The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) is a cooperative agency formed in 1991 to address Southern Nevada's unique water needs on a regional basis. SNWA officials are charged with managing the region's water resources and providing for Las Vegas Valley residents' and businesses' present and future water needs.
Excellent video and I unfortunately don't agree with the commentary re the Las Vegas Valley Water District. I have both types of controllers (in fact three controllers), a Weathermatic SL1600, a Weathermatic PL800, and a Rachio 3e controller. Living in the Vegas valley, I found that the Rachio controller required significantly greater use of water than the "conventional" controllers (maybe my programming settings were incorrect, but I tried multiple variables). Another significant miss re the Rachio controllers is that they do NOT have a manual MONTHLY scheduler that allows you to comply with the LVVWD seasonal watering restrictions where you can create a watering schedule and forget it (Rachio only allows date ranges meaning you'll have to repeat creating a schedule each year). HOWEVER, as this video points out, the Rachio unit (like many WiFi models) allows you to conveniently troubleshoot emitters and leaks using their associated mobile phone/tablet app; a real plus. After testing many irrigation controllers, I have found the best controller for the Las Vegas Valley Water District is the Weathermatic line for the simple reason these controllers can be programmed one time in a set-it-and-forget-it manner. The secret sauce is that the Weathermatic units include a MONTHLY SEASONAL ADJUST feature (a feature that I wish Rachio and other smart controllers would consider). So in our case, we are required to water on: - Mon-Sat from May-Aug; - Mon, Wed, & Fri during Mar-Apr, Sep-Oct; and - Fri during Nov-Feb. On the Weathermatic units, use: - Program A for May-Aug months, - Program B for Mar-Apr, Sep-Oct months, and - Program C for Nov-Feb. Set the days and times to water per usual. Then set the Monthly Seasonal Adjust as follows: - Program A: 100% for May-Aug (0% all other months), - Program B: 100% for Mar-Apr, Sep-Oct (0% all other months), - Program C: 100% for Nov-Feb (0% all other months). That's it, set until the LVVWD changes the schedule. The Weathermatic PL800 is the daily driver here and we water 3 times (1am, 2am, and 3am). Given our predictable weather here, this method currently seems to be the most cost efficient. If Rachio added the MONTHLY SCHEDULING and MONTHLY SEASONAL ADJUST features, this would be the best of all worlds in terms of efficiency and convenience. Until then, I use both controllers (having retired the Weathermatic SL1600 controller). The PL800 is the daily driver and the Rachio 3e is the troubleshooter. Both controllers are wired to a 3-way Power Switch and service 5 irrigation zones. The switch is usually positoned to power the Weathermatic PL800 and when I need to troubleshoot, the switch is positioned to the Rachio controller and the Rachio app on my phone lets me manually control irrigating each zones during troubleshooting. I can see how the Rachio units make sense in other parts of the country where weather conditions vary considerably from day to day, especially re rain. I would love to hear others' experience on this topic and the values entered on the Rachio unit if you're in the Las Vegas valley. And if you're with Rachio, please consider a MANUAL programming feature that is not tied to hard dates (using MONTHS instead) and consider a MONTHLY SEASONAL ADJUST feature for desert climates. And if you're with Weathermatic, consider incorporating Rachio WiFi with rich app features (a much steeper hill to climb). We all want to save water use and money. It's a win-win.
John, thank you for the wonderful and factual update on such a critical issue facing our Nevada communities. Your "calming tone" was just what the doctor ordered. Please know we are all here to support SNWA over these challenging times.
Wow! Amazing landscape designs! Being friendly with nature will surely help you to attain a very stunning looks in your own property. These ideas were definitely inspiring. Very unique output.
I went to elementary school here from 1st - 3rd grade. Wow, it still looks the same (29 years later) and I'm glad to see the school still doing well. Brings back the memories.
