1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a water conservation apparatus and, more particularly, to a master control system for conserving water by sprinkler systems within a geographical region.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Fresh water is an increasingly valuable commodity. Indeed, many regions in short supply of fresh water are required to purchase and import water much as any other required commodity. Municipalities, as well as entire counties and states, have taken and continue to take drastic steps in order to conserve water. Regulations to conserve water have been enacted to affect industrial, commercial and residential users. Examples include enacting prohibitions against the use of water for non-essential purposes such as filling of swimming pools. Fairly common ordinances by many municipalities or other governmental subdivisions regulate the use of residential sprinkler systems in some fashion. Commonly, residents can only use their sprinkler systems on certain days (e.g., odd or even). Large commercial users of water, such as car washes, have been required to recycle the water that they use. Such regulatory schemes are helpful but not totally effective. Some residential users simply ignore the regulations. Others conceal their use by sprinkling their lawns, for example, at night when such use is more difficult to detect. Also, such regulatory schemes tend to implement simple rules (e.g., odd-even) that do not provide the flexibility or versatility to provide a greater degree of control by which the numbers of users dispensing water at any given time can be easily controlled.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,209,131, a computer-controlled irrigation system is disclosed for automatically irrigating an agricultural area having a plurality of crop-growing fields. The system includes a central station and a number of remote stations located in the fields. A computer is programmed to define a predetermined schedule for delivery of pre-established quantities of water to each field. The delivery of water can be made dependent on environmental conditions such as wind, speed, temperature, humidity or other factors. The system interrogates the remote stations for flow meter, water pressure meter, environment conditions and alarm information, to diagnose proper operation and to monitor the delivery of water. The system, therefore, is arranged to meter appropriate amounts of water to irrigate fields to ensure that the crops are provided with appropriate amounts of water.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,606, a radio controlled sprinker system is disclosed for use with a residential sprinkler system that is provided with a transmitter unit that includes at least one moisture sensor. The moisture sensor monitors the moisture in the ground and generates a signal representative of the moisture level in the ground. Activation signals are transmitted on the receipt of a moisture signal which indicates that the moisture level is below a desired amount in the region of the transmitter. Therefore, the local transmitters effectively enable the sprinkler systems only when the ground conditions call for additional water.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,838,310, a remotely controlled irrigation system is disclosed used in conjunction with golf course, business parks and along state highways to irrigate plants in various remote areas that are difficult to manually control. The patent is primarily concerned with providing power at the remote locations for operating a receiver that can be actuated by a central transmitter. This is achieved by providing a turbine or impeller in the path of the pipe feeding the sprinkler system which rotates when fluid moves through the pipe to operate a generator which charges a local battery.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,626,984, a remote computer control for irrigation systems is disclosed for controlling a number of different irrigation systems. Each individual system has its local controller for controlling an individual system. The patent is primarily concerned with the central computer which would normally shut down the entire system. The patent discloses the use of intelligent remote units that can process and execute stored programs. By distributing intelligence among the remote units, the system becomes less dependent on the operation of the central computer. Should the central computer fail, each intelligent remote station will continue to operate its associate irrigation system in accordance with instructions stored therein.
An irrigation control system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,149, which has as one of its objectives the conservation of water and energy by providing optional or highly efficient irrigation to growing plants. Soil moisture sensors transmit data which is used to regulate the operation of the irrigation system and to provide water on a need basis.
Therefore, while the technologies have been available, municipalities and other local and regional water authorities have not utilized such technologies in a combination with a plurality of individual residential sprinkler systems for selectively disabling such sprinkler systems. While the prior art has been primarily concerned with enabling water dispensing systems on a need basis, such systems have not been provided the means for overriding independently operated sprinkler systems in order to disable them and selectively prevent water from being discharged through such systems.