March 26, 2006
A Gadget That Tells Your Automatic Sprinklers to Turn off When It Rains
Automatic sprinklers are great... until you look outside and see your lawn watering itself at the same time as a torrential downpour is falling from the sky. Talk about a waste of power and water. The solution may be a gadget like this wireless rain sensor that detects precipitation and tells your sprinkler system to shut itself off. The sensor is solar powered, so it doesn't require batteries or electricity to work, and it sends a wireless signal up to 200 feet to the receiver, so it doesn't require any wires either. According to the company, this makes the device simple to install. You just mount the sensor and solar panel to your gutter, then attach the receiver to your sprinkler's timer, and it's ready to go.
The lawn gadget is available at SmartHome for $65: Solar-powered Wireless Rain Sensor
