Irrigation control through Home Automation

Written by Krishna Ramya Saturday, 07 May 2011 11:48

Words like home automation, irrigation controller, automatic lawn sprinklers portraits a clear vision of hard-core science ornamented with technology. Is it so? Well, think again, because these very complicated systems happiness up human lives and crack their essential everyday life problem saving of water. Wastage of water is apparently extremely large in the most important status of agriculture, i.e. irrigation. Counting on irrigation controller device, this problem can be completely eradicated from their roots. Common methods of home automation such as drip irrigation and automatic lawn sprinkler saves water and time respectively. The grass root planning of home automation involves setting up of the layout. Consequently, the launching of the sprinklers fall into its places.

Words like home automation, irrigation controller, automatic lawn sprinklers portraits a clear vision of hard-core science ornamented with technology. Is it so? Well, think again, because these very complicated systems happiness up human lives and crack their essential everyday life problem saving of water. Wastage of water is apparently extremely large in the most important status of agriculture, i.e. irrigation. Counting on irrigation controller device, this problem can be completely eradicated from their roots. Common methods of home automation such as drip irrigation and automatic lawn sprinkler saves water and time respectively. The grass root planning of home automation involves setting up of the layout. Consequently, the launching of the sprinklers fall into its places.

An irrigation controller operates programmed irrigation systems like drip irrigation and lawn sprinklers. These have the way of setting the event of watering, the frequency of irrigation and the start time. There are some specialized controllers which have additional features such as rain expedite settings, multiple programs which allow different frequencies of watering for different types of plants. With home automation irrigation control, irrigation system can be organized via WiFi-enabled phone or personal computer.Allowing water to slowly drip down to the roots of plants, either to the root zone or directly into the soil surface is known as drip irrigation. This method saves water and fertilizers. Internet provides different ways to control drip irrigation schedule. Doing it manually simply means turning on the faucet for a specific period of time. If drip irrigation is properly designed, installed and managed, it will help in accomplishing water conservation by lowering evaporation and deep drainage. An irrigation installer can help you to plan your system and will install it for you. There can be drip hoses installed in the flower beds and it is very useful to automate their operations along with the lawn sprinklers.

Automatic lawn sprinklers are the most common method of home automation. It helps in saving tremendous amount of time. Electric valves are used in controlling most of the underground sprinkler systems. Home lawn sprinklers vary in size, cost and complexity. Lawn sprinklers may consist of underground sprinklers, oscillating sprinklers and effect sprinklers. They compensate for the rain, runoff and evaporation. Most of the sprinklers operate through hydraulic and electric energy. Some of the home automated irrigation system can detect the wind speed, and also when it rained last. If the lawn was well watered from the rain the night before, then it may skip a cycle and delay until the conditions come under control and watering becomes effective.

The first thing of any new addition to the home automation system is to set up the layout. When the layout is ready, indicators can be added where there are sprinklers. Then they can be assigned to appropriate zones. The appropriate weather measures which can be used while optimizing the system can also be added. Then the basic control has to be added which advances or selects the zone after receiving the appropriate command. Then a wireless transmitter can be used to walk the yard, to select the zones and to adjust the watering patterns. Wireless controls may eliminate the doubt of running back and forth. The system can be started with different watering levels based on rain, humidity and temperature.

A standard irrigation system can run several times a week for specific duration of times. A home automation system may also have a battery substitute which can be beneficial during power-cuts. The use of smart home automation irrigation is randomly increasing with the advancement of technology.