Backwards Looking Rain Restriction
Right now RainMachine only looks at present day rain forecasting along with actual rain accumulation.
I would like to look back 12 or 24 ours along with present day.
Example: last night around 10p we received 1 inch of rain. I have my program set to start at 4a the following day with a rain restriction of 1/4 inch. Yet, because the large rainfall occurred in the previous calendar day, there was no restriction in effect and my program ran anyway basically applying water to an already rain soaked yard.
In the example above, having the sprinklers run only a few hours after a healthy rain is hardly economical or environmentally "green".
Please let me know if there is a way to address this and open the Rain restriction timeline to both present day and previous day.
Seems like an easy program algorithm to write on your end.
Thank you!
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The actual rain accumulation includes yesterday's rain - the irrigation happened because the one inch rain does not covered completely the evapotranspiration from yesterday and today. You will not see this as a restriction but You'll see as less than 100% irrigations for the day after rain.
Rain restriction is not something we recommend because it will stop the irrigation for a 0.1 inch rain in the same way it does for a 10 inch one which is not the best solution for the plants - any program which have weather enabled and forecast correction enabled will take rains into account better than a restriction does completing the necessary water need without harming the plants.
Rain restriction was implemented only because several municipalities are requiring it - probably old requirements from basic timer type irrigation controllers which does not corrects the irrigation neither with rain, neither with evapotranspiration.
Forecasts are also quite accurate for 24 hour but they are not that accurate on hour by hour base so to know exactly when a rain started and finished by minutes is not an easy task.
Nevertheless added this request to our internal list, applying a soak time after rain could be an option but I can't tell yet if we will do it in the near future.
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What do You mean with weather sensitivity? Weather adaptive watering enabled? Forecast correction enabled? Or rain&wind sensitivity set?
The weather adaptive watering is mandatory to have any kind of rain included - without that the Rainmachine will act as a timer.
Forecast correction also can cause Your issue - sometimes the forecast is not that good at the moment of the irrigation but gets a much better one at the end of the day. With correction this latest value will be used to correct water level from the moment of the irrigation.
Rain and wind sensitivity is up to You, for rain usually 80% is fine on most of the locations, as of wind it depends if Your location is wind protected it can be reduced from the default value.
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To your question above - I meant "Forecast Correction" enabled (Under Advanced Settings / Weather Sensitivity).
So now I am a little confused. Above you mention: "any program which have weather enabled and forecast correction enabled will take rains into account better than a restriction does". Then you go on to say: "Forecast correction also can cause Your issue - sometimes the forecast is not that good at the moment of the irrigation but gets a much better one at the end of the day". Seems contradictory to me. Can I simply ask this - what settings should I enable to ensure Rain Machine does not run the sprinklers when it has just rained or when rain is about to occur per the forecast? My current settings are:
Zone Settings: Weather & Seasonal Adjustments / Use Live Weather [Enabled] / Seasonal Adjustments [Enabled]
Program Settings: Weather-Adaptive Watering [Enabled] / Rain Restriction [Disabled]
General Settings: Restrictions [None]
General Settings: Weather / Weather Sensitivity / Forecast Correction [Enabled] / Rain Sensitivity [80%] / Wind Sensitivity [50%]
Thank you!
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The "Forecast correction also can cause Your issue" has a missing word: "missing forecast correction also can cause Your issue". I am not native English speaker, sorry for the misunderstanding.
Your settings are fine - nevertheless there is no settings which are solving Your issue 100% since we are using a forecast. Which is never 100% but pretty close to it for the next 24 hour and they are even better at the end of the day for the current day. Our accuracy is the same with the accuracy of this forecast. A better correction can be achieved only using a real weather station too.
What forecast correction does:
- if You irrigate at 10:00 that will happen based on the forecast from 10:00
- around the end of the day or the start of the next day there is a better forecast which in case forecast correction is enabled will be used to correct the overall water level.From our experience it solves 80-90% of the rain issues which are much more accurate in those late forecasts ... You can also check the rains for that given period to see if the forecast had rain for that day or not (on web interface there are a lot of weather graphs including rain).
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Thank you for your reply. I completely understand that there is no 100% guaranteed solution. 80%-90% is way better than was getting on my old timer system. I appreciate you validating my settings. I will "set it and forget it" now. Love your product and the support you guys provide. Keep up the good work - I have told all my neighbors about RainMachine. Can I get a sales commission if they buy one? Ha Ha!
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