Raymond Graber, CLIA, of True North Outdoor has been working in the irrigation industry for 24 years. As the director of irrigation and water management, he handle all things water – from design to installation, as well as overseeing multiple technicians maintaining commercial, residential and industrial irrigation systems. He administers the company’s water budgeting program and manages all smart irrigation technology across our entire customer base.
What first pulled you into irrigation—and what’s kept you in it?
I got into irrigation through family that was in the industry. Once I started, it all just made sense. Seeing the technology advance as I have continued my career has been amazing.
How do you work to be a champion of promoting smart irrigation?
Educating customers has been the biggest advantage to getting more smart irrigation out into the world. Many customers don’t know about all of the options available to improve their existing system and make it a smart irrigation system. Going over the many options to find the best fit for their system and budget helps to get many customers to improve their systems.
With drought affecting many areas of the country this summer, what role can smart irrigation play in helping communities reach their water saving goals?
Having smart irrigation is the only way to combat drought and high water bills at the same time. Customers in the past have simply added run time or run days to their system in hopes of beating the heat, but then balk at the high water bill and overcorrect by reducing their system functionality past where it started. Being able to accurately estimate the amount of water their system should use during a given period of time and adjusting based on weather conditions allows us as professionals to take the sting out of a surprise high water bill and properly maintain the health of the landscape.
If you could snap your fingers and fix one barrier to smarter irrigation adoption, what would it be?
Cost always seems to be the biggest barrier in smart irrigation adoption. While the technology has become less expensive as new innovations in manufacturing and hardware have evolved, some customers are still hesitant to adopt due to up-front costs. Making sure the customer sees the long-term benefits and future money saving opportunities can turn most “no thank you” clients into “YES!” clients, but the up front cost is still the biggest roadblock in getting every customer to adopt smart irrigation.
