Hi folks,
I just installed rachio today. I only ran few 1-minute tests on 4 zones. In the Daily Water Use chart, it says 391 Gallons Used, and 0 Gallons Saved. 391 Gallons Used seem a lot for few 1-minute tests. Does the Gallons Used mean something else? Thanks!
If that seems high this article will help adjust your system to get those numbers more in alignment. These are estimates and our defaults might not reflect your yard/zone.
Please let us know if you have any other questions or feedback. Thanks and have a great day!
Thanks!
@evebill8, if you’d like your water usage reports zeroed out, feel free to email the support team (support@rachio.com) and we’d be happy to help.
Best, Emil
Ok - I have to ask 
It looks like precipitation rates (PR) are generally measured with head to head overlap.
So, area for a zone should be measured on an imaginary line centered between the heads in case where zones overlap?
@brkaus, good questions. The PR should be measured on a zone by zone basis; head to head coverage is usually isolated within the same zone. If you have two (or more) neighboring zones that share coverage, you’ll need to consider what percentage of the zone is shared. If it’s small, I’d lean towards configuring the zones for the majority the area. You might overwater a few areas of turf that have overlapping zone coverage, but you might be able to reduce this by repositioning/adjusting your heads.
Are you referring to 1) square footage input within the advanced settings for each zone, or 2) placement of the catch cups and/or square footage to measure your PR?
If #1, the square footage is only used to calculate your estimated gallon usage within the app.
If #2, for calculating PR, you should use the total area the zone covers.
Hope this helps 
Ok, to clarify - I have a large rectangular back yard. It is watered by 3 zones, with a sprinkler head layout similar to what you would do if it was a single zone. Requirements for each zone are basically same (but not exactly - slope on C side and a bit more sun). The yard is split into zones due to water pressure I’m sure. We moved into the house.
Each head is appropriate 90/180/360 for it’s placement.
A A B C
A B B C
A B B C
A B C C
I do want the estimated gallon usage to be as accurate as possible,it is critical with tiered water rates. 1k gallons can get up to $16. I don’t consider that “advanced”.
I’m hoping the zones are similar enough that the that the sections that are covered by overlap will get reasonable amount of water.
I tried to back into the PR with some math -
As a double check, I added up all the GPM and the total area and I got a similar PR. Even better, it pretty closely matches the specifications of the heads I’m using
In the future, like you said, I’m thinking I may have to add/adjust some sprinkler heads. Might also have to mess with the effeciency setting.
@brkaus, interesting head placement. Probably the easiest change would be to cap the A & C heads in the middle rows and extend the B zones if pressure allows.
Awesome! Sounds like you’re probably very close given the unique head placement you’re working with.
You might already have the data you need to calculate the efficiency setting; also known as DU (distribution uniformity) – it can be calculated by finding the Low Quarter DU, which is the measure of the average of the lowest quarter of samples, divided by the average of all samples. The higher the DU, the better the performance of the system. If all samples are equal, the DU is 100%. A less common alternative to the Low Quarter DU is the absolute distribution uniformity, calculated by dividing the minimum depth applied to any point by the average of all samples. The lower the DU, the less efficient the sprinkler system is; requiring more water to be applied to meet the watering requirement.
Hope this helps
Best, Emil
Thank you. Very helpful.
Not able to cap, the yard is over 100ft x 100ft. No sprinklers with enough distance to cover. I’m guessing overlapping zones is actually pretty common for larger yards.
Thanks again!