McKenzie:
Hi folks, I'm McKenzie VanMeerhaeghe, and this is Water You Talking About? A podcast brought to you by WaterOne, where we talk about the ins and outs of all things water. Today we're talking about Smart Watering. Learn what it is, why it's important, and some insider tips on how to water smarter, not harder this summer. Let's dive into it. Today I am joined by Lucas Brenner, a Field Representative for WaterOne, who will be answering all of our questions about Smart Watering. Lucas, thank you for joining us today.
Lucas:
Hello, McKenzie. Thanks for having me.
McKenzie:
I'm so excited to get to interview you today about all things Smart Watering! So first off, how long have you been at WaterOne?
Lucas:
I have been at WaterOne since January of 2017.
McKenzie:
Awesome! Can you tell me a little bit more about your background and how you got here?
Lucas:
Sure! Prior to WaterOne, I worked for a large company here in Kansas City. I was in the financial services industry. Started there in, like 2005. I worked in the call center environment there and was there for almost ten years. I left in 2014 and, after that, worked in, transportation services for a couple of years before I landed at WaterOne. So I knew somebody here and it took a little bit, but, finally got on in 2017.
McKenzie:
Right. So you are a Field Services Representative, and you work in our Services Division, a large part of your job is repairing, replacing and maintaining water meters, meter installations and related plumbing accessories, all service connection for WaterOne in the community we serve. With that being said, what does a typical day in the life look like for you?
Lucas:
So my day is, in the morning, receiving the notifications for the different tasks I'll have out in the field. Once I get those, I'll go through, look at them, route them for the whatever makes sense to do which one, you know, in order.do some, do some, checking in to each of them if I need to. As far as anything I need to know about before I go there, ask questions of my supervisor if I have any things like that.
McKenzie:
Nice! So you have a pretty good amount of autonomy in your position. Do you really like that?
Lucas:
I love it. Absolutely.
McKenzie:
What do you love most about the work that you do?
Lucas:
Oh, it's to say the most. It's kind of tough. I'd say it's three things. It's being outside, it's meeting our customers and meeting their pets.
McKenzie:
Oh, yeah. That's so fun. I bet you get to meet a lot of really cool people out in the community to be able to be out there every single day.
Lucas:
It's such a treat. Yep, I do, I love it. So.
McKenzie:
And do you prefer working in the colder weather or the warmer weather better? It's a question I've always wondered.
Lucas:
Warmer weather for sure.
McKenzie:
Warmer weather?
Lucas:
Yeah. I'd be fine if I never saw winter again.
McKenzie:
I'm the same way. I like it to be warm. When it gets cold, I'm like,
get me out of here!
Lucas:
Yeah, it's been a little bit toasty. but it's the time of year that I look forward to. So. Yeah, I like it hot. Always have. Yeah.
McKenzie:
Do you often work during things, like when it rains or if it's snowing? What does that look like for you?
Lucas:
We do, we do. It's there's certain things that we don't do If it's raining, but, we can do most of our tasks when there's, you know, some precipitation. so definitely not going to be laying on the ground replacing a water meter if it's raining, but yeah, if it's light rain or, you know, cold, that really doesn't affect it. We can do most of our tasks, you know, in normal weather, but, yeah, definitely makes it makes it easier when you only have a t shirt and shorts on compared to multiple layers when you're laying down trying to replace a water meter.
McKenzie:
I bet. I think I speak for most of the community when I say, we are so thankful for all you do, especially getting out in weather That's not necessarily ideal. I know not every day can be 75 and sunny. So why are you so passionate about what you do? I am passionate about it just because I get to, like I said, meet our meet our customers and then and just really, you know, help educate them on, their, their usage and the tools and techniques we have to help them, avoid leaks and, you know, understand what's happening with their usage. It's it's been great. and again, just being out and about every day and being in different parts of the county, I just love it. it's it's it's different. It's there's different tasks every day, but it's just it's a different location. So it's always something new.
McKenzie:
Yeah! Well, wonderful! Now that we know a little bit more about you, let's hear a little bit more about Smart Watering. As we can all feel by now, the weather is warming up quickly. Honestly, I wouldn't even say it's warming up. I'd say it's just straight up hot out there. And with summer in full swing, that means a lot more watering. Typically, folks all water their lawns on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays. While there is plenty of water available, everyone watering at once can cause extra strain on our water delivery system. And over time, what does this do to our systems?
Lucas:
Well, it wears the system out which, you know, causes more repairs and replacements for sure. It lowers the water pressure. So those are the those are the biggies.
McKenzie:
And we want to ensure that we have the most reliable water systems possible for our customers. So we came up with a plan to help alleviate some of the pressure on our system aka Smart Watering. Smart Watering essentially means that we encourage folks to water on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends. That way they can avoid what we like to call watering rush hour, which can lead to less strain on our water delivery system, which in turn increases its longevity. So what are some common myths about watering lawns that you hear about that you might want to clear up?
Lucas:
So really one that you may hear is that more is better. Watering more is better, that's not necessarily true.
McKenzie:
Yeah that's true. A lot of times when you're watering more that just causes excess moisture which can weaken the plant's root system. And that can often make it more susceptible to diseases, insect damage which costs you time and money in repairing it. So just kind of making sure that you're a little bit more aware of exactly how much you are watering your systems, which we do have a couple tips later in the episode about how to do that. Is there a specific time of day that is best for people to water?
Lucas:
I know there's a best time. Really, they can water whenever. there's certainly a lot of people, as we've talked about, water. Monday, Wednesdays and Fridays and maybe early mornings. So if they do that, they may see, lower pressure, but they can certainly water whenever they like.
McKenzie:
Right. Of course, there are no set rules for when you should be watering. We do like to have some best practices that we recommend to our customers so that they get the most out of their watering. One of those is to start watering after the spring rain eases. This typically ends up being around June, and we also like to recommend that folks water at around 10 a.m., because that can really help, as opposed to watering later when temperatures are at the highest, when temperatures are at their highest. You can get a lot of evaporation. So the water that you're using isn't actually reaching the ground. It's evaporating before it does. Another recommendation that we have for customers is to water on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and weekends. We recommend this because it helps you avoid the rush hour of Monday, Wednesday, Fridays, so you are more likely to have better water pressure and it eases the pressure on our water distribution systems. Now, I know I just mentioned that we recommend actually start watering around June, but when should folks be thinking about setting their systems up and getting started with Smart Watering?
Lucas:
I'd say probably once. once we get done with winter, once we get into the spring months. You know, I've had situations where, you know, just this last spring where people thought that, their, their irrigation system or their sprinkler system had been off for the winter. But once things thawed out, we found that they were never shut off and there were leaks. So certainly once it once the real cold weather passes, then that's really going to be the time to start looking at it, getting ready.
McKenzie:
Yeah, I think that is a great way to put it. It's just making sure that you have your system ready to go so that when the heat does hit, you're ready. Online, we do have tutorials for how to set up sprinklers systems. You can look at those by visiting waterone.org/smart watering. I also wanted to mention that I will be giving several links throughout the episode. They will all be listed in our description so you can access them there as well. Okay, now that we've kind of talked about when we should be setting up our sprinkler systems, how often would you recommend that we check our systems throughout the summer?
Lucas:
You know, that's really something that once if they're if they're checking their usage online through our customer portal to see their usage, as long as they're comfortable with what they're seeing and there's nothing out of whack there, then, you know, maybe just something they can do monthly or so. But, if they're for some reason and that's in something else I just had recently, people don't realize that their sprinklers are set to run, but with this new technology, we can see that. Yes. You know, six, eight in, during the 6 a.m. hour or whatever, that there's a spike in usage. I've had a couple of those recently. so that's that's nice to have that, that kind of data. So they can certainly check it. But yeah, it's once it, once they have it dialed in maybe. Yeah, maybe just monthly to confirm that it's, it's where they want it to be.
McKenzie:
Absolutely. That's super interesting I love that we're able to offer that for them. And once you kind of get into that routine, it really is self-sustaining. And you can just kind of check in on it every once in a while. I know that a lot of people have companies that come out to set up their sprinkler systems for them. So oftentimes when these people come out, they set their sprinkler systems to water on certain times, which may inadvertently lead to situations like that. but you can ask them to set their sprinkler system to specific days, right?
Lucas:
Absolutely. Yeah.
McKenzie:
Awesome. So that might be a good tip for people when you have your lawn care company come out and set up your sprinkler system, say, hey, I just want to make sure that we're watering on these days and they should be able to set those for you, and you can get that handled right there. Now, we do typically see a spike in water usage during the summer. I was wondering about how much water do those sprinkler systems typically use?
Lucas:
Typically would see 12 to 30 gallons per minute.
McKenzie:
Yeah. And that is per sprinkler zone, which the typical Johnson County home has around 5 to 7 zones. So we are looking at around 12 to 30 gallons per minute times that 5 or 7 or so, which can definitely add up. We do have some tutorials on our Smart Watering page. Again, I have all of the links below in for you in the description, and these videos go super deep into the math of having a sprinkler and what goes into it. They break it down really nicely, so you should check that out if you're curious. Certainly.
Lucas:
Yeah. I mean there's some some systems that could be set to run more than once per day. And you know, when you start adding that up, over the day, you can add up quick.
McKenzie:
Yeah. So how can customers keep track of their water usage? I know you mentioned a little bit earlier.
Lucas:
So on our website, they're able to go in and look at their consumption and check for previous day. And they can see the by hour. They can see their usage. so it's very, very helpful. Yes.
McKenzie:
I believe that's with our connect portal. You can go in and see the Connect View usage details feature, where you can get a detailed look at your water usage data, learn more about your water usage patterns and see how changes in your household impact your water bill. For example, how much watering in the summer is actually costing you and you can also spot leaks before they start adding up. For those who may not know, connect is an online consumption dashboard where customers can view their usage down to the hour. It is great because it allows users to really customize their experience, giving you up to date information and tools to track and manage your personal water usage, which is thanks to our new Advanced Metering Infrastructure technology, also called AMI. Lucas, can you talk a little bit more about AMI?
Lucas:
Sure. So each of the meters in our district plug in to a device, called Smart Point. that is the infrastructure for AMI, and, you know, with that, with that device, it it wakes up every four hours or so and sends the data. So it's just sending the readings on the water meter. It's just it's all it is. There's no personal information. It's just it just numbers and it's it's updated about every four hours. so you can see online like, like we were saying, you know, previous day's usage. Now internally that's something we can see. Not real time. But like in the mornings when we get our tickets and we get ready for the day, we can see it. It's not it's not going to always be, you know, say I'm in the office at seven. It's not going to always be updated right till seven. But sometimes I'll have information if I'm going to go somewhere I may have data up through 5 or 6 a.m. for a property. but yeah, that's one of the things my team does as well is we install those for the new properties, the new homes in the county as well. So when the house is getting built, we go out and install those devices and plug them in and get them synced up and ready to go before everything gets turned on.
McKenzie:
Yeah, that is just a super great addition to all of our features that we offer. And one of my favorite features that we've been kind of talking about already is usage alerts. you keep track of how much water you’re using, and you even get notified if you pass a certain threshold, which you can set based off of your own preferences. Setting up usage alerts are super easy, and you can even customize how you receive the notifications. For example, you could receive them through text or if you prefer, you can receive them through emails. You also can set the period that you want the alerts to be effective for. So, for example, maybe I want to set my threshold to 6000 gallons of water and the time period I want to set it up for if I have the option of daily, weekly, monthly, let's go for the week. So we can account for watering during hot months. That way, if I use more than I anticipate, aka that 6000 gallons that I put in there, I get a notification immediately. This helps in so many ways. It can help you keep track of how much you're really using. It can help you show, hey, I used a lot less and it can show you okay, I'm using X amount of gallons more in the summer than the winter. It's also just good data to see. I know some people who set their threshold to zero, and then they get notifications every day or every week, whichever time period they want to set it for. They get notifications on how much water they used for folks who might want to keep a close eye on it. This system can also help you detect leaks, which definitely comes in handy. For example, if you're typically using, I don't know, a couple hundred gallons a day, and then one day it's like double that. That can let you know, hey, I have something going on in my system. Maybe I need to call. Get someone out here, help me figure it out. To learn more about this, visit waterone.org/usageandservices. We have a ton of helpful information on there to help you get started, including several video tutorials that go even more in depth. Speaking of water leaks, your team goes out and helps investigate water leaks at customers houses. What are the main causes of water leaks?
Lucas:
So the main causes that we see throughout the year are issues with toilets. Those are they're out there. You're going to be number one probably. And then when the sprinkler systems are on, those are their big as well. So we get a report every day. we look at that and we're able to go in like I was mentioning earlier and see if that issue is still happening. See if there's still hourly usage on the meter. but those are the two big ones. So I've seen, you know, anywhere from just a few gallons an hour with a toilet that's running up to literally 100, 203 hundred just from a toilet.
McKenzie:
Wow.
Lucas:
Per hour. So but yeah, those two are neck and neck this time of year in the summer, we're seeing a lot of, you know, a lot of leaks with irrigation systems. but yeah, throughout the year, also toilets, you know, we have a handful throughout the year of other things. it's it's rare, but they'll be occasionally we'll have, a faulty humidify, a humidifier on a furnace, more of a winter deal. I've had a handful of water softener issues. and then again, really, it's going to be one of those. One of those two, it's most likely a toilet or irrigation system.
McKenzie:
Interesting. So when you get a call, someone calls in and says, hey, I think I have a leak. What does that investigation look like for you when you go out to the customer's home?
Lucas:
So the first thing I do when I go out, if we've received the call from from a customer, we go out and check the meter pit and the meter itself to make sure that there's nothing happening in the meter. It's a long shot that the connection in the meter could be, could be bad. And so water is going through the meter and causing it to register on the meter. It's a long shot. I did have one a few weeks ago, which I hadn't had in a long time. And it was it was one where there was a leak on the on the outlet side. So meaning the water had was going through the meter registering and it was our issue. So I was able to resolve that. so that's the first thing is really to get get out, open the meter pit, take a look and, you know, watch the meter, make sure that there's no, you know, water in the pit, no noise in the pit. Those could be indications of issues, down in the pit itself, which may be something that we'll have to investigate further. But really it starts out with just, you know, checking the meter in the pit itself and making and confirming that, yes, in fact, there is water flowing through the meter. at that point, hopefully the customers there. If not, then I'll call them, I'll try and make contact, but after checking it, then I'll, I'll talk to them and we'll go from there trying to try to track it down and see what the issue is.
McKenzie:
Yeah. On occasion, in the case of an extreme leak. And when I say extreme, like we're talking big time leaks here, we may be able to catch that and give the customer heads up, which is great. And really with these tools of the customer portal and real time data, we've made an effort invested in putting the power into our customer's hands. So each household in each business can see and monitor their usage themselves, and they are able to catch those leaks both big and small, which is something we're incredibly proud of. So aside from some of the great tips we talked about earlier, such as watering on Tuesdays, Thursdays and weekends to help avoid the watering rush, giving you better pressure and watering at times like 10 a.m. What are some other tips that you have for folks when they're watering their lawns this summer?
Lucas:
I'd say really make sure that they're, you know, watering this their property, you know, have it set to where it's just really just staying at their properties off the sidewalks, you know, not watering during the hot part of the day. That's really going to, you know, cause a waste with the evaporation of the water, and overwatering. Those are the biggies.
McKenzie:
All right. Perfect. Thank you so much, Lucas, for joining us today. We greatly appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to sit down with us. It was such a joy to have you on the podcast. Thanks for having me. Just a reminder, you can access tutorials and extra information about smart watering by visiting waterone.org/smartwatering. Don't forget to follow us on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, and follow us on our social media channels. Please take a moment to share with your friends and family. We appreciate all the love and support we have received from starting this podcast. And on our next episode we will be talking about the water process. We will be looking into how we provide our Award-Winning water. What exactly those water towers you see are doing and discussing some common top water misconceptions. We can't wait to see you there. Thank you for listening and I'll see you next time on. Water You Talking About?