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Dakotah Services

& Irrigation Inc.

( 605 ) 351-1181 or (605) 310-2200

Fine-Tune Your Irrigation System To

Save Money and See Better Results.

Residential irrigation systems offer convenience in protecting your landscape investment. Enjoy your yard, keep it healthy and beautiful while you water efficiently, save time and money.

With some simple practices and new technology, existing irrigation systems can be made more efficient, lowering your water bill, reducing run-off and eliminating waste. Waterwise habits will result in a healthier lawn and landscape, in addition to conserving water.

The Irrigation Association offers these water-saving tips to maintain and update automatic irrigation systems:

1) Adapt your watering schedule to the weather and the season. Familiarize yourself with the settings on your irrigation controller. Adjust the watering schedule regularly to conform with current weather conditions.

2) Schedule each individual zone in your irrigation system. "Scheduling" accounts for the type of sprinkler, sun or shade exposure and the soil type for the specific area. The same watering schedule should almost never apply to all zones in the system.

3) Inspect your system monthly. Check for leaks, broken or clogged heads, and other problems, or engage an irrigation professional to regularly check your system. Clean micro-irrigation filters as needed.

4) Adjust sprinkler heads. Correct obstructions that prevent sprinklers from distributing water evenly. Keep water off pavement and structures.

5) Get a professional system audit. Hire a professional to conduct an irrigation audit and uniformity test to make sure areas are being watered evenly. This can be especially helpful if you have areas being under-watered or brown spots. The Irrigation Association maintains an online list of IA Certified Landscape Irrigation Auditors.

6) Consider "smart" technology. Climate- or soil moisture sensor-based controllers evaluate weather or soil moisture conditions and then calculate and automatically adjust the irrigation schedule to meet the specific needs of your landscape. Learn more at http://www.irrigation.org/smartwater/

7) Install a rain shutoff-switch - inexpensive and effective. Required by law in many states, these money-saving sensors turn off your system in rainy weather and help to compensate for natural rainfall. The device can be retrofitted to almost any system.

8) Consider low volume drip irrigation for plant beds. Install micro irrigation for gardens, trees and shrubs. Micro irrigation includes drip (also known as trickle), micro spray jets, micro-sprinklers, or bubbler irrigation to irrigate slowly and minimize evaporation, runoff and overspray.

9) Water at the optimum time. Water when the sun is low or down, winds are calm and temperatures are cool - between the evening and early morning - to reduce evaporation. You can lose as much as 30% of water to evaporation by watering mid-day.

10) Water only when needed. Saturate root zones and let the soil dry. Watering too much and too frequently results in shallow roots, weed growth, disease and fungus.

Best advice for a healthy, drought- and stress-tolerant lawn and landscape: use less water. These tips will help keep more money in your wallet instead of sending it down the drain.

Irrigation Smart Controllers Are Smarter Than You Know

There is a lot of buzz in the irrigation and conservation worlds about smart controllers. Do they work? Are they reliable? What makes them so smart?

Smart sprinkler controllers are quickly proving to be the single best thing a city, multifamily community, or homeowner can do to save water. How do I know? I have installed as well as tested them, in all types of applications.

Irrigation Smart Controller Features

Most of the current smart controllers have the same basic settings that basic controllers have, such as zone time, days to water, multiple start times, multiple programs for lawn or beds.

The features that really count are settings for each zone based on soil type, slope, sun/shade, plant or turf type, application rate of the system.

For example, I can tell the controller that zone #2 is cool season turf, with a 5% slope, mostly shady, clay, and being hit by 30 foot rotor heads. The controller can then create short soak cycles by itself, set the amount of perception that area needs throughout the entire watering season... "now that's smart"!

Water is a limited natural resource. Learning about smart water practices is becoming

increasingly important to homeowners due to rising water costs and watering restrictions

or complete bans on outdoor watering.

Unfortunately, too many people rely on guesswork when watering their lawns resulting in over watered

landscapes and unhealthy turf and plants. Studies in show the average single family home uses 45%

more water than lawns really need. Inefficient watering costs time and money. Smart water solutions

help you save time, decrease your water bill, and help the environment all at the same time.

By learning these proven techniques and suggestions, your lawn and garden

will look better than ever.

• The average residential 6 station irrigation system uses 1,600 gallons of water per cycle

• Of all the water in the world, only 1% is considered drinkable

• Studies show that the average home owner "over waters" there lawn by 45%

• Mid-sized commercial irrigation systems can use 7,000 to 11,000 gallons a day

• Large commercial irrigation systems can use up to 30,000 a day

• By having a "Smart Controller" you can save 35 to 60 percent of water usage

Irrigation Rain Sensors

Rain sensors for irrigation systems are available in both wireless and hard-wired versions, most employing hygroscopic disks that swell in the presence of rain and shrink back down again as they dry out - an electrical switch is in turn depressed or released by the hygroscopic disk stack. However, some electrical type sensors are also marketed that use tipping bucket or conductance type probes to measure rainfall. Wireless and wired versions both use similar mechanisms to temporarily suspend watering by the irrigation controller - specifically they are connected to the irrigation controller's sensor terminals, or are installed in series with the solenoid valve common circuit such that they prevent the opening of any valves when rain has been sensed.

Some irrigation rain sensors also contain a freeze sensor to keep the system from operating in freezing temperatures (typically freeze sensors are employed in regions where irrigation systems are not "blown-out" for the winter, yet there is sometimes a chance of overnight frost).

Remeber to check your system once a month

Adjust your watering schedule for each season

Adjust your watering schedule for odd/even days