Home Automation for the Holidays

Bing Crosby sings about a happy holiday season with white snow falling and people happily shopping for presents, but the truth is when it begins to look a lot like Christmas stress levels can hit an all time high. Shopping, decorating, preparing for family visits, cooking, cleaning; the list seems to go on and on. In order to remove some items from your to-do list this season we put together a list of 7 holiday IFTTT (“if this then that”) recipes that let home automation do some of the work for you this year.

Set up these 7 holiday recipes, pour yourself a glass of eggnog, relax by the fire and let your smart home do the work this season. Maybe, just maybe, this year will feel a bit more like those Bing Crosby songs.

1. Turn on your holiday lights at sunset
Don’t worry about having to turn on your holiday lights every evening - now you can come home to a lit up house every evening.

2. Turn off your holiday lights at 1am
Save some energy and head to bed knowing your holiday lights will turn off for you every night.

3. Keep your inflatable decorations from flying away
When the wind goes above 10 mph this recipe will turn off your inflatable decorations to keep them from turning into balloons.

4. Celebrate Christmas day with Red & Green Lights
Make sure everyone knows it’s Christmas day by automatically turning your hue lights red and green.

5. Get in the holiday spirit with a festive phone wallpaper
On Christmas Day let everyone know you’re in the holiday spirit with a Christmas wallpaper on your phone.

6. Make sure your tree lights are turned off when you leave
Every time you leave the house this recipe will ensure that the lights on your tree have been turned off.

7. Wish a Merry Christmas to all your friends
Be the first of your friends to post a holiday message to your Facebook page with this recipe.

How To Water Your Christmas Tree (aka, don’t make your tree experience a drought)

Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year, or so a song has told me. And nothing says Christmas like a beautifully decorated tree. When I was a youngster my family believed in using a fake tree. It was a sad little tree, relegated to spending most of its life folded up in a box. Then a Christmas miracle occurred one year, my Dad decided no more, and he bought a live tree. This truly was a seminal moment of my childhood.

Of course, with a live tree comes some steps for preservation. If not followed, your tree will begin to resemble something out of a Charlie Brown Christmas Special. What is the magical tree elixir from the Gods? It is quite simple: clean water. If you do this, a well cared for tree should last for 3-4 weeks.

Here are just a few Christmas tree Do’s and Dont’s for any non-Scrooge to follow.

Do

Cut the tree down yourself if possible.

Not only will channeling your inner Paul Bunyan impress your wife and kids, you will know when it was cut, and how it looked when cut.

Use a tree stand with a water basin.

The rule of thumb is that a tree needs 1 quart of water per inch of stem. Therefore, a 4-inch stem needs to be in a gallon of water. Less than that, and you run the risk of the tree running out of water. This could make the tree unhappy, which might result in your tree taking itself and your presents over to the Jones's house. They have a top of the line tree stand with a 1-gallon water basin.

Put your tree into water within 6-8 hours of cutting.

After you keep up with the Jones and get that deluxe water basin, it’s imperative that the tree is placed into it within 8 hours. Once cut, the sap at the tree base will start to crystalize and make it impossible for the tree to take up water, which happens after about 8 hours.

Ensure your tree has water at all times.

When you wake up after having a few eggnog drinks at your office party you’re probably a little parched. A tree is no different, except for maybe the eggnog it needs to quench its thirst. Remember a Christmas tree is just as important to the season as Santa, so make sure your green friend has plenty to drink.

Recut the base if not freshly cut within the past 12 hours.

If you weren’t the one who cut the tree down make sure you ask Mearl at the lot when it was cut. If Mearl can’t remember, or you do not speak lumberjack, then cutting a 1/4” section from the base perpendicular to the trunk - no diagonal cuts - will allow the tree to absorb water again.

Keep your tree away from heat sources.

Nothing says Christmas cheer like a five-alarm fire at your house. But seriously, heat will dry out your tree, so keep it a safe distance from the fireplace.

Don't

Don’t drill a hole into the base of your tree.

This is often referred to as the IV method. Don’t try to further evolution. Trees have got the water intake process down. This doesn't help your tree.

Don’t spray your tree with antitranspirants.

Antitranspirants are just like antiperspirants, they attempt to prevent water loss. A plant can lose moisture just as fast as Santa when he is under all of those bright lights in the mall. However, they don't work on cut trees and they can make the leaves dry out faster.

Don’t add water-holding gels to your water basin.

Once again clean water is important. Not water that contains some strange gel made from who knows what, and who knows where. You don’t want your tree to sprout a second trunk because of the chemicals in the gel. Next thing you know the tree is alive and talking about moving in with your family once the holiday is over.

Don’t spray flame retardants on your tree.

In an ironic twist of fate that no one saw coming, flame retardants dry your tree out, making it a greater fire hazard.

Don’t whittle the sides of the trunk to make it fit.

The sides of the tree are the most efficient water uptake areas of a tree base. Would you like it if someone tried to whittle you down so you could fit into that ugly Christmas sweater?

Don't worry about the temperature of the water in the base.

I get it. No one wants to spend all day with their feet in cold water. I assure you 100% that your Christmas tree will not care about the temperature of the water. The only thing your tree will be concerned with is the simple fact that there is water.

10 IFTTT Recipes for Lower Utility Bills

The advent of the connected home has made our lives easier and more efficient. Convenience and ease-of-use aside, these technologies have also changed how we manage resources such as water and energy.

With IFTTT (“if this then that”), the ways in which these devices work with one another and other software applications can be easily specified by the average homeowner. This allows for harmony between these devices, and ultimately, a more efficient home.

Below are 10 IFTTT recipes that lend to a more efficient home, and ultimately, savings on your utility bill!


1. Log your electricity usage
Add the total amount of energy used from a WeMo Plug to a Google Calendar or Google Doc so you can better manage your energy use and find where the biggest opportunities to cut back are.
Required device: WeMo Switch

2. Skip watering if it’s too windy
High winds result in quicker evaporation and water not making down to the plants you’re trying to water. Postpone watering your yard when winds are too high.
Required Device: Rachio Iro

3. Turn a device off after it’s been on for “x” minutes
Forget to turn off that light all the time? Wish you could put it on a timed cycle? Put a time limit on any device’s energy use.
Required Device: WeMo Insight Switch

4. Stop AC from running if it’s cool outside
Weather changing quicker than your thermostat can adjust for? Turn off your Air Conditioning if it’s below a certain temperature outside and let mother nature cool your house for you.
Required Device: Nest Thermostat

5. Turn off the lights when I leave the house
Let this recipe make sure all your lights are off when you leave for the day.
Required Device: WeMo Light Switch

6. When UV index rises above 10, turn off the lights
Let the sunshine in! Let this recipe turn off your lights when the sun is shining bright to save energy and get some vitamin D as a bonus.
Required Device: WeMo Switch

7. Delay watering your garden if it’s going to rain
Make sure any rain at all delays your watering schedules with this recipe.
Required Device: Rachio Iro

8. Cut the AC some slack when it gets too hot
When it’s blazing hot out give your AC a break by adjusting up the target temperature a bit. Even just a degree or two can save a lot of energy.
Required Device: Nest Thermostat

9. Turn off my holiday lights when it reaches 1:00 AM
Set your festive holiday decorations to turn off at 1:00 AM so you don’t waste energy all night long. No confusing nobs or dials required!
Required Device: WeMo Insight Switch

10. Track watering in a Google Spreadsheet
Track every time your sprinklers water in a Google Sheet so you know exactly how often they’ve run and where you might be able to cut back.
Required Device: Rachio Iro

Putting the Smart Sprinkler in the Cloud

When discussing the Rachio smart controller, we often say that we’ve taken the brains of the sprinkler controller and placed them in the cloud. This approach allows us to constantly develop and evolve the controller, with intelligence exceeding commercial offerings costing thousands (or even tens of thousands) of dollars. In addition, this allows our users (you!) to view and manage your device(s) from anywhere in the world.

Software folks like to throw around the term “cloud” pretty loosely, but what does it actually mean? According to the National Institute of Standards and Technology:

Cloud computing is a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction.

Ok… how about something a little easier to understand?

...cloud computing means storing and accessing data and programs over the Internet instead of your computer's hard drive (PC Mag).

In other words, the cloud is about remote storage of data versus local storage. A few examples demonstrating this include:

• In real-time, seeing which zones are running, and how much water is being used/saved from your phone or desktop.
• Receiving a notification that a schedule has been skipped versus turning off your controller manually when it rains.
• Switching weather stations on-the-fly via your phone versus installing expensive on-site weather stations or rain gauges.
• Providing your landscaper with shared access to the app versus staying home from work to let them in the garage.

All of this is possible because of the cloud, and we're always looking for ways in which we can develop new features from this functionality.

Rachio at the 2015 CEDIA Expo in Dallas

Rachio will be at the CEDIA 2015 expo, located in Dallas this year.

We will be in booth 8119.

Come see us! We would love to chat.

Rachio Smart Sprinkler Controller Is SWAT Tested

Rachio is proud to announce that the Irrigation Association has completed testing of the Rachio smart sprinkler controller using the Smart Water Application Technology (SWAT) protocol and have released the results. The Rachio controller scored extremely well in the testing.

SWAT is the other major water efficiency program besides the EPA's WaterSense certification.

What's the difference between SWAT and WaterSense? Please see our explanatory article on the differences.

Now that our smart sprinkler controller is SWAT tested, it is available for a wider range of rebates from municipalities. Check with your local water provider to see if your purchase qualifies, or see our list of known SWAT rebate municipalities.

If you have any questions, you can always reach out on the support site.

Rachio Wins the “Vendor To Watch Award” at SWS 2015

Rachio was named Vendor To Watch at the 2015 Smart Water Summit. We are honored!

There were 43 participating smart water technology companies in three award categories: best smart water solution, smart water vendor to watch, and best overall boardroom presentation).

Please see the press release for more information.

The Smart Water Summit is hosted by Smart Grid Summits, and focuses on water municipality issues.

Rachio at WaterSmart Innovations 2015 in Las Vegas

Rachio will be at the WaterSmart Innovations 2015 conference, located in Las Vegas.

We will be at booth 321.

Come see us! We would love to chat.

EPA WaterSense versus SWAT

If you are an irrigation or water nerd like us, you've heard of the two major types of water efficiency programs: WaterSense and SWAT. But what are the differences?

First, a bit of historical context.

SWAT History

SWAT, or Smart Water Application Technologies, an initiative of the Irrigation Association (IA), is a national partnership of water purveyors and irrigation industry representatives that began in 2002. Stakeholders developed SWAT testing protocols to assess and document product performance in order to better promote water-efficient technologies. Testing protocols have been developed for products like weather-based irrigation controllers and rain sensors. Water utilities rely on SWAT testing protocols because they provide credible, independent product testing data that validates the water-saving potential of irrigation technologies. To become SWAT tested, the manufacturer must pay for the testing. When SWAT was created, many municipalities used it as a basis for offering rebates on efficient products.

WaterSense History

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) created WaterSense in 2006 as the water equivalent of EnergyStar, a voluntary program to promote the efficient use of water. WaterSense is also a broader program, as it covers non-irrigation products like toilets and showerheads. Like SWAT, many municipalities offer rebates on water bills for WaterSense certified products.

The Differences

In broad terms, SWAT came first, and WaterSense adopted SWAT's testing protocols with a few minor changes.

• Testing versus certification. A product can be WaterSense certified based upon meeting certain requirements. However, WaterSense does not provide the complete testing results. SWAT, on the other hand, does not provide certification. Instead, SWAT reports performance of products without judgment, releasing results to the public. In other words, WaterSense is a pass/fail certification, while SWAT releases complete testing results for buyers to review themselves. 
• Minimum runtimes. WaterSense added minimum run times so that sprinklers will apply a minimum amount of water that will soak into the soil. 
• Missing data from the reference weather station. Adds requirements to compensate when there is missing weather data. 
• Rainfall requirement. WaterSense added a requirement that there be at least 4 individual days with 0.10 inches or more of gross rainfall. This tests how the controller handles rain. 
• Order of operations in calculating the water balance. Because these programs are for weather-based or evapotranspiration (ET) controllers, calculating when irrigation needs to occur is a major concern. SWAT calculates the water balance in the following order: ET, rainfall, and then irrigation. WaterSense changed the calculation to the following: ET, irrigation, and then rainfall. SWAT’s approach is to maximize the benefit of rainfall first, then add irrigation. 

What does this mean in practice?

The differences between SWAT and WaterSense largely come from the fact that WaterSense was tested in Florida, where it rains regularly. This meant they could not properly test products without removing rainfall largely from the equation, particularly future rainfall. As such, WaterSense controllers do not account for future rain; only how it handles irrigation after a rainfall.

Take the situation where an irrigation schedule is supposed to run at 4pm, but rain is forecasted to occur at 10pm. A controller that irrigated at 4pm would likely pass EPA certification, but receive low scores from SWAT as the controller didn’t account for future rainfall and skip the scheduled irrigation event.

What This Means For You

With competing testing protocols, it can be confusing to know which one to trust. However, here are some guidelines:

• Both programs signal a water efficient product. Because they are based on roughly the same protocols, both programs are excellent. 
• Check with your water provider for available rebates. While saving water by itself is admirable, if you are going to pay for new hardware, make sure to see if you can save money on your purchases as well. 
• Although SWAT came first, WaterSense has overtaken it as the most popular program for testing the validity of manufacturers’ water saving claims. This is likely due to the wider range of products that WaterSense covers, as well as WaterSense being created by the EPA, a well-known government agency. 
• While WaterSense is currently more popular, water municipalities in the west have a higher likelihood of offering rebates based on SWAT. 

Water and Sewage Costs Projected To Rise Significantly

An article by Professor Janice Beecher of the Michigan State University's Institute of Public Utilities recently caught our eye. In this article, Professor Beecher compiled data available from the Bureau of Labor Statistics about the costs over time associated with utilities, like electricity, natural gas, and water/sewage services. This is publicly available data, which by itself is fascinating to review, but it is particularly relevant for those interested in the price of water.

The graph says it all.

As you can see from the image below, water & sewer costs are projected to rise significantly over the next five years. Since 1983, average water & sewer costs have risen 4.5x, and are projected to be 6.4x by 2020. Furthermore, this is far, far greater than the expected increase in other utilities, or general inflation itself. The 10 year average (2004-2014) of annual change in CPI for water & sewer is roughly the same as college tuition, and we all know how fast college tuition is rising.

Water as a natural resource is something we all know is very valuable. However, water has generally been priced very low. According to this data, that is changing rapidly.

Rachio Recycles!

Rachio has partnered with BlueStarRecyclers, a local electronics recycling firm based here in Denver, to offer recycling of your old controller. Rachio will cover the cost of recycling.

Just send your old controller to us, and we’ll handle the rest. Please send your old controller to us at the following address:

Rachio
Attn: Controller Recycling
2040 Larimer St
Denver, CO 80205

While we are passionate about saving water, we are also passionate about the environment, and we would like to avoid producing waste when you upgrade your existing controller. It’s the Rachio thing to do.

We are thrilled to be able to work with BlueStarRecyclers for many reasons:

• They are a local recycler, cutting down on shipping costs.
• They are an e-Stewards certified electronics recycler.
• They are a 501c3 Social Enterprise, focused on creating local jobs for people with disAbilities.

If you’d like to learn more about the awesome work BlueStarRecyclers does, please check them out. They've got a great Facebook page as well.

Rachio plus Muzzley

Rachio is pleased to announce our newest integration with Muzzley.

Muzzley is an app that gathers all of your connected devices and puts them to work together in an intuitive way. The app allows connected devices of different brands to communicate with and respond to each other.

Muzzley is available on iOS, Android and Windows Phone.

Welcome Muzzley to the Rachio integrations family!

Rachio plus Nexia Home Intelligence

Rachio is pleased to announce that we are now integrated with Nexia Home Intelligence, a brand of Ingersoll Rand.

“Homeowners should be able to manage their water consumption as easily as they control their television,” said Brian Ewing, Rachio sales and marketing. "By partnering with Nexia, our marketplace has expanded considerably and with water conservation an expanding issue, we can help consumers protect one of our most precious resources while helping them to maintain their beautiful landscape.”

This exciting integration allows Nexia users to use all the benefits of Rachio's intelligent irrigation controller through Nexia Automations.

“As we constantly expand Nexia’s capabilities, our support of Iro as a Nexia-certified device gives our users more ways to save money and keep their home running at its most efficient,” said George Land, head of Nexia™ Home Intelligence. “We already provide users more ways than ever to monitor and control their home from anywhere in the world – and now we’re extending that reliability and flexibility out into the yard.”

For Nexia users, you can connect a Rachio Iro to your system through MyNexia.

Rachio 2.1 Released With Soil Moisture Graph

Just released: the Rachio app version 2.1 for both iOS and Android.

Check your respective stores to download.

What's new?

With the 2.1 release, we have added the ability to view moisture levels by zone, as well as to view a graph of moisture levels over time. It's really awesome. This mirrors what exists currently in the Web App.

For example, when you select a zone, it will tell you the current moisture level.

If you click the moisture level, you can see a visualization of the moisture level over time.

Click on one of the points, and it will tell you the exact moisture balance for that day, plus whether it ran a schedule.






We hope you like it! If you have any feedback, please let us know in our community forum.

Water Story: Travis Johnson

Travis Johnson

Montara, CA

Rachio user since June 2015





We discovered Travis's amazing setup after he posted about it on the Rachio community site. To view his fantastic post, please check it out there.

Q. What led you to purchase your Rachio Iro?

A. I was starting a new landscaping project from scratch and wanted a cutting edge system to control it. I have a lot of home automation in place and love anything "smart home" related. After extensive research, it was clear the Iro was the best choice. Rachio is an agile, rapid iteration company that takes user feedback seriously. In some cases, a customer requests a feature and you'll see it live a few days later. That's the type of company I love to support.

Q. How has the Iro changed your lawn/ landscape?
A. Since this was a brand new irrigation install, I can't say how it has changed my landscape. What it has done though is bring a level of control and intelligence to watering we desperately need in drought conditions. Being located in California, it's more important than ever to only water as much as is needed. Not to mention, reckless watering is likely to get the neighbors grabbing their pitch forks these days.

Q. Where is the best place you have controlled your Iro from?
A. I was sitting in my office, showing off the setup to some co-workers. There's a security camera in my garage that can see some of my shrubs when the door is open. Naturally, I remotely opened the door, turned on the camera and fired up the zone using the Android app, all from my desk. Within a few seconds, we were watching the water sputter out of the bubblers. What a great age we live in.

Q. What is your favorite feature of the Rachio app or webapp?
A. Personal weather station support. I actually installed my own weather station just to serve the Iro. Living on the Northern California Coast means a lot of microclimates which have a significant effect on your landscape. The ability to send my own, localized data to Rachio means I'm using not just accurate rainfall data, but also temperature as well.

Q. How has owning an Iro enhanced your understanding of your water use?
A. I've never paid this much attention to irrigation. The Iro makes something traditionally mundane into something fun. Just turning on a zone for 30 minutes a week seems archaic now. The future is all about local weather, soil conditions and making smart, automatic decisions based on a wealth of data.

Q. Do you have any other stories about the Rachio Iro you'd like to share?
A. Not since the Nest have I seen a slicker hardware installation or been so impressed with the thought put into how it was built. The community of Iro users is great, the product is always evolving for the better and is a must-have for anyone serious about doing irrigation the right way.

Cash in on Conservation

Rachio was created to help you save water. We’ve solved the problem of watering your lawn when it’s raining, and we do so much more these days. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: over 50% of your home water use is outside of the home, so optimizing your irrigation system can add up quickly in the savings department.

That’s why we just released Flex Schedules™. Our watering technology applies only what your landscape needs, keeping your plants happy while reducing your water use 30% on average.

Our friends over at MeterHero are sending checks out every month to people who have reduced their energy, natural gas, and water usage. Paying for conservation isn’t a new idea (EPA WaterSense rebates), but efforts like these are vital to bring awareness to home resource usage and to eliminate waste.

We can’t do it alone, so when we found out you can get paid for saving water we jumped on board! This August Rachio is sponsoring MeterHero rebates to incent even greater water savings.

Start building out your home water savings plan today and cash in on your conservation with MeterHero.

Water Story: Philip Sperry

Philip Sperry
Suwanee, GA
Rachio user for 3 months



Q. What led you to purchase your Rachio Iro?
A. I love using technology to make my life simpler and more efficient. Iro was the natural choice to automate my irrigation system.

Q. How has the Iro changed your lawn/ landscape?
A. Iro keeps everything watered and green while saving 30%+ on water usage.

Q. Where is the best place you have controlled your Iro from?
A. My yard. It is super convenient to turn my sprinklers on and off while I adjust my sprinklers. Sidewalks do not require regular watering :-)

Q. What is your favorite feature of the Rachio app or webapp?
A. I am currently testing flex schedules, and it looks like it will result in big water savings. I also love that it can use my personal weather station which makes the whole thing work better, especially here in the south where showers are widely scattered.

Q. How has owning an Iro enhanced your understanding of your water use?
A. Greatly. Not just how much I use but how much I've wasted in the past.

Q. Do you have any other stories about the Rachio Iro you'd like to share?
A. I had no idea how often how often my sprinklers ran when it was not needed. I knew they sometimes ran when it was raining but rain delays have canceled over a third of my cycles so far.

Rachio PROfile with Kyle Scott

Kyle Scott
Scott Irrigation
Red Deer, Alberta
http://www.scottirrigation.ca/






Q. When was the first time you installed a Rachio?
A. I installed first rachio this June, found out about them through our supplier.

Q. What’s your favorite feature of the Rachio Iro?
A. The shared access feature is my favorite feature. It's so handy to use my phone to turn on particular zones at customer properties.

Q. What do you like about Rachio?
A. I like that the rachio is easy to install and program. I also like the compact design.

Q. Do your customers like Rachio?
A. For every rachio I have installed, I've had nothing but positive feedback. The customers like how user friendly they are.

Q. Has Rachio changed your relationship with your customers?
A. Rachio has gave us another irrigation option for our customers.

Q. How long have you been in business?
A. My father started the business 35 years ago.

Q. What’s your favorite aspect of landscaping or irrigation?
A. My favorite aspect of irrigation is installing a user friendly irrigation system for our customers' watering needs.

Understanding our water use

Water is one of our most precious natural resources. It’s also a substance we take a bit for granted in the United States.

The latest US water usage numbers estimate that as a country we use around 397,000,000 acre-feet of water per year. An acre-foot of water is how much water it takes to fill an acre of land with a foot of water. At 325,851 gallons per acre-foot, that’s 129,362,847,000,000 gallons per year, or 129.4 trillion gallons per year. That’s a lot of commas and a lot of water. But what does it cost for residential users?

Water prices vary dramatically across the country, and the highest prices aren’t always where you think (like California). According to Circle of Blue, in 2015, Atlanta and Seattle had some of the highest water prices in the country, where average monthly water bills can be in excess of $300. Water may be all around us, but making it drinkable, clean, and on demand can be challenging. Alternatively, reducing water usage by municipalities can also have negative ramifications for communities, as most communities and cities rely on revenue from water usage as part of annual budgets, and revenue is based on overall water usage.

Even if you want to change your water habits, it can feel overwhelming. Do you take shorter showers? Not flush the toilet? Wash your dishes less often? These are hard habits to change and sustain, and frankly, in most cases they are likely to fail. We like taking our showers, having a bath every once in a while, letting the water run while brushing our teeth, and for most communities, water prices are still quite cheap.

The one area where most households can dramatically impact water usage is outside of the home, in the yard.

As we’ve discussed over this past Smart Irrigation month, there are many techniques and tricks that you can use to keep your landscape looking great, while reducing overall water usage. From understanding evapotranspiration, to incorporating management allowable depletion as well as cycle and soak, landscape irrigation is ripe for improvement for most homes. Most folks don’t realize that on average, 59% of a household’s overall water use is outside the home, on things exactly like irrigation.

Understanding your water use is the first step in making a lasting impact on your water consumption, and there is a wealth of knowledge out there to improve your irrigation beyond the techniques we’ve discussed this past month. Keep checking on this blog for other tips and tricks, and enjoy your landscape!

Water Story: Rich Salkin

Rich Salkin
Omaha, NE
Rachio user for over 1 year




Q. What led you to purchase your Rachio Iro?
A. I heard about the Iro before it was available and thought that it was the best idea I've seen. I was looking for a replacement for my timer based controller for a while. I was getting frustrated having the sprinklers go off even though we just had a large rain storm. I liked the idea of a sprinkler controller being able to track rain fall amounts and decide if water was needed. After finding the Iro, I was hooked and pre-ordered it.

Q. How has the Iro changed your lawn/ landscape?
A. My lawn has never looked better! The back of my house faces south east and gets a lot of sun. It is also slightly sloped and never really greened up very well. It also turned brown in the late summer because of the sun and slope. My back yard improved dramatically after I installed the Iro.

Q. Where is the best place you have controlled your Iro from?
A. From work! Believe it or not! I planted some new grass seed and forgot to water that part of the yard. So I opened up the app on my iPhone and started that zone.

Q. What is your favorite feature of the Rachio app or webapp?
A. I like to make sure that my sprinkler heads are in good working order so I love the ability to walk around my yard and turn zones on or off from my phone. It's a lot easier to control the sprinkler system when you are right in the middle of the yard.

Q. How has owning an Iro enhanced your understanding of your water use?
A. Seeing the amount of water that was saved simply by knowing how much rain we've received or how much is forcasted has given me a respect for water conservation. I think that if more people would change out their timer controller for a Rachio Iro we wouldn't be having water issues.

Q. Do you have any other stories about the Rachio Iro you'd like to share?
A. I have be talking about the Iro and how it has saved me a ton of money on water bills to anyone that would listen. A number of my friends jumped on the band wagon and got an Iro.

Q. How long have you owned your Rachio Iro?
A. I was one of the first to receive one so I've owned an Rachio Iro since they were released.

Rachio 2.0: Evolution of an App

That went by fast!

I can hardly believe we launched version 1.0 of the Rachio app along with our ground breaking intelligent irrigation controller, the Iro, just over a year ago.

When we first set out to change how people water their yard, we knew it had to be smart, with a world-class, cloud-based platform incorporating the latest in irrigation science. We knew it had to be easy to use, so we make setting it up as easy as walking around the yard and tapping a few buttons. We knew it to be fun, so we built simple manual controls so that control was never more than a few taps away. I personally love using this feature to surprise the neighborhood kids when they play on my lawn.

Since then, we have received a lot of feedback from our fantastic customers, and we love to listen! While planning our next big release, we reviewed thousands of comments and suggestions, and we talked to many of our customers directly. We learned that our customers are passionate about their yards and saving water. They love how easy it is to setup and control the Iro. They also told us that they want more insight into the factors that go into maintaining a healthy yard while saving water.

With this feedback in mind, we set out to take intelligent irrigation to the next level, and here’s what we came up with...

System Info Front and Center

Our customers told us that they want to quickly see the state their system is in, so we put that front and center. On the main screen, you see the Dashboard tab, providing an overview of your Iro and your yard, including local weather, watering schedules, zones, and monthly water use. From each Dashboard view, you can quickly go deep into detailed views. At the bottom of the screen are tabs to navigate to additional views. We also added a big round button for quick access to manually water your lawn. At the top of the screen is the name and location of the currently selected Iro. Finally, at the top left of the screen is a menu icon that will take you to the global app settings.

Activity Feed

Our customers told us they wanted more insight into their irrigation system, so we added a live activity feed. We also updated our cloud services to provide more real-time data and to support user actions for certain activities and events. On the Activities Screen, you will see a variety of activity feeds, including real time updates, recent watering history, schedule updates, and device updates, some of which you can change directly from the feed.

Remote Control

Customers love how easy and fun it is to manually control individual zones from anywhere using your their phone. However, we also heard many customers wanted the ability to quickly set a run time for all zones at the same time. So we came up with the Rachio remote. Just tap on the big blue button at the bottom of the main screen.

This brings up a beautiful remote control screen where you can easily select a zone to water, or all zones if you want. Easily set the amount of time you want to water simply by dragging the remote control knob with one finger. Select All Zones to run each zone for the same amount of time. Select individual zones for a custom manual schedule. Tap the reset button to set the time for all zones or individual zones back to zero. When you are ready, just tap the Run Now button to start watering.

These are just a few of the major improvements we have made to the Rachio app based on feedback from our customers. You have probably also heard about our new Flex Schedules. If you haven’t, you can read about those on our website and blog. Finally, we are also proud to release a Web version of our app. Stay tuned for more on that.

At Rachio, we are passionate about creating great products that make it easy and fun for our customers to save and manage water. We have been overwhelmed by the amount of support and feedback we have received and we hope you love using the newest Rachio apps as much as we loved making them. We can’t wait to hear from you and look forward to many happy releases.

Rachio PROfile with Jason Powers

Jason Powers
Powers Energy Solutions
Vienna, VA
https://smart-powers.com/







Q. When was the first time you installed a Rachio?
A. Although we’ve known about Rachio for a while now, we didn’t actually install our first Iro until shortly after completing the Rachio Pro training in mid-April.

Q. What’s your favorite feature of the Rachio Iro?
A. Coming from an environmental and energy efficiency background, Rachio’s EPA WaterSense certification is what first caught my eye. Studies have shown that up to 50% of the water we use outside for irrigation is wasted so ability to conserve water and save my customers money on their water bill is huge. It’s also nice to see that state and municipal governments have realized the values in these technologies and are starting to offer rebates to install them. We work with all our customers to determine if water efficiency rebates are available in their area and then guide them through the rebate process so they can receive their rebate as quickly as possible.

Q. What do you like about Rachio?

A. That it works with Nest! My company specializes in Nest products and the many integrated ‘Works with Nest’ devices. Since we are a home automation company not an irrigation company, the ability to set up and install without the specialized skills of an irrigation technician is a big plus for us. 

Q. Do your customers like Rachio?

A. They do, and the more they learn about it the more they like it! I find that most of our customers fall into one of two camps those that have never heard of a smart sprinkler systems before and those that may have seen Rachio at one of the big box stores but didn’t really understand its value. We provide them with all the information they need to make an educated decision on whether or not to integrate Rachio into their smart home.

Q. Has Rachio changed your relationship with your customers?

A. It has, for many of the reasons stated earlier. We like being able to provide our customers with as much choice as possible when it comes to smart home products. Education is key; the IoT marketplace is rapidly changing and expanding, our customers trust that we will give them the most up to date information on all the smart home products on the market. I like to say, we don’t just install smart home devices, we help design your connected home.

Q. How long have you been in business?

A. I started my company in October of 2013. For the first year, it was just me installing smart home products in the Northern Virginia / Washington, DC area, now I have over 20 technicians in many major cities across the country. If we are not in your city yet, give us time…we soon will be!

Q. What’s your favorite aspect of landscaping or irrigation?

A. That’s a great question. As an undergrad, I majored in biology and I really like the trend toward more native species in landscaping. Native plant species require less water and provide more natural habitat and food sources for native animal species. My father is master naturalist and an apiary and he loves talking about the benefits native flower species have on bee populations. He is very proud of the Certified Wildlife Habitat sign in his front yard and I’m proud of the work we are do educating customers on the value of water conservation.

What is evapotranspiration

Evapotranspiration. If you can pronounce that, congratulations, you’ve reached another level in your irrigation life.

Evapotranspiration (ET) is a fancy way of referring to the amount of water that leaves the ground, through two methods:

1. Good old evaporation, when water turns into vapor
2. Plant transpiration, when plants ‘breath’ and release moisture into the air

In the real world, there is no good way to distinguish between evaporation and transpiration, so ET is commonly referred to as one process. Furthermore, it is just one part of the water cycle, which describes how water moves throughout our environment. This includes such fun terms as condensation, sublimation, seepage, and (my personal favorite) infiltration. However, for our purposes, we only really care about ET.

Knowing how much water leaves the ground at any point is completely vital to efficient water management for one reason: it allows us to know how much water we need to add back to the ground.

There are only two main ways that water gets returned back into the ground: precipitation and irrigation. To successfully calculate how much water needs to be returned to the ground by irrigation, you must know about precipitation, but that is relatively easy to track.

That being said, measuring ET can be a challenge. The amount of evapotranspiration fluctuates throughout the year, primarily because of temperature. ET is higher with warmer temperatures and lower with cooler temperatures. This is the main reason why the amount of water your landscape needs increases in the summer and decreases in the spring and fall.

* Image from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California

However, there are many variables that go into its calculation like soil type, plant type, temperature, direct or indirect sunlight, wind, ambient humidity, etc. Accurate data for all of these variables is imperative to calculate the most correct ET value. Without ET, it’s impossible to correctly calculate how much water your landscape requires.

If you’d like to understand how Rachio incorporates evapotranspiration, check out this excellent support article.