SMART IRRIGATION SECTION: Case Study No. 2: Savings in Santa Barbara

In 2002, Lalo Mora, president of Santa Barbara, Calif.-based Enviroscaping, received a letter from the water agency in Santa Barbara County seeking contractors to partner for research on the savings potential of ET controllers. He signed up, completed training, and soon was installing smart irrigation systems as part of a study that extended a deal to homeowners who were identified as the area’s heaviest water users.
 
Grant money allowed the county and its partners to offer these homeowners free ET controllers and free installation if they agreed to pay $144 (three years worth of the controller’s $4 monthly service fee).
 
Mora and 19 other contractors began installing the systems in mid-2002. Over the last four years the study has discovered that, depending on property size, homeowners see an return on investment in one to five years, and have reduced overall water usage by an average of 26 percent in normal weather year conditions and 16 percent in extremely dry weather year conditions, according to Alison Jordan, water conservation coordinator for the City of Santa Barbara Public Works Department.