It's not only your home that's getting smarter these days. Your yard can boost its intelligence too. Rachio, makers of the Iro smart sprinkler system, announced a new update to the company's companion smartphone app that promises to lower residential outdoor water usage by as much as 30 percent.

The new update, Rachio version 1.7, improves the Iro system's ability to monitor conditions on your lawn. Using what the company calls Evapotranspiration Technology (ET), the Iro system can monitor the soil's moisture loss between waterings. If a scheduled watering comes up and there's enough water in the soil already, then the watering is skipped.

Rachio's smartphone app.

Iro also monitor moisture evaporation every week and makes adjustments for water usage. This is a helpful feature as the seasons change and the days get warmer or colder.

We believe software can play a huge role in the fight against water waste, Rachio CTO and Co-Founder said in a statement. The enhancements made to our ET algorithms gets Iro even closer to identifying the absolute minimum amount of water needed to maintain a beautiful lawn or garden.

Beyond water usage improvements, Rachio added Nest Protect integration. The new feature triggers the sprinkler system after the Nest smoke alarm goes off for an extended period of time. Rachio's system then automatically starts the sprinklers in an attempt to keep the fire from spreading to other homes.

The new update also adds a few upgrades such as new vegetation, soil, exposure (shade), nozzle, and slope options to create 168 different watering cycles. Rachio says the new upgrades can also reduce runoff and improve the system's scheduling.

The Rachio app is a free download available from Apple's App Store and Google Play.

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Rachio smart sprinkler update reduces water usage, ties into Nest for fire protection

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BATON ROUGE, La. (WGNO) - The Louisiana State Fire Marshal is investigating a rash of thefts of important sprinkler system parts from a hospital, theatre and a department store.

We actually noticed it when wepicked it up to see what it was,Greg Flathers owner of the Ultimate Party Store in Hammond told NBC33.

The fire hose connector was stolen from the side of the building a week ago.

Representatives from fire and police departments from Hammond, Kenner and Jefferson Parish will join the Fire Marshal for a News Conference Thursdayin Baton Rouge to discuss the investigation into the thefts.

The hose connectorsallow fire departments to pump much-neededwater into burning buildings.

Without that, the fire will spread more. You know, we might get alittle bit of a jump because the sprinkler system will work but wewont be able to produce additional water to it to help control itfrom spreading or getting worse, saidJohn Smith, Fire Chief at the Hammond Fire Department.

Hose connectors are installed in thousands of commercial and residential buildings throughout our area including hotels, schools, nursing homes and theatres.

Flathers said each connector costs about $1,000 to replace.

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State Fire Marshal investigates thefts of important parts that could disable sprinkler systems

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TIME U.S. cities Eight Firefighters Were Injured Battling a Los Angeles Blaze The fire occurred in a storage building full of combustibles but without a sprinkler system

A huge blaze in a death trap of a building in Los Angeles led to eight firefighters sustaining injuries, local fire officials have said.

The building, a storage facility, was packed with flammable materials, including vinyl records and furniture, yet it had no sprinkler system, was organized like a mouse maze, and had poor ventilation, Reuters reports.

More than 360 firefighters were called in to fight the extremely hot and stubborn major emergency blaze on Saturday overnight, the Los Angeles fire department said in a statement. Though much of it was contained within six hours, putting the fire out took just over 14 hours in total.

Firefighters battled until they were low on air, and had to exit to get new air bottles, then rejoined the fight, the department says. Firefighters also had to slice through the buildings metal roof to let smoke escape.

Five of the eight injured firefighters, all of whom suffered non-life-threatening injuries, required hospital care but were released, the fire department said.

About one-third of the building was damaged in the blaze, and loss to the buildings contents, which included many family heirlooms, is inestimable, the department says.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

[Reuters]

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Eight Firefighters Were Injured Battling a Los Angeles Blaze

The simple act of watering your lawn is not always so easy. In hot climates, for example, you might use a timer thats hard-wired into an irrigation system to trigger sprinklers all over your yard at optimal times. But while these systems seem advanced, theres often no way to disable one remotelysay, during a rainstorm, or if watering restrictions are put in place. Also, if you do have to adjust your settings, one glance at the control panel on an Orbit or Rain Bird system, with its multiple knobs and switches, is enough to make you want to go back to watering by hand with a hose.

The Rachio Iro is a device that aims to greatly simplify things by allowing you to set up and tweak complex lawn irrigation schemes via a mobile app. Its a $250 box you install, and it takes the place of your existing controller module, so the only requirements are that you have an electronically controlled system already in place, and that you have an iOS or Android device to run the show.

I installed my test unit blind, without any prior knowledge of how sprinkler controllers even work other than the obvious (e.g., there are zones arranged across a yard). Installation could not have been easier. Most sprinkler controllers are connected by wires to the sprinkler system itself. At a home in California, I unplugged an Orbit unit, disconnected the wires, and pulled it off the wall by pushing up off the screws. The Iro lets you screw through the unit itself directly into the wall, which saves you the trouble of matching up screw holes. For wiring, it was easy to see the main common wire that controls the water valves. The three other wires (black, red, and green) I quickly deduced were used to control the three existing zones. I connected the common wire and the zone wires into the Iro. The install guide is well-written, and everything on the unit was clearly labelled.

Now for the challenging part. Once you finish installing any wirelessly-enabled hardware in your home, it can be tricky to add it to your wireless network. How do you connect securely when theres no LCD screen? Well, Rachio solved this issue using BlinkUp, a pairing technology made by a company called Electric Imp. During the setup, I found the home Wi-Fi network in the Rachio app and typed in the password, then held my phone up against a small opening in the Iro. My phone flashed quickly for about 15 seconds, transmitting the network information.

Within 15 minutes, I had a working app-controlled sprinkler system.

After a few seconds, the app connected to the Iro controller and I was ready to setup my zones. In the app, you trigger a zone and wait to see if the sprinklers start running in that area. Once they do, you label the zonesay, front yard or bushes. Within 15 minutes, I had a working app-controlled sprinkler system.

Right away, I was able to manually trigger sprinklers for a set period of time. I watered each zone for three minutes. (The Iro does this in succession.) I also set up a watering schedule to trigger the sprinklers at noon each day. One day, a notice popped up in the app that said there was a rain delay and the watering would be postponed. The Iro had checked weather reports and postponed sprinkling automatically. I never had to configure this.

You can also employ a rain sensor from companies like Hunter and Toro, which will also discontinue watering even if the Iro doesnt delay sprinkling due to a weather report. The sensor attaches into one of the ports on the Iro next to the watering zone ports.

Rachio offers apps for iPhone and Android, and theres a beta for a web app. All the apps offer charts to break down your water usage by hours/minutes, gallons, and cubic feet. Its a great way to monitor how much watering youve been doing. The company also tells me it plans to offer additional insights about watering, including data from other Rachio users in your area who are sharing their reports. Conceivably, a neighborhood could water on set schedules.

Rachio does have some competition. The Rain Machine (not to be confused with the band started by Kyp Malone from TV on the Radio) also costs $250. Its easy to install and has a front panel touchscreen, but the rain sensing data is hard-coded based on historical weather patterns (e.g., it rains more in the spring). The Sky Drop ($300) has a mobile app, rain-sensing features, and a touchscreen controller, but it costs a bit more.

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App Irrigation

By John R. Delaney

Automatic sprinkler controllers have been around forever, but the newest crop of digital homeirrigation regulators from companies like Greenbox, Rachio, and Skydrop make it possible to control your sprinkler system remotely via your wireless network. The Skydrop Wi-Fi Sprinkler Controller ($299) not only lets you schedule watering times using a smartphone app or Web browser, it will anticipate your watering needs based on your local weather forecast and lawn conditions, and can be programmed to adhere to local watering restrictions. Installing this snappy-looking device takes less than 10 minutes, and the app is well-designed and easy to use. Granted, Skydropis double the price of a standard controller, but it still merits an Editors' Choice award for connected sprinkler controllers.

Design and SetupWith its streamlined design, gunmetal gray finish, and large aluminum jog dial, the Skydrop controller looks nothing like a traditional square-box sprinkler controller. It snaps onto a 2.7-by-6.2-by-0.5 inch (HWD) wall plate, which contains eight watering zone wiring ports, two common wire ports, a master valve port (for systems equipped with a master valve option), a hot terminal for testing purposes, and a power plug port. All of the wire ports are tool free; just push the wire in until it clicks and press the rubberized button to release. There are two slots on the bottom that are used to run power and zone wiring to the plate, and there's a small built-in level on the top used for mounting the plate properly. If you have anextra-large lawn, Skydrop sells an expansion unit for $50 that allows you to add an additional eight watering zones.

The controller measures 3.4 by 9.7 by 1.9 inches (HWD). It has a 4.3-inch LCD in the center, and a round, 3-inch jog dial on the right. The dial sports a silver aluminum band around its outer edge and a backlit ring around its inner edge. The ring glows blue when the system is in watering mode, green when it is waiting for its next scheduled watering session, and red if there's a system error. Inside is a Wi-Fi radio that supports the 802.11b/g/n networking protocols.

In addition to the wall plate and controller, the Skydrop comes with four mounting screws, a power adapter, numbered stickers for the zone wires, and an Installation and Quick Start Guide that walks you through the installation process. Missing is any information explaining how the controller actually works, what the different colored lights mean, and how your input will affect how often Skydrop will water your lawn. However, the folks at Skydrop are currently working on a comprehensive user guide that will address these issues.

Installing the Skydrop was quick and easy. I marked each zone wire with the numbered stickers (I have five watering zones) before removing them from my original Orbit controller box. I removed the Orbit box and attached the Skydrop wall plate in its place (the Orbit controller was installed in a utility closet in my basement where the sprinkler plumbing is located). I ran the zone wires, a common wire, and the power wire up through the slots, connected them to the appropriate wire ports, snapped the controller into the wall plate, and plugged in the power adapter. The entire process took a little under 10 minutes.

Features and PerformanceYou can program Skydrop using the jog dial and LCD screen, but it's much easier to do using aWeb browser, or the iOS or Android app. When you first set up Skydrop, you have to answer a few questions regarding your lawn environment and location. It asks you what zip code you're in so it can monitor the local weather, and it wants to know what kind of soil you have (sandy, loamy, unsure) in each watering zone. For example, lawns with a sandy soil base will require more water because sandy soil does not retain water very well. Conversely, lawns with a loamy base require less water.

Skydrop also wants to know what types of vegetation you'll be watering (grass, shrubs, trees, ground cover), sprinkler types (spray, rotary, drip), shade (none, partial, full), and slope (none, slight, steep). Using this data coupled with your local hourly weather updates, Skydrop then creates a customized watering schedule designed to keep your lawn looking its best while conserving water. It even provides a daily history of water usage that shows you when the lawn was watered and how much water was supplied by the sprinklers compared to how much was supplied by rainfall. You can also create your own watering schedule if you don't want to use Skydrop's recommendations.

In my tests, the Skydrop controller did a good job of following my watering schedule, beginning promptly at 9:00 a.m. on most days and forgoing the watering schedule on cooler days or when it rained. I created a custom schedule for my backyard lawn, which was recently seeded and requires a more aggressive watering schedule than the rest of my property, and the Skydrop followed it to a tee. Since my water usage is billed quarterly, I can't say exactly how much the Skydrop saved me, but knowing that my lawn was not being watered every day (as it was with my old Orbit controller), it's safe to assume that the bill will be lower than usual. Moreover, with my old controller I had to go into the basement where the box was located to manually turn on a zone, and then go back down when I wanted to turn it off. With the Skydrop I was able to do this from my PC or smartphone and was impressed with the instantaneous response to my commands.

Conclusions Like the Valta Starter Kit, the Skydrop Wi-Fi Sprinkler Controller is one of those connected home products that makes life easier while saving you money. Having the ability to remotely control and monitor your sprinkler system is a win for homeowners who aren't always around to make sure their lawn is being properly watered, but the potential for significant water conservation is the best reason to consider replacing your existing controller with the Skydrop, and is partly why it earns our Editors' Choice for connected sprinkler controllers. You'll pay more for this smart sprinkler than you will for a basic model, but there's a good chance you'll recover the extra cost over time while doing your part to preserve a natural resource.

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Skydrop Wi-Fi Sprinkler Controller

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