Analytics & Reports

Can you please write about the analytics you are definitely going to add and an ETA for each? That way we know what to suggest if we have any ideas.

@jeremyshultz‌ I will be able to provide you some of this info in the next couple of days. Please stay tuned.

I just installed my rachio and it’s great. I have a few suggestions, and one has to do with analytics so thought I’d just post them all here instead of sporadically throughout. First, I’d like to be able to input my sprinkler head gpms so that I can see exactly how much water my irrigation uses over time. Obviously you’d have to then collect and display the data. The simple approach you have of selecting the type of head is great, but offering an advanced option to really dial in exact water usage would be great.

Second, when you start a valve as a one time run and then select another valve to run for a certain length before the first is through with its run time, it automatically stops and goes to the one you just requested to run. It seems logical to let the previous valve run for the requested run time, then progress to the next valve.

Lastly, and this is real pie in the sky stuff but, it seems like many local county extension offices publish a daily evapotranspiration rate that can be used to accurately give your lawn (and other plants) the exact amount of water they need. No more, no less. I know your app says it can auto set your sprinklers based on your location and season etc. But if you were able to actually use the evapotranspiration rate for an area to accurately apply the exact right amount of water I wouldn’t only use this feature, I would brag to everyone I know about how my lawn gets watered. These numbers are listed in inches and the homeowner would therefore have to enter their sprinkler info as far as how long it takes to lay down a certain amount of water (ex. 1"= 60 minutes for my sprinklers), but this would truly be as accurate as you can get. I would think that most offices would gladly even send this data to you given that a primary goal of this info is to conserve water and this would help accomplish that for all your users. You could set up a site the offices could enter the info in and automate the whole process on your end. If an office isn’t supplying the data local users could contact them and request they start. Anyway sorry to go on, but this feature would make your product the paragon of home irrigation controls. thanks.

@jasonc‌ looks like you can search by zip code here so I’m sure there’s some type of feed to integrate, if needed.

Thanks for finding that Jeremy. I just found and read the post in the blog section about ET so I realize the Rachio team is attempting to utilize this data in the water budgeting option. However, without knowing how much water a sprinkler system is laying down I find it hard to see how this can accurately work. Also, the crop coefficient changes depending on species of grass. There is no option to select turf type currently. Anyone who cares enough about there lawn to buy this type of controller probably already knows how much water he is laying down, and if not it is easy enough to determine. So I realize I am sort of repeating my first post, but now that I am aware you are trying to utilize ET I’d like to reiterate these ways to improve on it.
1- be able to enter water output for my specific system
2- be able to dial it in more by selecting type of turf and get correct crop coefficient
3- maybe be able to select current condition (stress) of grass to account for this as well.
4- I’d also like to know what ETo numbers you use so that I can compare that to my local university’s findings since they take their readings right up the street from my location. That being said, I guess if I really wanted to know I could just add up the amount of time the sprinklers ran, convert that to an amount and compare it myself.

thank you

@jasonc‌ Thanks for the great post. All of the things you listed are definitely on our roadmap. We want to continue to improve on our watering models as well as take in more data from customers to enable the system to be customized for each individual zone and schedule. Keep the suggestions coming, we are tracking all of these features in our product backlog and listening to customers. Thanks!

@chris‌ as you said you would, can you please provide an update as to what analytics you will be adding to the web app and when you plan on pushing each out? Sort of a road map as to what is going on?

I’m hoping the app will be available on iOS devices too since only the activity feed and manual run features work on it. These days, a mobile device and tablets are peoples primary devices.

Thanks.

@jeremyshultz‌ , the early access version of the web app is available at
app.rach.io
It is in the very early stages, however. We expect to have at least the usage & water savings reports working correctly by early next week, and we’ll keep adding features after that. When complete, it will work on mobile devices and desktops.

Feel free to check it out, but it’s very young–please be gentle :slight_smile:

@jeremyshultz‌ There will be some new updates to the site this weekend. Our 1.6 release for mobile will have reporting as well: annual estimated usage, monthly usage, monthly hours, daily usage and daily hours.

I’m enjoying the steady increase in functionality. Thanks for the drop down box to sort activity!

The icons across top of web app, they should be labeled in some way…even if just some text pops up when you hover over them. Also, that one on the far right currently, where you can start a zone…it should not be a toggle - that is confusing.

Also, I care very little about aggregate savings across your user base. Would rather see my personal usages/savings numbers at the bottom. More accuracy here would be good eventually. Currently you have no good means to know how much water I’m using or saving. You don’t know how many heads or flow-rate of each (or flow rates for each zone together from something like a flow meter) - so you’re clearly just SWAGging.

Regardless, looking forward to the (monthly, end-of-season/annual) email reports.

Is the current version of the app interface still available to check out at the app.rach.io address. It wanted a username and password. Is that the same one as we use for these forums (as mine did not work)?

Ahh. Nevermind. Found it. You use your “regular” app login credentials.

@eganders‌ Yes, still in beta :slight_smile: Starting to build out more functionality on the webapp and hopefully will be out of beta in a month or two.