@DanTripp wrote:
One of my pet peeves is having my sprinklers come on when there’s significant rain imminent or, worse, when it’s actually raining. To prevent this I plan to use forecast data to reduce watering when rain is likely. Currently I’m using the Weather Underground QPF (Quantitative Precipitation Forecast) value to adjust my watering times. I look out a couple of days and scale today’s QPF value at 100% and later days at lower values. I’m wondering if there might be an alternative approach where future ET values are estimated based on forecast conditions and the result integrated into the irrigation scheduling calculation. What approaches are other people taking to adjusting watering based on forecasted rain?
Hi Dan – I agree with your view that it is important to also consider the weather forecast in determing an optimal watering schedule. Have you made any progress in this area? Unfortunately I bought an Irrigation Caddy before I found out about the OpenSprinkler project but I would like to do some programming of my IC to optimize watering depending on recently past as well as forecast weather for my area – which is Toronto.