What kind of return can I expect on a smart irrigation system?

A good smart irrigation system should pay for itself in the first couple years of operation. 

The exact timeline will depend on your current irrigation infrastructure, pumping costs, labor costs, how far you have to drive to get to the ranch, crop value per acre, and how much room there is for improvement in terms of performance and precision. 

The three big things that drive returns on smart irrigation systems are labor savings, reduced pumping costs, and improvements in quality and yield.

At Lumo, we’ve installed our precision irrigation system at over 150 ranches. Some growers recover the cost of the system almost entirely in year one from labor savings alone. For growers with electric pumps, who were previously pumping during peak electricity rates hours, they’re able to recover a significant portion of their investment from shifting that pumping to later in the evening and overnight, lowering their PG&E bill. Finally, others are more focused on the bump in revenue they get from higher yields and better quality, which are driven by increases in precision (better timing, fewer manual errors, exact block-level volumes, etc.). 

“If I get 2% more yield, over a couple of years I can completely erase the cost of the irrigation system technology upgrade,” according to Michael Busselen, the Owner of Woodhawk Vineyards. 

1. Labor Savings Through Automation (Up to 90%) 

Labor savings are greatest on remote ranches that require frequent irrigation. If you’re able to automate those irrigations end to end with pump automation, you can save a ton of time and money. 

Similarly, vineyard management companies, like REVM, save a lot of money by reducing the need to have their team constantly driving around to open and close these systems. 

More specifically, irrigators save time on these tasks: 

1. No more opening and closing valves or turning pumps on and off by hand (Wente Vineyards saved 1,000 valve turns this season alone)
2. Fewer drives to the ranch
3. No need to walk the lines looking for leaks with real-time fault detection and alerts  

2. Improvements in Yield and Quality With Precision (by 5-20%) 

As every grower knows, isolating and quantifying the impact of a single change on crop quality or yield is incredibly difficult to do. There are too many variables outside of your control that change season to season. 

But growers, like Ryan Decker of Clos du Val for instance, believe they’ll see improvements because the mechanisms are straightforward and easy to understand. 

They include things like: 

• Block-level visibility into volumes
• Volume-based control
• Eliminating manual errors
• Closing the gap in execution vs plan 
• Never skipping irrigations because your team is too busy
• Responding faster to heat waves with more irrigation flexibility
• More easily applying water ahead of and after fertigations to improve nutrient uptake

Growers agree that irrigation is one of, if not the most effective tool they have for improving their crop quality and yields. Lumo gives them the control and visibility necessary to get the right volumes on the right blocks at the right times. Andrew Oliver at Antinori is another good example. He credits the Lumo system with helping him achieve a half ton per acre increase on his cabs blocks. 

3. Lower Pumping Costs (by 15-30%) 

A smart irrigation system can help growers reduce their pumping costs by:

• Pumping at off-peak times to lower PG&E bill
• Irrigating at night to reduce evaporative loss
• Better utilizing existing pump capacity
• Optimizing how the system runs (how many blocks to open at once, catching leaks and clogs as soon as they happen, etc.) 

There are also some secondary improvements that can make a difference and help provide a greater return on investing in a smart irrigation system.

1. Lower Risk 

Lumo provides growers with real-time monitoring of pressure and flow at a block level. This can help catch leaks before they damage crops or infrastructure, lead to runoff, soil degradation and so on. These alerts can also prevent damage to pumps and other pieces of critical infrastructure. In the long run, these savings can be significant. 

2. Less Wear and Tear 

Another way to think about the value of block-level irrigation data is that it helps you run your system in a way that’s less hard on it. At Lumo, we routinely help growers discover issues with pressures that are way too high or too low, situations where they’re running their water tanks dry with long duration irrigations, different pump performance issues and so on. 

By optimizing how the system is run, you can stay within safe and healthy pressure ranges and ensure the system is degrading faster than it needs to. If you can prolong the life of a pump by 25%, the cost savings can be considerable. 

3. Increased Irrigator Productivity 

Finally, many of the growers we work with at Lumo talk about how much more productive their irrigators become when they’re using the Lumo system. They can schedule irrigations faster, catch issues faster, irrigate to plan with far greater precision, and spend more time focusing on plant health. 

The savings here aren’t always easy to quantify, but shouldn’t be dismissed either. You might see better irrigator retention, less of a need to expand the team even if you’re covering more acres, and so on. 

Other Questions You Might Be Asking:

How quickly will I see ROI after installing Lumo?

It depends on when you have the system installed, of course, but you should see returns right from the start. Often installing Lumo brings long-running issues to light (poor pump performance, emitters that are no longer operating at spec, etc.) and leads to immediate adjustments in how irrigations are being executed. Seeing cost savings and crop improvements in the first season is the norm. 

Can Lumo integrate with my existing infrastructure?

Yes, our smart valves easily retrofit to your existing system and are wireless, meaning there’s no trenching required. (The main limitation is size. Lumo valves currently come in 2’’ and 4’’, so if you’re running a large system with super big blocks, Lumo might not work with your infrastructure.) 

What if something goes wrong?

Lots of growers worry about being left with a system they can’t maintain themselves. They’ve been left high and dry in the past. At Lumo, we stand behind our Hell-or-High-Water Guarantee. 

Our system is designed to be user friendly, so your irrigation team can do some basic troubleshooting on their own and with the help of our Help Center. You can also always text, phone, email, or chat online with a member of our support team. And then we also provide boots-on-the-ground support for any bigger issues. 

Is this just for large vineyards?

Lumo is used by small family vineyards and top-10 winegrape growers alike. It scales to fit your operation.

Ready to Find Out Your Vineyard’s ROI?

We can help calculate your specific return based on acreage, current labor costs, crop value, and more. Send us an email at [email protected] or book a demo today.