I am still not seeing this feature in the web interface at app.rach.io… When I turn the feature on via the Rachio app on my iPhone, the web interface still shows the old static setting.
The “offset setting” that some have requested could be a “plant quality” setting as some of us like to ride the edge of turf quality in order to reduce watering. I follow Texas A&M Agrilife recommendations in my area which also tends toward the lower quality end and the new Dynamic setting picks a much higher value for my area currently.
Thanks for all the hard work bringing this feature to market!
You mention “a mediteranian climate”. My unit is installed in South East Spain, so it actually on the Mediteranian coast. Can I make use of this feature ?
Hi, that’s great that you’re using a Rachio controller in Spain. Truly on the Mediterranean! You can use this feature, however our support for precise climate mapping is not quite as good for international customers i.e. outside of the U.S. (we’re working on it). That said, the feature will work and should have a Kc value that is appropriate. I will get back to you with exactly what you can expect.
Hello @tlight, we are not yet supporting the feature on app.rach.io; it is currently only on mobile.
I think your “plant quality” suggestion for framing the Kc offset is intriguing. It frames it in a way that’s likely more intuitive for many people.
The situation you are describing – you’ve chosen a Kc value that leans more towards efficiency than lushness, and our recommended Kc value is higher – is probably going to happen to a lot of folks given our initial attempt to recommend only one value for each local climate. Your intuition to offset the value is a good one, and we’ll be looking at this as a potential follow-up feature.
One question, that FAQ states that WA/OR/CA uses the coefficients from the Meyer study and that there’s no interpolation calculations done to find the Kc value. I live a bit east of Sacramento (southern Placer county), and those are what I’ve been manually adjusting my values to. When I turn on the dynamic coefficient for my cool-season grass, I’m getting 97% instead of 104%. Not a huge difference, but my takeaway from the FAQ is that my Kc should be equal to the Meyer study. Are there additional tweaks for these regions at all?
To clarify on the Dynamic CC not being supported on the browser interface… If the feature is set on the mobile app, then that means the setting seen, and potentially adjusted, in the browser app is ignored? Perhaps a point update should be to gray out the slider on the browser app when Dynamic CC is “on” to make it clear and prevent confusion.
Thank you @drew_thayer . I look forward to updates and I’m more than happy for you to do whatever you like with my European data in any way, in order to improve the product support for non-US and CA users. Our installation is in the gardens of an apartment complex. We use the whole 16 zones and the whole area is in excess of 4000m2. We have our own weather station which therefore improves the overall accuracy of our forecasts and rainfall measurements. We saved about €5,000 in our first 12 months of operation.
That’s a great question. We unfortunately misspoke on the initial FAQ document and have revised it; Kc curves for mediterranean climates are a smoothed version of the values in the Meyer 1985 study, so the values will be slightly different (typically a little closer to the median value) than the values you’ll see on a table from the study.
Apart from this crop coefficient upgrade, what else does Rachio adjust by temperature and season? Excluding obvious factors like rain, wind, etc. Thanks.
Thanks for sharing the tips. I have never considered this coefficient, and it’s my first experience with them. Right now, I am researching them and hope to implement them successfully in my garden work.
I wonder whether crop coefficients greatly affect the citronella plant’s growth. I have been planting and cultivating it in my garden for many years, and it always has been fine. I like it for being a natural mosquito repellent. I even use branches of this plant around the house to scare off the mosquitos. But maybe it would be even better if I used those coefficients while planting it.
At the end of the day, vegetation needs the water that it does. Rachio isn’t going to make plants require less water, but what it does is adjust for various weather conditions. If you utilize one of the flex schedules, that ET adjustment comes into play more as seasons change. Prior to Rachio, I never went out and adjusted my watering on my dumb clock by season. It was set it and forget it, but I WAY overwatered in the winter months…
