What can a smart irrigation system do?

Water demand of the plants

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

The water demand of a garden or irrigation area depends on many factors. Important ones include temperature and sunlight intensity, soil structure, plant species and root depth, wind, and humidity. 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 precipitation follow days with moderate or very high water demand.

A smart irrigation system can communicate over the internet and optimize water delivery based on measured parameters and internet control, thereby promoting the health of soil and plants.

The key capabilities of a smart irrigation system

  1. App control and remote access: A smart irrigation system should be accessible via a smartphone app that allows the user to monitor status, change settings, and receive notifications no matter where they are.
  2. Customizable watering times: The system should support schedules that can be adjusted at any time to the individual needs of the garden and plants.
  3. Weather integration: An essential feature of smart irrigation systems is considering weather forecasts to decide when and how much to water. Irrigation is reduced or completely stopped when rain is imminent.
  4. Soil moisture Sensors: Using Sensors to measure soil moisture allows the system to accurately determine when the soil is dry and needs water. This prevents both over- and under-watering.
  5. Water volume control: It should offer the possibility to precisely control the amount of water to avoid waste and protect the environment.
  6. Energy efficiency: To be smart, 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 smart irrigation system should be integrable into existing smart home systems so that it can work together 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 irrigation needs, which a smart system can adapt to.

How smart is MIYO?

The MIYO irrigation system in a garden is controlled by the MIYO Cube. It stores and processes all data locally. 

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
  • with self-created programs via the open API

For optimal irrigation, the garden is divided into irrigation zones. For each zone, any number of irrigation windows can be created 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 irrigation is triggered due to the parameters or manually, the Cube opens the Valves assigned to the irrigation area.

MIYO integration possibilities

MIYO has an open API and can be integrated into a variety of systems. We connect your garden with your existing smart home system.
MIYO Smart Garden smart home connectivity

The extensively documented plugin establishes a websocket interface to the MIYO-Cube and sends the messages received through it to the Loxone Miniserver in a format that is easy for Loxone to process.

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

API Logo

What advantages does MIYO offer?

  • Blooming garden: with MIYO, irrigation is very easy and quick to adapt to the needs of soil and plants. This way, a key factor for a blooming garden, irrigation, can always be kept optimal.
  • Water savings: through the diverse settings, integration of soil moisture measurement, and weather forecast, MIYO can significantly reduce water consumption. In phases with frequent rainfall, the savings exceed 50%.
  • Calculation of evapotranspiration: MIYO uses numerous factors from precipitation to temperature, sunlight intensity, and wind to calculate a theoretical water demand of the garden, which can be used as a basis for irrigation 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 irrigation 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 lifetime of the devices is an important contribution to conserving resources and the environment.
  • Irrigation zones: with MIYO, the garden can be divided into any number of irrigation circuits, all of which can be individually adapted to the needs of the plants. This ensures that plants with different water requirements are optimally and water-sparingly irrigated.

What can MIYO not do?

Every garden is different. The 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 smart MIYO irrigation 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 phone for an interface description.