A New Era in Smart Irrigation | The Coast News Feature
April 22, 2022
Calsense’s Irrigation Management as a Service™ enables full implementation of its “smart,” weather- and sensor-based, irrigation control of the system immediately, under the premise that financial savings from water conservation and better utilization of labor will help fund the system as they go.
This differs from most entities with landscape irrigation that rely on capital budgets to be spread out over the course of several years, resulting in them only achieving a small percentage of the overall conservation target.
Calsense’s original product was a soil moisture sensor, which would terminate irrigation when the moisture content for a given area reached a certain threshold.
President & CEO of Calsense, A.J. van de Ven, explains how the technology has evolved to prevent water waste and maximize landscape potential.
“Today, we still use a variety of on-site devices and sensors, in conjunction with the latest cloud-based high resolution weather data to provide the most accurate, localized weather in the field,” A.J. said. “This allows each controller to apply the right amount of water for each irrigation station based on its physical characteristics, ensuring proper plant growth while preventing wasteful run-off. This is why for example, you won’t see a Calsense-controlled irrigation system running when it’s raining or for several days after it’s rained.”
The information is collected and stored on the Calsense app, which is included in all IMaaS deals, providing remote management capabilities, as well as comprehensive reports to show water savings and insights into the performance of the system.
This platform is accessible from any Internet-connected device with a dedicated mobile interface to perform key operations such as field-testing valves.
“It gives IMaaS customers the confidence that they have full visibility over the site and can target field issues as they arise in real-time, without having to send personnel to the field to ensure the site is operating as expected,” A.J. remarks. Below are a few testimonials from users of Calsense:
“Our expertise walks out the door when a couple of us retire in a few years.” — Voice of customer participant.
“I like that the payment stays constant for the entire ten years.” — Voice of customer participant.
“Being able to pick and choose the services I want is attractive.” — Voice of customer participant.
“Your timing is great. The industry is ready for this.” — Contractor.
All costs are distributed over a 10-year period, so customers still only pay a fraction of what they would otherwise have paid up-front had they purchased the equipment with capital dollars.
Each customer’s requirements will be a little different, with some interested in just purchasing the hardware- and software-as-a-service, while others are interested in a full turnkey solution with Calsense providing most or all the needed services to get the product installed and fully operational.
Additionally, there are nearly limitless combinations of hardware available, making it difficult to provide an average cost.
