Innovative sprinkler system saves water—and money

CALGARY- A Calgary business made up of just five employees has found a way to save its clients millions of dollars, all thanks to water conservation.

It seems obvious that the worst time to water a lawn is during a rain storm, but thats exactly what happens with many timer-based sprinkler systems.

What youre looking at is about a 60 per cent waste factor, explains Graham Duffy, co-founder of ExactET. His company substitutes those timers with climate-based controllers, which receive information from strategically located weather stations.

Were programming the system, and every hour a wireless signal is sent to that controller to give it the information to determine when best to irrigate.

Thanks to that system, lawns and shrubs get the water they needwhen they need it. Since the company was formed six years ago, it has saved clients more than 1.4 billion litres of waterenough to fill 584 Olympic-sized pools.

Co-founder Darren Kovacs says that despite the cost-savings, his companys pitch is sometimes met with disbelief.

Theres a little bit of the too good to be true kind of first through process, he says. Once they understand the technology, how it works and what the benefits are, that very quickly turns around.

One of their clients is Agrium, which signed on four years ago.

Weve saved approximately eight million litres of water, which works out to about $13,000, says spokesperson Duncan Murray.

Some of ExactETs other clients include four Calgary malls, the Town of Cochrane and Shaw Communications. The company has gone from three weather stations in Calgary, to 40 stretching from Vancouver to Montreal.

See the original post here:
Innovative sprinkler system saves water—and money