Spiio Blog

Residential outdoor water use in the United States accounts for nearly 9 billion gallons of water each day, mainly for landscape irrigation. As much as half of this water is wasted due to evaporation, wind, or runoff, often caused by improper irrigation system design, installation, maintenance, or scheduling.

Residential outdoor water use in the United States accounts for nearly 9 billion gallons of water each day, mainly for landscape irrigation

To help increase outdoor water efficiency, WaterSense issued a Notice of Intent (NOI) to develop a specification for soil moisture-based control technologies that will complement the existing weather-based irrigation controller specification.

The majority of irrigation systems use manually programmed clock timers, for which the homeowner, building owner, or irrigation professional schedules watering events and times. Because schedules are often set to water at the height of the growing season and might not be adjusted to reflect seasonal or changes or watering needs, an irrigation system could be watering in January as if it were July. Similarly, manually programmed clock timers don’t adjust for recent weather events, so systems without sensor technologies will water regardless of whether it has just rained.

Studies suggest that soil moisture sensors can result in water savings of at least 20 percent, potentially saving millions of gallons of water across the country.

Soil moisture-based control technologies water plants based on their needs by measuring the amount of moisture in the soil and tailoring irrigation schedules accordingly. Studies suggest that soil moisture sensors can result in water savings of at least 20 percent, potentially saving millions of gallons of water across the country. Soil moisture-based control technologies that earn the WaterSense label will take the guesswork out of watering and help improve irrigation system efficiency.

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