IAPMO R&T First to Certify Weather‐Based Irrigation Controllers to U.S. EPA WaterSense® Specification

Ontario, Calif. — IAPMO R&T, North America’s premier third-party certification body for plumbing and mechanical products, has completed WaterSense® certification of Encino, Calif.,‐based Cyber Rain’s line of weather‐based commercial and residential irrigation controllers, making IAPMO R&T the first third‐party certification body to certify such a product as meeting this latest WaterSense efficiency specification. Cyber Rain is the first manufacturer to obtain WaterSense certification for such products since the U.S. EPA added them to the program.

Weather‐based irrigation controllers use local weather data to tailor irrigation schedules to actual site conditions. Last November, IAPMO R&T received approval to begin certifying these products to the U.S. EPA’s final specification for the WaterSense consumer product‐labeling program, the first outdoor product category eligible to earn the WaterSense label.

IAPMO R&T provides independent certification to prospective WaterSense‐labeled models that meet EPA’s water-efficiency and performance criteria, “ensuring that they are able to meet the water needs of the plants without overwatering,” according to the EPA.

Cyber Rain’s “sprinkler controllers with a brain” use the Internet to check local weather and automatically adjust run times for a property’s outdoor irrigation system. A recent partnership with Weather Underground now provides Cyber Rain with the most accurate weather data available. Users can save up to 40 percent on their water bills and the system can often pay for itself in 1‐2 years, according to Cyber Rain.

“We’re happy to have worked with IAPMO R&T to achieve our EPA WaterSense partner certification,” said James Krug, Cyber Rain CEO. “The process was clear and efficient, and the people with whom we worked are real pros.”

IAPMO R&T has been a licensed provider of WaterSense certification since 2007, certifying the first high‐efficiency toilet (HET) to the standard in April of that year. To date, IAPMO R&T has certified thousands of lavatory faucet, toilet, urinal and showerhead models to the WaterSense specifications. Products bearing the WaterSense label must not only save water, but also perform as well or better than conventional models on the market.

Manufacturers wishing to have their irrigation controllers identified as complying with the WaterSense specification must have them certified as such by a qualified third‐party certification body such as IAPMO R&T, which is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a provider of certification services to WaterSense specifications.

For more information on having products listed, contact Brenda Madonna (brenda.madonna@iapmort.org) at (877) 4‐UPC‐MARK, or for more information on the WaterSense® Specification for Weather‐Based Irrigation Controllers, visit www.epa.gov/watersense/products/controltech.html.