just drawing circles on the ground and connecting them with lines,” Goff says. “In a very raw statement, yes that is probably what’s being done to the general layman, but behind the scenes with real irrigation design, we have an ability to not only draw circles but it’s calculating pressure loss, friction, water volume, etc. … They’re not only circles on the plan; they’re real data.”