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Smart watering to reduce air temperature

During the Millennial Drought, watering the garden – or even worse, the lawn – was strictly banned in many parts of the country. But in South Australia this thinking has now changed. Greg Ingleton from SA Water explains a new program called Smart Watering. “We know that plants and grass and trees can cool the air down,” he says. During the last drought when SA’s water security was challenged, it was seen as a waste to use water on keeping school ovals and lawns green. “But the state has learnt a lot from the last drought and put in recycled water systems and a lot of councils are putting in stormwater harvesting systems, so the water security has improved.” The idea for Smart Watering came from Greg flying into Adelaide airport and seeing all the brown grass, knowing there was a stormwater recycling system right next to the airport; he wondered if there was any benefit to greening up the areas around the runway. Initial tests showed that the local temperature at the airport could be reduced by at least three degrees on a hot day. This has the potential to improve aircraft performance. “When the air is hotter, it’s thinner,” Greg explains. “So the planes need more runway to actually get off the ground. If the air is cooler and denser they can take off a lot quicker.” In the home garden water can also make a difference. Testing three areas within a metre of each other, Greg’s thermal camera shows a concrete path is around 50C, brown, dead grass is nearly 60C and live, green grass is 30C. Fake grass gets even hotter around 70C or more. Greg adds that replacing your lawn with fake grass is the equivalent to watering your grass for 50 years. Greg does a similar test on a grape vine, which records a temperature of 40C. He then sprays water on the vine for about 30 seconds and the surface temperature drops to around 24C. The reduction in air temperature of about 5-10C will last for about 30 minutes, he says. Each spraying uses about 10 litres of water, which Greg says is equivalent to half a minute in the shower. “The water will cost you a few cents over an hour but if you’re inside with the air conditioner on it will be costing about 70 cents, plus any TVs or computers,” he says. “There’s actually a lot of cost saving from being outside and getting the kids outside too.” A misting system puts a fine spray of cooling water in the air and can reduce air temperatures by about 10C. Running it for an hour or two uses the equivalent amount of water to a minute in the shower, Greg says. Misters are available from hardware stores and are easy to install, he adds. To get a good cooling sink from grass, Greg puts on a sprinkler system a day or two before a heatwave to get some water in the soil. He places a cup under the sprinkler and when it measures about a finger full of water, he moves the sprinkler. Smart Watering is a SA Water initiative. Check with your local state or territory water utility before adopting any of the practices shown Watch Gardening Australia on ABC iview: http://iview.abc.net.au/programs/gard... SUBSCRIBE: http://ab.co/GardeningYouTube About Gardening Australia: Gardening Australia is an ABC TV program providing gardening know-how and inspiration. Presented by Australia's leading horticultural experts, Gardening Australia is a valuable resource to all gardeners through the television program, the magazine, books, DVDs and extensive online content. Connect with other Gardening Australia fans: Like Gardening Australia on Facebook:   / gardeningaustralia   Follow Gardening Australia on Instagram:   / gardeningaustralia   Visit the Gardening Australia website: http://www.abc.net.au/gardening This is an official Australian Broadcasting Corporation YouTube channel. ******** Contributions may be removed if they violate ABC's Online Conditions of Use http://www.abc.net.au/conditions.htm (Section 3).