MINNEAPOLIS — IrriGreen, Inc. has introduced  the next generation in digital technology for water-saving lawn irrigation: the IrriGreen Genius™ Irrigation System. It uses up to 50 percent less water than ordinary systems. IrriGreen digitally controls its innovative sprinklers to match watering patterns to the exact shape of any lawn. IrriGreen thereby curtails inefficient spray overlap, reins in wasteful over-spraying, and reduces runoff. Property owners enjoy beautiful, green lawns and lower water bills. Landscape contractors save time and reduce costs, because IrriGreen requires the installation and maintenance of up to 80 percent fewer sprinkler heads and up to 85 percent less underground pipe.

Smart controllers process environmental data to regulate the timing and duration of watering from irrigation systems. However, when conventional systems turn on, their sprinklers still waste water with overlapping sprays and uncontrolled over-spraying on to hardscapes. IrriGreen extends digital technology out to the sprinklers themselves to solve this fundamental problem.

“The IrriGreen Genius Irrigation System applies digital technology to control the actual direction and distance of the sprays from each Genius™ Sprinkler,” said Gary Klinefelter, founder and chief executive officer, IrriGreen, Inc. “Inkjet printers do not shoot ink unevenly and haphazardly all over a page. They spray the right amount of ink in controlled patterns. We adapted digital technology and our patent-pending nozzle design from the high-tech, commercial printing industry. IrriGreen ‘prints’ precise patterns of water on a lawn.”

Ordinary irrigation systems surround the outside of each watering zone with four to six sprinkler heads. They spray water in wasteful overlapping arcs, over-watering some sections and under-watering others. Difficult to adjust and keep in alignment, conventional sprinklers also waste water by over-shooting on to hardscapes. With IrriGreen, just one sprinkler in the interior of each zone waters evenly in the exact shape of each zone, with minimal overlap and no over-spraying outside the zone. The Genius Sprinkler features a digital valve-in-head and a pop-up rotor with a low-flow, 14-stream, multi-trajectory nozzle. As the Genius™ Server monitors and dynamically adjusts stream volume, direction and distance, Genius Sprinklers conform watering patterns to the specific outline of each zone and maintain uniform water distribution at distances from 0-35 feet within each zone.

“For our customers, IrriGreen takes the uncertainty out of lawn irrigation. IrriGreen applies a consistent 0.05 inches of water per rotation,” said Josh Hudek, irrigation manager, High Profile Grounds Maintenance, Inc., Minneapolis, Minn. “For us, IrriGreen is the best technology and easier and faster to install. For the typical residential installation of about a half acre, with IrriGreen we generally install seven heads versus 40 for a conventional system and 300 feet of pipe versus 1,200 feet.”

High Profile, the first choice of commercial property managers and homeowners in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area for comprehensive, single-source grounds care, has done irrigation system installation and maintenance for more than 20 years. To date in 2014, they have completed 30 installations with IrriGreen. The largest is a 2.5-acre residential project.

IrriGreen, Inc. will exhibit the IrriGreen Genius Irrigation System at the Midwest Innovation Summit on October 27-28, 2014 at The Depot Renaissance Hotel, 225 South 3rd Avenue in downtown Minneapolis, Minn. Organized by the Midwest Cleantech Open, the Innovation Summit explores new industry developments and opportunities for wave-of-the-future products and services that maximize resource efficiency and minimize environmental impact.  IrriGreen was the winner in the North Central Region of the Cleantech Open in 2012.