Cutting Water Costs for Autodesk

Irrigation Consultant — Tom Campbell, Water Scout

In Marin County, California, where design software leader Autodesk maintains its headquarters, water use is tightly restricted, especially for large institutional customers. Yet the company’s older irrigation system hadn’t been updated for more than ten years and was plagued with leaks and inefficiencies. The landscape team had lost track of watering schedules over the years, and it was unclear which valves watered which areas.

To find a solution, JHS Properties, which owns and manages the Autodesk campus, retained Tom Campbell of Water Scout, an irrigation consulting firm, to solve several issues:

Goals:
Water waste from runoff
High water costs
Overwatering due to inefficient scheduling

Implementation

• ETwater Manager web based irrigation control interface
• ETwater Commercial Smart Controller, replacing 2 existing controllers, governing 43 stations
• New check valves and compensating pop-up heads on all lawn zones (not supplied by ETwater)

With ETwater...
When Campbell joined the project in June 2004, an ETwater Smart Controller had recently been installed to replace two antiquated controllers that covered 43 of the 46 irrigation zones on the property. Campbell then began working with the landscaping team on a major irrigation system retrofit, updating and replacing sprinkler heads and other equipment within 18 of the 46 zones.

Working with this new irrigation infrastructure and ETwater’s web interface, Campbell was able to set precise flow rates that ensured vigorous plant growth while reducing water use. The results were dramatic. By eliminating runoff and overwatering, Autodesk cut its gallonage significantly and saw its water bill decline from $2,600 to $1,600 over the same period from year to year. Moreover, because ET Water’s web-based interface provides real-time visibility into Autodesk’s watering volume, Campbell can now remotely monitor the system everyday and receive alerts whenever there’s a problem.

Benefits:
Cut water bill by 38%
Maximized efficiency of water use
Faster responses to changes in conditions, watering needs