Smart Irrigation Control

The mission of Friends of Balboa Park is to preserve Balboa Park’s legacy for future generations through park-wide projects.

Challenges• Signifi cant amount of manual labor required to turn irrigation on and off• Very time-consuming and costly• Some landscape under-watered and even more over-watered• Some plant health suffered; erosion occurred• Wasted water and money for it

Current and Future Outcomes

• Achieved large savings in labor hours-- For xxample, labor hours for shutoffs is 1/10 of what it was before• Reduced water usage• Reduced damage to plants and soil• Expanded hours of passive use within the park for the public • Next desired phase – investigate and implement more of the system’s features for even further savings and benefi ts

Solution• Installed smart irrigation control system that commu-nicates with a weather station located in Balboa Park• Chose the Toro Sentinel system• Controlled by a central computer system which adjusts based on real time data received by the weather station• 60 controllers in the park: each has beetween 24-48 watering zones• Staff equipped with hand-held devices for local control