For more than 10 years the green industry has named July as Smart Irrigation Month because of its benefits for the environment. Smart irrigation products help reduce water waste by thousands of gallons each month and take a lot of the guesswork out of maintaining a healthy landscape.

To save water, money and to simplify your interactions with clients, here are a few ways smart irrigation can be beneficial and how you can sell it to your customers.

Convenience

In today’s world, many people are drawn to the conveniences integrated landscape technology offers. To start, many smart irrigation controllers allow users to monitor and manage their irrigation systems, see how much water has been used and make adjustments as needed. The Hunter Hydrawise and other smart controllers can also connect to smart home products, like Amazon’s Alexa, making controlling a landscape even easier for customers.

For end users who aren’t as interested in managing their own systems, they can choose to share access to the app with their contractor, so you can take care of it for them.

Cherie Roco of Terra Prima, Inc. in Orange County, Calif., says Hunter’s Hydrawise is the only system they install, because of its easy-to-use app and reporting functions. “My clients very much like that I can see their info and help explain what’s going on. The reports help with this a lot. We can look at it at the same time and I can show them what’s happening,” Roco said. “I can also manually run zones for them if needed from anywhere. I also have maintenance clients who never look at the app and want me to take care of everything for them.”

Lower Water Bills

If your customers aren’t tech savvy or interested in the integration aspects of smart irrigation, the money-saving opportunities are sure to sell them on it.

According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), outdoor water use accounts for more than 30% of a household’s total water use. Studies have shown that on average, smart controllers can save up to 20% more water than traditional controllers, according to Salt River Project (SRP). Replacing a standard irrigation controller with a smart irrigation controller can save an average home nearly 7,600 gallons of water annually, which translates to lower monthly water bills for your clients.

Taylor Cicala of ValleyScape Irrigation in Murrieta, Calif., says he installs 100 or more smart irrigation controllers each year, mostly Rachio, and his clients love it.

“The controller looks at upcoming weather events and the chance of rain. Apparently, the controller checks the weather five minutes before watering to see if rain is likely and if so will suspend watering. I thought this is a great little known feature of the Rachio software,” Cicala said.

Water Savings

If your client isn’t impressed by the money-saving potential, the amount of water they’ll be saving can help seal the deal.

There are a variety of smart irrigation products that can help save water. From controllers, like the ones mentioned above, to products like soil moisture sensors, that can determine the moisture level in the soil and send a reading to the controller to trigger or suspend watering, smart irrigation products primary aim is to save water and offer insights into irrigating and maintaining a landscape.

For example, according to the EPA one broken sprinkler head can waste up to 25,000 gallons of water over a 6-month irrigation season and more than 50% of outdoor water is wasted from environmental factors alone, like wind and runoff. With the technology in smart controllers and soil moisture sensors, leaks can be easily detected and overwatering can be eliminated, saving your clients and the environment thousands and thousands of gallons of water.

Like anything new or different, selling smart irrigation to clients is all in how you position it. Get to know your clients and what might interest them about the technologies: is it saving money on their water bill, saving water or the system controls and access they’ll have with the apps and home system integrations? Whatever the reason, smart irrigation is a great solution for all of your clients and can help save you time.

Provide your customers with more information on how smart irrigation can benefit them by sharing this infographic on your social media channels.

For more information on smart irrigation products and installation tips, contact your local Ewing store today.