Irrigation system optimization
The challenge

An owners association was looking to optimize an existing irrigation well system. The irrigation system was semi-automated and was controlled via mechanical schedulers installed on the breaker panel.

Due the lack of automation, there were multiple manual tasks to be made periodically, like disable the irrigation when it rained, changed the schedulers or review the elements to check for malfunctions.

Thanks to Open Smart Homes solutions adptability, we could do this project, allowing the owners association to access the irrigation system remotely and check the scheduling, and simplify the maintenance tasks around 90%.

Priorities

After study the following priorities were defined:

  • Integration with the actual system, without the need of major changes, oncliding water extraction and distribution.
  • Enable remote water pumps control.
  • Create and manage irrigation scheduling.
  • Monitor the water deposit level.
  • Allow owners to view the status and planning of the irrigation system.
  • Automate the control of irrigation plans depending on the rain or other meteo events.

    •
    Solution

    To cover all the needs the following was installed:

  • Home Assistant Server: The new brain for the irrigation systems, in this case it was installed on a micro server based on Raspberry pi.
  • Communications: to provide external access a mini router based on Openwrt was installed, togetuer with a 3g modem internet access was enabled.
  • Smart devices: New smart relays were added to control the irrigation devices (water pumps, scheduler, water depot, etc).
  • Existing devides: New elements were configured to use the existing irrigation systems, adding smart capabilities without replacement.

    • Final result
    Breaker and control panel

    All new elements were fitted on the existing breaking panel, thanks to the reduced size of the selected devices everything fitted without the need of a bigger control panel.


    Admin control panel

    A Home Assistant based panel was developed to allow the irrigation administrators full control of all devices. From there scheduling and manual control of pumps were possible.

    Ultrasonic water level

    A new water level sensor was added to the water depot, without major changes on the existing water infrastructure.


    Irrigation maintenance panel

    Health check of the system and working pumps in one single view.


    Meteo dashboard

    All meteo details, in one place, including rain radar, actual rain and forecast.

    User dashboard

    End user panel access, to check the scheduling and status, but without permissions to change any element of the system.

    Detailed schedules

    Custom scheduling was defined to adapt the irrigation utilization to the existing needs.

    Youtube videos

    You can see how our solutions work in youtube: Video demo

    Benefits

    Thanks to the new smart system now the following can be done:

  • Mobile control: Control all irrigation systems using mobile or web access.
  • Water usage optimization: Now water is optimized using one or two irrigation cycles or enable pool filling using the leftover water on rainy days.
  • End user portal: The user can check what is the irrigation schedule plan, and check the status in real time.
  • Maintenance tasks reduction: Manual maintenance tasks were reduced by 90%.
  • Malfunction protection: In case of malfunctions or broken pipes, the irrigation system can be shut down remotely.
    •
    Remote support

    After installation, remote Open Smart Homes support allows changes and system maintenance remotely.

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