'Smart' sprinkler system may save money, developer says

'Smart' sprinkler system may save money, developer says

By Bill Gephardt

September 24th, 2014 @ 8:56am

SALT LAKE CITY A smart sprinkler system developed in Utah not only turns itself on and off when it rains, but also keeps an eye on the weather forecast.

Other devices sense rain and keep sprinklers from turning on, but the Skydrop program actually hooks into a Wi-Fi system to keep lawns green and healthy.

Essentially, I didnt know how to water my own lawn, said Clark Endrizzi and he is far from being the only one.

The Utah Division of Water Resources says the typical Utah household uses twice as much water on their yards as is necessary.

Some landscapers were telling me to water every day and just do less watering, Endrizzi said. Some told me I should be watering as little as possible, just watering enough to reach the roots.

Endrizzi, a software engineer, said he started thinking about how weak automated sprinkler systems like his really are. Come torrential rain or blistering sunshine, they keep watering and watering through torrential rain or blistering sunshine because that is what they're programmed to do.

So Endrizzi set out to create a smart sprinkler system. Skydrop replaces old sprinkler controllers. It connects to a home's wireless network and then starts pulling real-time weather data from the Internet. This stops sprinklers from running when they're not needed, for example, during a rain storm. It measures humidity, temperature, wind, even the slope of the yard, to create a schedule Endrizzi said will save water.

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'Smart' sprinkler system may save money, developer says