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Winterization – Sprinkler System Blowout

Tuesday, September 7th, 2010

Every year we hear a story of someone moving to Minnesota from somewhere warm, Texas, Flordia, California.  Usually the person moves into their residence in the summer or fall and doesn’t realize their sprinkler system needs to be blown out before the Winter hits.  Inevitably they discover should have been winterized only after the pipes freeze and break.

Some things to remember if you are new to Minnesota:

1.)  Late September/October is the best time to get your system blown out or winterized.  Once November hits the chances of the temperature dropping below 32 degrees is very high.

2.)  Once your system is blown out do not turn your system back on if it warms up.

3.)  Your sprinkler system needs to be in working order before winterization.  Broken or cut lines can allow water to get back into the system and potentially damage the system.

4.)  Schedule your winterization in September even if you don’t want it blown out until late fall.  Trucks fill up quickly and it is less likely you will be able to get someone to Winterize your system if you wait too long.

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Posted in Irrigation, Lawn Sprinklers | 2 Comments »

Hunter Solar Sync; A New Product To Conserve Water And Money

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Solar Sync Technology

For our customers who own a Hunter Pro-C or ICC controller Hunter has come out with a new product you have to see. The new Solar Sync easily attaches to your current controller and converts it to a smart controller. Now your controller settings will adjust with the weather everyday taking the guesswork out of watering.  It cuts out unnecessary and excessive watering by using just the right admit of water when your landscape needs it.  This device will help you fight high water rates.

How It Works

The Solar Sync sensor continually gathers on the site rainfall, solar and temperature data. It uses this information in the calculation of evapotranspiration of ET and determines watering requirements, Evapotranspiration or ET, put simply, is how fast ground water evaporates.

The Solar Sync module automatically calculates the water requirements for your landscape and makes adjustments to your Hunter controller. On warm dry days, the Solar Sync will seasonally adjust run times up. On colder wet days the Solar Sync will seasonally adjust your controller times down. This process is completely automatic, saving you money without ever worrying about it.

Simple to Program

With the Solar Sync you do not need to do anything differently, you set your controller as you would for normal, summer conditions and Solar Sync does the rest.

What to Expect

Hunter expects savings of 25%  to 30% on your lawn sprinkler water usage (this does depend on your former irrigation water practices).  An average yard can have annual water cost of $700 to $800,With the Solar Sync you can save $195 to $240. If you have an average or large yard your first year water savings may cover the cost of installation.


Check out the video below for additional details regarding the Solar Sync

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Posted in Irrigation, Lawn Sprinklers, Water Conservation, Water Rates | No Comments »

How Evaporation Can Save You Money

Saturday, May 1st, 2010

Evapotranspiration (ET) is the process of transferring moisture from the earth to the atmosphere by evaporation of water and transpiration(sweating) from plants. Also called fly-off or water loss, ET is simply the measure of how fast ground water evaporates taking into account factors such as sunlight intensity, wind speed and soil type.  It is now possible for computers to calculate these water loss rates and then tell your irrigation system how long to run in order to replenish these losses.  Green Acres is proud to be able to bring to you an ever growing list of products that use this technology in order to prevent over-watering and combat the ever growing expense and depletion of our most precious resource.

Here is a list of our ET products which our professional service personnel can add to any electric sprinkler system:

Rain sensors are the most basic add on to a sprinkler system.  While Green Acres installs a rain sensor with every new install, there are still many sprinkler systems that do not incorporate this basic technology.   A rain sensor effectively cuts transmissions between your controller and valves once it has measured a preset amount of rain fall, then re-establishes this connection once the weather calls for it.

A step up from the basic rain sensor is the Solar Sync.  While a rain sensor is a valuable tool in saving water, it does take a certain amount of rain before it activates. With the Solar Sync, sprinkler system shut down happens almost as fast as it starts to rain while also measuring rain amounts, air temperature and sunlight intensity to calculate a more exact run time for your sprinklers to operate more efficiently.

The SmartLine controller has almost any option you could ask for when it comes to properly watering your lawn and gardens.  Besides all of the advantages of the Solar Sync, the SmartLine controller will take into account for each zone:  the type of sprinkler or drip line being used, the soil type, the type of turf or plant, and the slope of the landscape.  Green Acres will continue to blog on the tremendous savings that our customers receive with this remarkable product.

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Posted in Irrigation, Water Conservation | No Comments »

Eden Prairie Townhouse Property Saves $3000 In A Year By Replacing Their Lawn Sprinkler Controller!

Tuesday, March 16th, 2010

That’s right, and Eden Prairie townhouse property saved a whole lot of water and cash by replacing their old lawn sprinkler controller. If you have a large property with a sprinkler system, townhouse property, condominium property, retirement facility, church, school, park, office, shopping center, warehouse, strip mall, or large residence; you too can save water and money.

Look at the results we had last year at one large Eden Prairie townhouse property. In 2008 we had an old time based controller. In 2009 we replaced it with the Weathermatic Smartline controller that adjusts with the weather and look at the results!

Water Usage Water Cost

2008                  3,893,600  Gallons Used                         $10,318.04 Spent

2009                   2,711,500   Gallons Used                           $7,185.48 Spent

Savings             1,182,100   Gallons Saved                           $3,132.57 Saved

Eden Prairie water cost $2.65 per 1000 gallons.

This is amazing, isn’t it! Look at the conservation! In one year over a million gallons and over $3,000 was saved! In ten years this one site will still be green and conserve over ten million gallons of water. In ten years as much as $30,000 will saved by using a modern controller.

This site is as green as ever, and I would say the landscape and lawn is even healthier. Now just the right amount of water is being distributed at just the right time. No more wasteful over watering and no more under watering. The system adjusts with the weather everyday creating an automatic lawn sprinkler system.

If you have a large irrigation system or even if your home has a sprinkler system you need to look at replacing your old controller with one of these new smart controllers. Just think if we all replaced our old water wasting controllers how much water could be conserved statewide.

Do your part, conserve water and fight higher water rates by giving us a call to replace that old water wasting controller.

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Posted in Irrigation, Water Conservation, Water Rates | No Comments »

Save Water and Money While Going Green

Monday, April 6th, 2009

Every January I (Rob Cooper) attend the Minnesota Nursery and Landscape Association Convention held in Minneapolis. This year’s presentation by Doug Bennett, the conservation manager for the Southern Nevada Water Authority, stunned me.

First, Doug’s graphs revealed the stark increase in water prices in only a decade. Las Vegas now has five different graduated water prices ranging from $2.00/1000 gallons to $5.00/1000 gallons. The increase ranged from 200% to 500%. As water becomes more precious, many cities will increase their pricing to encourage conservation.

Secondly, based on a survey taken in Las Vegas, most people believe their showers consume the largest amount of water. For people in Las Vegas, sprinkler usage was 80%, whereas the shower only used 5% of the water. Research on water usage was done in 12 cities across the USA.  Here’s what they found: Without exception the largest household usage of water is the lawn sprinkler system!

These statistics, caused me to consider the following questions:

  1. Do our customers know their sprinkler system is the largest user of water in their household?
  2. Have we encouraged our customers enough to begin saving water now?
  3. Because sprinklers use the most water, how much money could our customers save with some of the new products available for irrigation systems?

I decided to check my own family’s water usage:

% water used by $cost for
Year sprinkler system water bill
2007 67% $725.00
2008 60% $525.00

I saved $200.00! – a 27% decrease in my water bill!
I had decreased our sprinkler water usage by 7%.
The two summers had similar weather patterns and, my lawn looked better than ever!

What had I done differently?
In 2007 I had a traditional time based controller run my system. I adjusted the controller three times that year; once for spring, once for summer and again for the fall. In 2008 I installed a smart controller that adjusts with the weather every day. This single change made the difference!

To learn more about Smart Controllers contact us now.

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Posted in Water Conservation | 3 Comments »

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