Category Archives: Property Owners
SITES and LEEDS
The ASLA began an initiative in 2006 to create “voluntary national guidelines and performance benchmarks for sustainable land design, construction and maintenance practices”. Calling the effort The Sustainable Sites Initiative (SITES), the ASLA and industry partners are now issuing guidelines. … Continue reading
Specifier Duties and Responsibilities
Johnson C Blake, publisher of The Specifying Engineer, wrote several years ago about a Supreme Court ruling regarding the responsibilities of sellers and specifiers during a purchasing event. The case started in the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts, Whitten Corp … Continue reading
Take It Outside: Trends in Landscape Lighting
Article from Residential Lighting magazine: (features Brooke Perin, Wolf Creek Company Lighting Specialist) Outdoor lighting experts and suppliers give us the yardstick against which today’s landscape lighting innovations are measured. The latest trends in landscape lighting take advantage of emerging … Continue reading
Efficient Irrigation: a LEED Guide
By Steve Lukasik, WC3 Design Team Leader Overview The latest version of the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED rating system – LEED 2009 – has left the credits available for landscape irrigation unchanged. As a result, there is still the … Continue reading
Solar- The Power of Confusion
Paul R. Gosselin, CLVLT, President of AOLP (AOLP LightLines Winter 2011 issue) As more and more of us get into LED lighting and advertise ourselves as green lighting experts, we field more and more questions about solar powered lighting. I … Continue reading
Deck & Step Lighting Trends
By Jeff Dross, Kichler Lighting Corporate Director, Education and Industry Trends While the economy continues to improve, the real estate market remains somewhat sluggish. For this reason, many people are electing to stay in their current home, but they will … Continue reading
Calculating Distribution Uniformity (DU)
The Irrigation Association settled on Lower Quarter Distribution Uniformity as the measurement for sprinkler performance many years ago. Easy, but time consuming, to measure and very simple to calculate. LQDU, or DU, provides an irrigation system manager a valuable tool … Continue reading
Calculating Motor Run Cost
Users often ask how much electrical cost they will experience operating a pump or aerator motor. Simple enough to determine using information found on the motor or manufacture’s literature and a bill from their electric company. The basic formula to … Continue reading
Hiring a Green Industry Contractor
Everybody likes the work a good contractor can do, but few like the process of finding a good contractor! And why would they? Hiring a contractor has an element of risk. Fortunately that risk can be greatly reduced if not … Continue reading
Goodbye Summer, Hello Fall!
Saying goodbye to summer is always difficult. The kids head back to school, the weather begins to turn cooler, but mostly it’s the plants’ signs that summer has ended, that’s the most difficult for gardeners. Clean up That Green! By … Continue reading
How To Explain Benefits of ET Controllers
You know ET based irrigation controllers can save money by reducing water usage. Does your customer get it? Probably not. And your customer is not interested in a 30 minute education about it either. So how can you explain the … Continue reading
Why Wire Splices Matter
Personal experience has taught me many times that a poorly made wire splice is a costly problem. Even well made splices can go bad which only highlights the need to do wire splices right the first time. Certainly you know … Continue reading
Cost Justification for an Irrigation System
Sometimes a homeowner will ask if it’s worth the investment to install an irrigation system. Well from our (very biased, but learned) opinion it definitely is in almost all cases. Here are some the reasons we think so; Water Savings: … Continue reading
Fish Suffer with Low Oxygen Levels
It is no secret that fish and other aquatic organisms require oxygen to survive and grow. Dissolved Oxygen is naturally added to water through diffusion at the surface and through oxygen producing processes like photosynthesis. Very often, these natural oxygen … Continue reading