Irrigation water management system

• US 20110137827A1
• Filed: 08/30/2010
• Published: 06/09/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/03/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Telsco Industries, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Telsco Industries, Inc.
• Inventors: Piper, Matthew E., Bruner, Michael B., Mason, Lex M. SR., Savelle, William, Cooper, Donald L.
• Granted Patent: US 8,650,069 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/413
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/06 Resources, workflows, human or project management; Enterprise or organisation planning; Enterprise or organisation modelling
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 50/06 Energy or water supply

Abstract

The efficiency of an irrigation system on a property is determined as a difference between the actual water usage at a property and the irrigation water need of the plant on the property. Data for the property are received including at least the location and irrigation area of the property. A reference evapotranspiration value for the property is determined using the solar radiation data derived from the location of the property. The irrigation water need of the property is then calculated from the reference evapotranspiration value and area. The irrigation water need is compared to the actual water use at the property to determined the efficiency of the irrigation system operating thereon.

Claims

1. A method for determining the operating efficiency of an irrigation system comprising:

receiving property data for a remotely located property at a local computer from a remotely located computer, said property data comprising at least a location description of said remotely located property and an irrigated area of said remotely located property;

receiving climatic data for the remotely located property, said climatic data determined by the location description of said remotely located property;

receiving an actual irrigation water usage volume for the remotely located property for a predetermined time period;

calculating a reference plant water usage for the remotely located property using the climatic data for the predetermined time period;

calculating a water need volume for the remotely located property over the predetermined time period from the reference plant water usage and the irrigated area of said remotely located property;

comparing the water need volume and the actual irrigation water usage volume for the remotely located property for the predetermined time period; and

forwarding results of the comparison for the irrigation system to one of the remotely located computer and a second remotely located computer.

2. The method recited in claim 1, comparing the water need volume and the actual irrigation water usage volume further comprises:

assessing an operating efficiency of the irrigation system at the remotely located property for the predetermined time period as a difference of the water need volume and the actual irrigation water usage volume.

3. The method recited in claim 2, further comprises:

receiving a water rate for the remotely located property for the predetermined time period; and

assessing a cost of the operating efficiency of the irrigation system as the difference of the water need volume and the actual irrigation water usage volume using the water rate for the remotely located property for the predetermined time period.

4. The method recited in claim 3, further comprises:

estimating a cost for upgrading irrigation components at the remotely located property; and

determining a return on investment for the cost for upgrading irrigation components based on the cost for upgrading irrigation components at the remotely located property and the cost of the operating efficiency of the irrigation system.

5. The method recited in claim 1, further comprises:

receiving second climatic data for a second remotely located property, said second climatic data determined by the second location description of said second remotely located property;

receiving a second actual irrigation water usage volume for the second remotely located property for a second predetermined time period;

calculating a second reference plant water usage for the second remotely located property using the second climatic data for the second predetermined time period;

calculating a second water need volume for the second remotely located property over the second predetermined time period from the second reference plant water usage and the second irrigated area of said second remotely located property;

comparing the second water need volume and the second actual irrigation water usage volume for or the second remotely located property and

forwarding results of the comparison for a second irrigation system to one of the remotely located computer and the second remotely located computer.

6. The method recited in claim 5, comparing the second water need volume and the second actual irrigation water usage volume further comprises:

assessing a second operating efficiency of the second irrigation system at the second remotely located property for the second predetermined time period as a difference of the second water need volume and the second actual irrigation water usage volume.

7. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the location description of said remotely located property comprises one of longitude, latitude, ZIP code and physical address.

8. The method recited in claim 5, wherein the second location description of said second remotely located property comprises one of longitude, latitude, ZIP code and physical address.

9. The method recited in claim 1, wherein said climatic data is historic climatic data for a geographical area from a climatic database indexed by location description.

10. The method recited in claim 1, further comprises:

receiving rain fall amount for the remotely located property for the predetermined time period;

calculating a rain fall volume for the remotely located property for the predetermined time period; and

modifying the water need volume with the rain fall volume for the remotely located property for the predetermined time period.

11. The method recited in claim 1, wherein said remotely located property data further comprises a quantity of irrigation zones and for each irrigation zone, an irrigation zone irrigated area and a plant type, the method further comprises:

determining a crop factor corresponding to each plant type for each of the irrigation zones;

modifying the reference plant water usage for each irrigation zone with a crop factor; and

calculating the water need volume for the remotely located property from the irrigation zone irrigated areas for each of the irrigation zones and the respective modified reference plant water usages for each of the irrigation zones.

12. The method recited in claim 3, wherein the predetermined time period is one of a specific calendar month, a specific water billing cycle, a plurality of specific calendar months and a plurality of specific water billing cycles.

13. The method recited in claim 12, further comprises:

assessing a cost of the operating efficiency of the irrigation system as the difference of the water need volume and the actual irrigation water usage volume using the water rate for the remotely located property for the one of a specific calendar month, a specific water billing cycle, a plurality of specific calendar months and a plurality of specific water billing cycles.

14. The method recited in claim 2, further comprises:

assessing irrigation system input parameter values for one of sprinkler type, plant type, soil type, surface slope and local water correction factor based on the operating efficiency of the irrigation system.

15. The method recited in claim 2, further comprises:

investigating irrigation system maintenance issues based on the operating efficiency of the irrigation system.

16. The method recited in claim 2, further comprises:

investigating irrigation system operating parameters based on the operating efficiency of the irrigation system.

17. The method recited in claim 2, further comprises:

investigating upgraded irrigation system components based on the operating efficiency of the irrigation system.

18. The method recited in claim 7, wherein the remotely located property is under the control of a first property owner and the second remotely located property is under the control of a second property owner.

19. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the local computer is under the control of one of an irrigation distributor, an irrigation manufacturer and an irrigation service provider.

20. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the climatic data comprises at least one of temperature data, solar radiation data, wind speed data, vapor pressure data and humidity data.

21. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the climatic data comprises at least temperature data.

22. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the climatic data is received from one of a historical database, a weather station and both a historical database and a weather station.

23. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the reference plant water usage is calculated from one of Hargreaves equation, modified Hargreaves equation, Penman-Monteith algorithm and modified Penmans algorithm.

24. The method recited in claim 1, wherein the reference plant water usage is calculated from a selection of one of Hargreaves equation, modified Hargreaves equation, Penman-Monteith algorithm and modified Penmans algorithm and the selection is based on a type of upgraded irrigation components for the remotely located property.