What can a smart irrigation system do?

A clever watering system makes watering your garden child's play. But how exactly does it work?

The water needs of a garden or irrigation area depend on many factors. Important ones include temperature and sunlight intensity, soil structure, plant types and root depth, wind, and humidity. You can find more information on our page Plants, Water and Soil. And most often, the most important water source is still natural rain rather than artificial irrigation. The water demand of the garden fluctuates greatly. Even in midsummer, days with excess water from rainfall follow days with moderate or very high water demand.

A clever watering system can communicate via the internet and optimize water delivery based on measured parameters and internet control, thereby promoting the health of soil and plants.

The most important capabilities of a clever watering system

1. App control and remote access: A clever watering system should be accessible via an app on the smartphone, allowing the user to monitor status, change settings, and receive notifications no matter where they are.
2. Adjustable watering times: The system should support schedules that can be adapted at any time to the individual needs of the garden and plants.
3. Weather integration: A key feature of clever watering systems is taking weather forecasts into account to decide when and how much to water. When rain is imminent, watering is reduced or stopped entirely.
4. Soil moisture Sensors: Using Sensors to measure soil moisture allows the system to precisely determine when the soil is dry and needs water. This prevents both over- and underwatering.
5. Water volume control: It should offer the ability to precisely control the amount of water to avoid waste and protect the environment.
6. Energy efficiency: To be clever, the devices must be connected and constant communication consumes a lot of energy. Therefore, they ideally operate with solar charging and a long-lasting battery.
7. Compatibility with smart home systems: A good clever watering system should integrate into existing smart home systems so it can work with other devices like weather stations or voice assistants.
8. Adaptability to different plant types and garden areas: Different plants and garden areas have different watering needs, which a clever system can adjust to.

How clever is MIYO?

The MIYO watering system (Cube series) in a garden is controlled by the MIYO Cube. It stores and processes all data locally. In the LoRaWAN system, the clever functions are provided by MIYO servers on the internet.

The Cube is connected to the internet and communicates with:

• the MIYO app on the smartphone
• the MIYO cloud for storing the garden status
• weather systems
• smart home systems
• self-created programs via the open API

For optimal watering, the garden is divided into irrigation areas. For each area, any number of watering windows can be set up throughout the week. If a Sensor is used, the target range for soil moisture can be set.

On the garden side, the Cube is wirelessly connected to the Valves and Sensors. It receives information from the Sensor about soil moisture, temperature, and sunlight intensity for the irrigation area. When watering is triggered based on parameters or manually, the Cube opens the Valves assigned to the irrigation area.

MIYO integration options

LOXONE

Details about MIYO & Loxone in the LoxWiki or directly from the creator:
https://miyoplugin.phantasoft.de/

Home Assistant

Details on setting up MIYO in Home Assistant can be found here: MIYO Home Assistant Plugin

openHAB

Details on setting up and configuring the MIYO openHAB binding can be found here: MIYO openHAB Binding.

What advantages does MIYO bring?

• Flourishing garden: With MIYO, watering is very easy and quick to adapt to the needs of soil and plants. This ensures that a key factor for a flourishing garden, watering, is always kept optimal.
• Water savings: Through the many settings, integration of soil moisture measurement, and weather forecast, MIYO can significantly reduce water consumption. In periods of frequent rainfall, savings exceed 50%.
• Calculation of evapotranspiration: MIYO uses numerous factors from rainfall to temperature, sunlight intensity, and wind to calculate a theoretical water need of the garden, which can be used as a basis for watering duration. More information on evapotranspiration can be found here.
• No battery consumption: The energy for Sensors and Valves is provided by solar charging. Conventional Valves, e.g., from Gardena, consume at least 3 AA batteries per watering season. MIYO requires 3 AAA rechargeable batteries for a lifespan of 5-10 years. The saving of about 12 to 30 batteries per Valve (!) over the device's lifespan is an important contribution to conserving resources and the environment.
• Watering zones: With MIYO, the garden can be divided into any number of watering circuits, all individually adjustable to the needs of the plants. This ensures that plants with different water needs are optimally and water-sparingly watered.

What can MIYO not do?

Every garden is different. Differences start with the soil and extend through microclimate, slope, orientation to the sky, and the plants. MIYO cannot make adjustments to these conditions, but with MIYO, the garden owner receives a practical tool to efficiently and sustainably solve one of the main questions, namely the water balance.

Switch over and let your clever MIYO watering system do the work for you!

Do you want to connect your system with MIYO?

Here is the documentation of our API

Are you a system provider, business developer, or software developer?

Then contact us by email at support@miyo.garden or by phone for an interface description.