Page 45 - Green Builder Magazine Sept-Oct 2017

Experience

The Flex House

Shelter Dynamics and Green
Builder Media will exhibit
®
The Flex House in Las Vegas
early next year. The third
of three planned exhibitions.
Consumer Electronics Show
January 9-12, 2018

its customers’ accounts and watering schedules. The ability to
Stretching the Water Budget control many schedules at once holds the potential for reducing
Ordinances such as MWELO also mandate the use of “weather-based” peak water demand.
irrigation controllers such as the WaterSense smart controllers offered For this study, 15 homeowners were provided with Rachio smart
by Rachio. These controllers can significantly reduce irrigation water controllers, and the homeowners agreed to have their irrigation
use and can help ensure landscaping projects are approved. But they schedules remotely interrupted for two days in August of 2016. Based
may also offer a revolutionary way to manage development in areas on water use history for these properties, the interruption saved 84
with limited water infrastructure. kilogallons (84,000 gallons) during each of the two days. Scaling this
Much like the energy grid, the capacity of water infrastructure must strategy up to include hundreds of homeowners could cut millions
be built around peak demand. Last year, Rachio participated in a study of gallons from peak demand.
in collaboration with the Alliance for Water Efficiency, New Jersey For now, the Rachio real-time reporting provides a valuable source
American Water and WaterDM to learn how suspending irrigation of data on outdoor water use. The app allows landscaping contractors
on the hottest, driest days could “shave” the peak of this demand. to control many customers’ controllers at once, but it offers another
“This has profound implications on required water supply for a benefit, too. Landscaping contractors are typically held liable for new
given municipality, and reduces the cost of infrastructure,” explains landscaping for up to a year after it is installed, even if homeowners
Rachio Vice President Ric Miles. skimp on watering and the plants suffer.
Rachio is unique among smart controller manufacturers in that “With this shared intelligence, you get a notification that something
access to the controllers can be shared, and Rachio can access has changed—it creates a virtual ‘paper trail,’” says Miles. GB

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