Now that you have had a chance to go through your central control computer you have gone a quarter of the way. The next step to preparing for the season is taking a closer look at your weather station. Are you using your $7k tool to your advantage, or is it a perch for the local fowl?
When is the last time you had your weather station calibrated? These questions are the beginning of what could be a successful season.
If you are lucky enough to have a central control computer relying on your weather station then you are looking at the most powerful tool in your arsenal. Your computer makes use of the information logged by the weather station to decide how much water the golf course needs. Just like the programing the computer is only as reliable as the information it is given. Now you can see how important it is to have a weather station that works properly, and is calibrated properly.
The weather station's most important job is not to collect rain. Although usefull, and also an important calibration spot, it is not the soul purpose of that tool. The soul purpose is to give the computer the information to calculate the ET. This is the single most important feature of a nice weather station is it's ability to provide an ET. If you do not make use of this feature, I would highly recommend that you try. It would be well worth the investment.
If you are lucky enough to have a central control computer relying on your weather station then you are looking at the most powerful tool in your arsenal. Your computer makes use of the information logged by the weather station to decide how much water the golf course needs. Just like the programing the computer is only as reliable as the information it is given. Now you can see how important it is to have a weather station that works properly, and is calibrated properly.
The weather station's most important job is not to collect rain. Although usefull, and also an important calibration spot, it is not the soul purpose of that tool. The soul purpose is to give the computer the information to calculate the ET. This is the single most important feature of a nice weather station is it's ability to provide an ET. If you do not make use of this feature, I would highly recommend that you try. It would be well worth the investment.
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| Photo Courtesy of http://www.westone.wa.gov.au/ |
Using the ET calculation from the weather station is the one of the best ways to conserve water. If your weather station is located in a patch of grass representative of the golf course then you have a decent estimation of how much water the plant has used for a 24 hour period. Now the computer can take this information and accurately assign the run times to the second for the irrigation heads to replace what has been utilized by the plant.
Now you are starting to get pretty accurate on your watering event, but what should you check next?
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