by Brianna Crandall — March 20, 2015—Of interest to facilities managers with grounds to maintain and water, irrigation systems provider IrriGreen, Inc., recently released the Genius Mobile App for the IrriGreen Genius Irrigation System. Engineered for iOS and Android, the Genius Mobile App enables contractors to manage the IrriGreen system from any smartphone.
IrriGreen’s embedded computer technology continuously computes and adjusts stream volumes, directions and distances for each Genius Sprinkler, explains the company. The new app provides interactive zone mapping with a visual display of the shape of each irrigation zone and the distances of the sprays from each sprinkler head.
Installers use the app to align water streams to landscape features in each zone. The software automatically calculates spray distances, sets the mapping points, and sends the data via Wi-Fi to the IrriGreen Genius Server. IrriGreen then digitally controls the watering patterns to match the exact shape of the lawn.
“With IrriGreen, installers configure zones and set the sprinkler heads all in one step right on their Smartphone using the Genius Mobile App,” said Gary Klinefelter, founder and chief executive officer, IrriGreen. “With ordinary irrigation systems, they first plan the design of each zone, then choose and install the correct nozzles for different heads, and finally adjust each head by hand.”
Traditional irrigation systems water from the outside-in with overlapping sprays from rows of sprinkler heads installed all around the edges of each zone, points out IrriGreen. Typical installations need 4-8 heads per zone, plus lateral lines to connect them to the main water supply line.
Because it waters from the inside-out with digitally directed sprays conforming to the contours of the lawn, IrriGreen reportedly needs only one head in the middle of each zone and no lateral lines. Requiring approximately 75-85 percent fewer heads and 75-85 percent less pipe than conventional irrigation systems, IrriGreen generally installs in less than half the man-hours.
In addition to reducing labor costs for contractors, IrriGreen reduces water use and costs for homeowners and commercial property owners and managers. Conventional irrigation systems waste water with inefficient overlapping sprays and over-spraying onto parking lots, driveways, patios, sidewalks and streets. In contrast, IrriGreen does not need to overlap sprays to cover entire areas of turf evenly. IrriGreen minimizes wasteful spray overlap and eliminates over-spraying on to hardscapes — maintaining healthy, green lawns while using as much as 50 percent less water.
The water-efficient IrriGreen sprinkler system is explained on a YouTube video.