What can a smart irrigation system do?

A smart irrigation 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 usually, the most important water source is still natural rain rather than artificial irrigation. The garden's water demand fluctuates greatly. Even in midsummer, days with excess water from rainfall 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 main capabilities of a smart irrigation system

1. App control and remote access: A smart irrigation 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. Customizable watering times: The system should support schedules that can be adjusted anytime to the individual needs of the garden and plants.
3. Weather integration: A key feature of smart irrigation systems is considering weather forecasts to decide when and how much to water. Irrigation is reduced or stopped entirely when rain is expected.
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 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 smart, devices need to be connected and constant communication consumes a lot of energy. Ideally, they operate with solar charging and a long-lasting battery.
7. Compatibility with smart home systems: A good smart irrigation system should integrate with 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 smart system can adapt to.

How smart is MIYO?

The MIYO irrigation system (Cube series) in a garden is controlled by the MIYO Cube. It stores and processes all data locally. In the LoRaWAN system, MIYO's smart functions are provided by 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 garden status
• Weather systems
• Smart home systems
• with custom 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 set up throughout the week. If a Sensor is used, the target soil moisture range can be defined.

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 based on these parameters or manually, the Cube opens the Valves assigned to the irrigation area.

MIYO integration options

LOXONE

Details on 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.

Homey

Details on integrating MIYO with Homey can be found here: MIYO Homey App.

IFTTT

Details on using MIYO via IFTTT can be found here: MIYO IFTTT Service.

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 allows a key factor for a blooming garden, irrigation, to always be kept optimal.
• Water savings: Through the many settings, integration of soil moisture measurement, and weather forecast, MIYO can significantly reduce water consumption. During periods of frequent rainfall, savings exceed 50%.
• Calculation of evapotranspiration: MIYO uses numerous factors from precipitation to temperature, sunlight intensity, and wind to calculate a theoretical water demand for 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 savings of about 12 to 30 batteries per Valve (!) over the device's lifetime 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, each individually adapted to the needs of the plants. This ensures that plants with different water requirements are optimally and water-efficiently 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 gardener receives a practical tool to efficiently and sustainably solve one of the main questions: water management.

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.