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Multi-Family Complex Enjoys a Lusher Landscape After Cutting Water Consumption

“WeatherTRAK is great for multi-family complexes. It’s easy to use, saves water and its reporting capabilities make overseeing landscape contractors effortless”.

— Mary Nitschke
Director of Ancillary Services

The Prometheus Real Estate Group manages multi-family housing in the San Francisco Bay Area, Portland and Seattle. The buildings were constructed between 1973 and 2013. The newer complexes were designed with drought-resistant plants, making it easier to manage water consumption. One of the group’s properties, an older complex located in Foster City, California, however, had little control over the water budget and volume of water available. It was mandated by the city. Management was problematic because the irrigation system was based on traditional “dumb” timers. Landscape managers had no way of knowing how much water the plants really needed or whether water consumption aligned with its water allocation.

In contrast, a smart irrigation system offers total visibility into water usage across all sites. By collecting and interpreting real-time data such as the weather, time of day, and soil moisture levels of a site, smart controllers automatically distribute the optimum amount of water, eliminating manual system adjustments and reducing overwatering.

SOLUTION: WEATHERTRAK ENABLES REAL-TIME TRACKING OF WATER USE AND BETTER OVERSIGHT OF LANDSCAPE CREWS

Mary Nitschke, director of ancillary services, oversees utilities for Prometheus, including water consumption. After researching smart irrigation management solutions and reading white papers and independent studies on the HydroPoint web site, she chose cloud-based WeatherTRAK. In addition to a proven track record, WeatherTRAK offers reporting capabilities that are among the most robust in the business.

WeatherTRAK provides real-time visibility of the irrigation system from an Internet browser on any device. Whether at a desk or on the grounds, landscape contractors and managers can program a single site or a portfolio of sites and track water usage from anywhere.

The software component of WeatherTRAK, WeatherTRAK Central, offers the smart irrigation applications Nitschke needed to generate specific reports. The application components include a dashboard, Asset Manager, Budget Manager, Weather Data, Scheduling Engine and Mobile Access. These are the smart water management tools you need to truly automate, gain visibility and centrally control your irrigation sites.

The dashboard offers reporting and intuitive summaries for single sites, multiple accounts or an entire portfolio. With quick search and filter tools, you can view actual and estimated water usage by site, controller and station.

The Budget Manager application monitors and assesses performance. One of its many capabilities enables you to view a visual summary of site’s total usage across each water meter and controller.

Weather Data provides site-specific weather data accurate and resolute to 1 square km and is proven to have most accurate multi-factor hourly ASCE ET calculation models.

Scheduling Engine considers sprinkler type, precipitation rate, sprinkler efficiency, soil type, plant type, root depth, and microclimate, and automatically adjusts controllers based on site-specific weather.

Mobile Access via and iOS or Android smartphone provides real-time alerts and alert details for easy troubleshooting, as well as one-touch calls or emails the HydroPoint support team.