Irrigation plug-in that considers current rain fall

[Rotech]

looking for suggestions on a plugin or other source that can take in consideration rain fall during past days before considering irrigating lawn. There use to be one the the script library forum that wrk fine, but they never took it to HS3.

[Michael McSharry]

mcsSprinklers considers past and forecast rain. While it does this, the more significant measure is the amount of moisture that is retained in the soil which can be calculated based upon weather conditions or a sensor measurement.

[Rotech]

Hi Michael, where does the plugin gets its info for calculations?

[Krumpy]

Getting the weather information is not rocket science, I would be more interested in receiving more information regarding the formula it uses.... That is not rocket science. And is certainly the pure magic!

[Michael McSharry]

The most accepted information on Evaptranspiration is based upon research done by Penman-Monteith and there are many formula in the literature using it. The rub, is that often the sensor data needed for the formula is not available. The most important is Solar Radiation and it is the one often not available. Over the years I have developed algorithms in concert with users over the world based upon the sensor data that is available. If all data for Penman-Monteith is available then that is the algorithm that mcsSprinklers uses otherwise it uses others based upon what is available.

mcsSprinklers provides many options for collection of sensor data. The sources have changed over the years as the free services have disappeared. I try to keep two internet options available and then many ways to get access to local data.

[Pete]

Relating to mcsSprinklers and over the years went to depending on my Weather station numbers....initially using a 1-Wire AAG weather station then going to a Davis weather station. Still analog here with no dependencies on the internet for my local weather station stuff. Using two rain8nets and running mcsSprinklers on a Seagate dockstar POE connected in the old rain bird box. Never much paid attention to it as my grass was always green even during hot summer no rain drought times.

BTW this was the first Homeseer Plugin that ran on Linux Mono and a single CPU (dockstar debian) way long before HS3 came out with the Zee.

Yeah here went to using Davis weather station and Dallas Intruments tipping bucket and a digital rain guage. Rain numbers from the internet were not that accurate. I had issues with UV and getting UV over the internet and fixed it over time.

It worked fine here as the water prices went from $30 USD every 3 months (average) to $400 a month if I used the water to irrigate. Using mcsSprinklers during dry times was able to keep the grass looking green cutting it long and sparsely watering it bringing water bills down to less than $200 a month. (which is too much anyhow).