A few months back Opto brought a weather station.
Happily I got to install it.
Its a nice Davis Pro Vanguard 2. Pretty sweet.
There already was a pole with an old FM radio antenna on it, since no one uses that, I pulled it down and reused the pole to put the station on.
(Clearly I did not take that photo in the rain).
To finish off the install, we pointed the data logging function of the station to a weather site where we can upload our data.
http://www.wunderground.com/weatherstation/WXDailyHistory.asp?ID=KCATEMEC23
All that then, to say, check out the data.
Its raining. And not just raining, but its pelting down.
They say we may get a years worth of rain today added to tomorrows forecast.
Not good. Yes, we need it, but not in 36 hours thanks.
Sad thing is. People still have their sprinklers running……
We get so little rain here that most systems do not have the extra ‘rain sensor’ installed, and if it is, its mostly broke (as was our original systems).
On top of that, if the steady stream of renters that have been in and out of our street and needed help with their sprinkler systems are anything to go by, most people do not know how to use the controllers, which, I want to strongly point out, is not the peoples fault, but rather that of the designer of the controller.
Case in point is the washing machine video from the other day.
These systems can be made a LOT easier to use. Dont get me wrong, I’m not saying that every sprinkler system needs a smartphone app, I’m just saying that like the washing machine, the front panel controls can be GREATLY simplified and reduced.
Here is my attempt at making it simple for Freddy and myself;
(Note, this is the PC web browser version, I have a similar version for iPad and smartphones so we can easily control it while away (or sitting in the lounge)).
This is the version we have running at the moment, we will be re-hashing the layout in the next version.
If you have any thoughts about how to make it even simpler, I’m all ears.
(Note, in summer, all the zones are not (and cannot be) the same time, so thats not an option to condense them all into one or two durations).
The next version will have a software hook into the national weather service to automatically turn the sprinklers off the day before if more than 40% chance of rain in the next day.
The zones will also automatically adjust their times based on the watering index which is calculated from the previous days top temperature, humidity and wind speed.
Anyway, back to the rain……..
From the forcast, it should be like this most of the day and into the night, shower after shower sweeping across.
(Temecula is the red marker).
Its raining, but I can’t for the life of me find a corry iron roof to stand under and listen to it……..