Patent ID: 8650069

Claim:
A method for determining the operating efficiency of an irrigation system comprising: identifying a remotely located property, said remotely located property having an irrigation system for regulating an actual irrigation water usage volume for irrigating an irrigated area of the remotely located property; calculating, at the irrigation system located at the remotely located property, the actual irrigation water usage volume; regulating, at the irrigation system located at the remotely located property, the actual irrigation water usage volume calculated by the irrigation system for irrigating the irrigated area of the remotely located property; receiving property data for the remotely located property at a local computer from a remotely located computer, said property data comprising at least a location description of said remotely located property and the irrigated area of said remotely located property; receiving climatic data for the remotely located property from a source other than the irrigation system located at the remotely located property, said climatic data determined by the location description of said remotely located property; receiving the actual irrigation water usage volume for the remotely located property for a predetermined time period; calculating, by the local computer, a reference plant water usage for the irrigated area of the remotely located property using the climatic data for the predetermined time period using the property data and at least a portion of the climatic data; calculating, by the local computer, a water need volume for the remotely located property over the predetermined time period from the reference plant water usage and the irrigated area of said remotely located property; comparing, by the local computer, the water need volume and the actual irrigation water usage volume for the remotely located property for the predetermined time period; and forwarding results of the comparison for the irrigation system to one of the remotely located computer and a second remotely located computer.