Volumetric budget based irrigation control
First Claim
1. A method of controlling irrigation, the method comprising:
- receiving water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time;
determining automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time;
determining automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met and in the event more than a threshold number of predicted irrigation events is needed to compensate for predicted excess water usage within the budget period, the threshold number being varied as a function of events remaining within the budget period, an adjustment to the irrigation by the irrigation controller wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads the compensation for the predicted excess water usage that is predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and
outputting signaling to effect the adjustment.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present embodiments provide systems, processes and/or methods of controlling irrigation. In some embodiments, methods are provided that receive (4112) water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller (130), wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determine (4114) automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determine (4116) automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met, an adjustment to the irrigation by the irrigation controller; and output (4118) signaling to effect the adjustment.
80 Citations
28 Claims
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1. A method of controlling irrigation, the method comprising:
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receiving water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determining automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determining automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met and in the event more than a threshold number of predicted irrigation events is needed to compensate for predicted excess water usage within the budget period, the threshold number being varied as a function of events remaining within the budget period, an adjustment to the irrigation by the irrigation controller wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads the compensation for the predicted excess water usage that is predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and outputting signaling to effect the adjustment. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21)
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22. An apparatus for use in controlling irrigation, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory that stores executable program code, wherein the processor is configured to execute the executable program code to; receive water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determine automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determine automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met and in the event more than a threshold number of predicted irrigation events is needed to compensate for predicted excess water usage within the budget period, the threshold number being varied as a function of events remaining within the budget period, an adjustment to irrigation by the irrigation controller wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads the compensation for the predicted excess water usage that is predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and output signaling to effect the adjustment. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26)
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27. An apparatus for use in controlling irrigation, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory that stores executable program code, wherein the processor is configured to execute the executable program code to; receive water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determine automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determine automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met and in the event more than a threshold number of irrigation events is needed to compensate for an amount of water usage that will exceed the volumetric water budget, an adjustment to irrigation by the irrigation controller wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads the compensation for the amount of water usage that will exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and output signaling to effect the adjustment; wherein the threshold number corresponds to at least one of a dependency on the number of irrigation events remaining in the budget period, a percentage of irrigation events remaining in the budget period to compensate for predicted, excess water usage, and a predicted number of consecutive irrigation events.
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28. An apparatus for use in controlling irrigation, comprising:
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a processor; and a memory that stores executable program code, wherein the processor is configured to execute the executable program code to; receive water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determine automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determine automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met and in the event more than a threshold number of predicted irrigation events is needed to compensate for predicted excess water usage within a budget period, the threshold number being dynamically varied based on events within the budget period, an adjustment to irrigation by the irrigation controller wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads the compensation for the predicted excess water usage that is predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and output signaling to effect the adjustment.
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Specification