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I manage commercial office buildings, about 500,000 square feet of medical and office space in the Salt Lake and Utah County areas. The year before we installed Smart Rain, we had several issues with valves sticking open and major flooding of the landscaping, which posed a significant risk of water damage to the buildings. We decided that investing in Smart Rain could help us prevent future water damage.
After Smart Rain was installed, we found several advantages. The first advantage was that we were able to locate some existing problems with the piping and wiring for the sprinkler system. We discovered zones that were tied into our neighbors' systems, which we didn't know about. With Smart Rain, we were able to locate and fix these issues. As the season progressed, we also found that we were saving quite a bit of money. In addition to the rebate we received from the water district, our water usage was significantly lower. I believe we saved over a million gallons of water in one season alone.
After the success we had with the first installation, we decided to install Smart Rain on a second building. This second building is mostly xeriscape with a lot of rock landscaping and drip systems. Last year, we ended up wasting a lot of water because we weren't aware of valves not closing or other problems. Smart Rain will help us locate these issues faster and save us a lot of water.
In talking to other property managers, I've been able to share that even though I was a little skeptical of the system at first, we tested it on a building where we expected to see decent returns, and we saw those returns. I feel confident moving forward with installing it on other buildings. If anyone else is skeptical, I recommend trying it on a building, getting some numbers, and seeing if it works within the budget. Do it early in the year so you can see your cost savings by the end of the year, and it will cost you nothing by the end of the year. That's what happened for us.
