Calgary Apartment Association Newsletter, January 2009

The City of Calgary’s recent news that water bills are expected to jump by 19 per cent over the next three years, is yet another jolt to property owners and managers already feeling the pain of an unfriendly economy.

Now the same ground-breaking knowledge is available to any Calgary business or home that has, or is about to install, irrigation.

‘Smart’ irrigation controllers take into account such site conditions such as soil, slope, root depth and plant type, so that the right amount of water is put in the right place at the right time.

In sharp contrast, the traditional timer-based irrigation system used by most local businesses and property owners operates on pre-set days and at pre-set times whether the landscape needs it or not.

As a result, the vast majority of systems over-water, wasting literally hundreds of thousands of litres of water over the course of a Calgary summer. Over-watering is the biggest killer of plants and trees.

The city’s parks department is responsible for the care and maintenance of more than 2,100 irrigated green spaces, totalling about 2,100 hectares. More than 1,000 of those parks are now connected to the city’s centrally controlled system.

According to Denis Gourdeau, the city’s water management co-ordinator, the automated irrigation system uses an average of 44 per cent less water than traditional controllers.

Other benefits include: improved turf quality, reduced pesticide use, reduced staff costs and a kinder impact on the environment.

Similar results are being seen by ExactET, a Calgary company which has installed 300 plus ‘smart’ controllers in the past two years.

The company offers a computerized irrigation management system which is wirelessly linked to six weather stations, enough to cover all of Calgary’s micro-climates.

The system works with any existing in-ground system – simply and cost effectively converting it from an inefficient timer/controller to a weather-based system.

“Installing ‘smart’ irrigation provides one of the best and easiest ways for people to reduce water usage, simplify landscape maintenance, keep property looking great … and save money,” said Graham Duffy, CEO of ExactET Systems Inc.

When it rains, many property owners and managers have to send someone out to manually turn off the sprinklers. But with ‘smart’ irrigation that job is done automatically.

“In fact,” said Duffy, “smart irrigation is one of the few Green products that pays for itself over a short period of time.” 

Duffy cited examples of condominium complexes that have realized significant savings since moving to ‘smart’ water management.

Mt. Douglas Peaks used 5,715,000 litres prior to installing weather-based controllers. In 2008, they used just 3,121,680 litres -- a 45.38% improvement which resulted in a cash saving of $9,914 over three years.

Similar results were obtained from other condominium sites:

• Chelsea Station has gone from using 7,476,354 litres a year to 4,800,605 litres in 2008 – a 35.8% improvement with a dollar savings of $10,627.

• Springside Villas used 5,413,122 litres of water before moving to ‘smart’ water management, but in 2008 consumed only 3,466,820 litres – a 36% improvement and a water cost savings of $10,237

• Inglewood Grove has lessened its outside water consumption from 8,953,606 litres to just 3,878,615 litres in only two years – a 56.68% improvement and a $14,878 bonus in water cost savings AND

• The Terraces North has saved 6.4 million litres (or an astounding 74.5%) in less than two summers, resulting in a water cost savings of $9,610.

For information on Smart Controllers, click here