Smart Irrigation Home Retrofit with Hunter And Ahmed Hassan

Hey, I'm Ahmed Hassan. Today, I'm at the home of Sara and Seth Twilla. The Twilla's are first-time homeowners who have big, beautiful dreams and ideas for their backyard. The issue is they need a little help in getting there. So I've designed them a wonderful landscape back here. They're getting a lawn that's going to be watered with MP Rotators; all their beds are going to have Hunter's PLD and Point Source Emitters running all throughout the beds and then I'm going to hook them up with a Pro-C Controller and turn it into a Smart Controller by adding Hunter Solar-Sync. I'm going to do all this work with the help of my buddy, Todd Larimer. Right? We're doing it. So, Todd and I have got the design. We've got the crew. We're all ready. I just gotta show these guys what we're going to put in their backyard. Right? You get the crew ready, and I'm going to show them the design. They're ready to go. My name is Sara and my name is Seth and this is our home. We need help with our backyard. If you take one look at it... You can see for yourself. We're so excited to work with Hunter. Hunter's technology is through the roof, top of the line, and we're just really excited to have them here. Seth! Sara! Hey, what's goin on?... It's time. What's goin on is your new backyard dude. ... Wow, that's awesome! You guys actually designed this yard, right? I mean you said you wanted a large lawn area, right? Yeah! Yes, we did. So we got you a large lawn area. We got MP Rotators. We're gonna take out those janky spray heads you were about to put in. This just makes sense to use drip irrigation, so we've got some PLD tubing. We'll run it all the way around and put emitters for all these plants. And then, we have to put in an irrigation controller. Something that's automated, meaning you're going to have valves and automation - 'cause you thought you were just gonna use that little hand valve. Haha - On - Off - haha. So, today, in one day, we're going to slam this entire landscape, hook up all the irrigation and you're gonna be totally automated. I got all the irrigation covered. We've got all the material. Todd's rounding up the troops there. Get all your friends and family and let's get back here. Let's get to work! OK! You know, one of the things that contractors have to do when we're working... when you're putting out your bid... the more specific information you can use - the more name and terminologies you can use... if you tell them that you're installing Hunter PLD Drip Tubing and you're putting in Point Source Emitters, the more you can educate your client, the more your client is going to respect you and feel comfortable with you and feel like, well they don't want to give their work to anyone else. Clients nowadays are sold on drip - oh, everyone is - They think its a miracle in irrigation. and it just, you know, it works. Where is Sara? Sara!... Yes? Hey lady... Oh, this is looking good. Well, we want beautiful gardens... Yes. So drip irrigation will allow you to be conservative and still have a beautiful garden. Save water? - Absolutely! - and good for the environment? - Save water, yet get what you want. This is kinda like your main line. This is where all of the water's coming through. Then we've got a little connector here. A quarter inch connector goes to our quarter inch line and then we're doing our final reduction in our control to regulate that water with a half gallon emitter - and a good thick mulch layer is always recommended for a healthy garden. Ok. Great. - Did I say anything incorrectly, Todd? No, you're amazing. - Do you have anything to add to that? - No, not really. I paid him to do that. - Ha! You did good, bro! Ha, yeah, that was good. Do the work once - walk away and let your timer do what it's supposed to do. The Solar-Sync, as far as I'm concerned, is the additional husband that Sara just got with this unit. Because Seth... We'll be able to teach him how to do this. This is very homeowner friendly. It's very easy to use. He'll be able to set it. We'll run him through it once. - Right. - He'll be able to do that. But in order to truly be efficient with your irrigation... How often do you do you think you're supposed to adjust your irrigation settings in order to be efficient? A typical client/homeowner is going to do it once, twice a year. - Exactly. They're gonna be like, 'off in the winter,' - 'it's hot' - 'on in the spring' 'Oh my god, things are burning up, turn it on a little bit more.' We're gonna put it up here. Sara and Seth are going to love it. I'm just wondering how you and I can explain it to them in a way to where they don't feel like its overwhelming, 'cause that's what contractors are faced with, right? - Keep it simple. And the way I would explain it also is that you're setting it for worst-case scenario. It's going to gauge the temperature - Right. - and it's going to adjust according to that. So it may feel like a lot to them, but you give it a couple of days... this thing, it's smart. Right? Yeah. - that's what it says there. Doesn't it say smart on there? - It's smart, so it knows. - You're pretty smart too. - Oh, thank you. The magic with MP Rotators... You've got a nozzle, now, that puts out about one-third of the water of a regular spray nozzle. That's awesome. Hey Seth! Come on over, dude... It's that time. What's going on guys? So Sara got her own tool today, right? She got her little blue drip tool... We're trying to hook you up, right? - Right. Because we put MP Rotators for your entire lawn, everything has a matched precipitation rate. Your entire lawn, no matter what size or shape the head is, everything is getting the same amount of water. So everything gets to look the same. That's what we want with our lawn, right? - Right. One nice green space out there. - Nice even color. - Let's fire this up. We'll take these tools. We'll adjust them to where we want them. We'll make sure we don't have a bunch of over-spray. Now, we're being efficient. We're saving water, all while keeping your lawn just as moist as it needs to be. Fire it up!...Ok. I'll adjust this one over here. You tighten up the nozzle first, make sure it's tight. You line up your left sprayer. And then I'm going to adjust my right one to where my last spray comes right to the edge of the lawn and disappears. The main thing is the water is going down slow enough that the soil can actually have time to receive that water and allow it to go through and get to the root zone and we've got turf growing. You look, uh...You look like thirty percent less wet. Hahaha! Alright you guys, come on, everybody come close. We'll never come this close again and all four of us be here again. When we leave, this is now your responsibility. The good thing is, every controller that Hunter makes is actually very user-friendly. OK, we're going to show it to you one time and then go through the settings. Here's the thing... You guys understand what a controller does, right? - Right! Yes, of course. This is basically a brain that communicates with the little brain on your valves that tells them when to open up, let water out, and when to close down, right? That's a traditional controller. Because you have this Solar Sync, what you've got is a little personal weather station for your backyard that also communicates with your controller and knows when it gets hotter because it's basically taking temperature readings - Ok. - and as the temperatures increase, we know that the water is being used up and evaporating and getting used up by the plants. Well, besides temperature, what about if it rains? Oh, dude, when it rains it shuts down. I mean, just imagine you lived in a world where you can just walk outside and you can be like, 'Let there be water!' and there were water. - That would be crazy. - Wouldn't that be cool?! Like if there was like a remote control... Whoa! Hey! Look at that! See?! - Remote Control! - Ahhh! - What do you think of that? That is awesome! - That's amazing right there! - It's yours. Absolutely blown away. Amazing. The transformation is incredible. It just, it brings tears to my eyes. I'm so excited. - All happened in one day, it's just, it's absolutely great. Well, I don't know if it could've been any better then it is right now. It's surreal. I just can't believe that it's our yard. Let's do this man. Let's clean up and get these trucks out of here. Take care, you guys! - Alright. Thank you! - Such a pleasure.