Patent ID: 9258952
Filing Date: 2016-02-16
CPC Classification: A01G,G05B

Claim Text:
1. A method of controlling irrigation, the method comprising: receiving water usage information corresponding to a first volumetric water usage at a site location having an irrigation controller, wherein the first volumetric water usage corresponds to volumetric water usage from a beginning of a budget period of time to a first time within the budget period of time; determining automatically whether a volumetric water budget at the site location will be met for the budget period of time based on at least the first volumetric water usage, the volumetric water budget corresponding to a specified volume of water for use during the budget period of time; determining automatically, in the event the volumetric water budget will not be met and in the event more than a threshold number of predicted irrigation events is needed to compensate for predicted excess water usage within the budget period, the threshold number being varied as a function of events remaining within the budget period, an adjustment to the irrigation by the irrigation controller wherein the adjustment comprises a reduction of runtimes of remaining irrigation events scheduled to occur during the budget period of time such that the adjustment substantially spreads the compensation for the predicted excess water usage that is predicted to exceed the volumetric water budget over the remaining irrigation events; and outputting signaling to effect the adjustment.