Intro to Lumo

Lumo is a precision irrigation system that gives growers 24/7 remote control of their irrigations, block-level visibility into applied water volumes, and real-time alerts and support when things don’t go to plan.

Lumo smart valves are different. They’ve been built from the ground up to give growers the control, visibility and accountability they need to deliver precise water volumes efficiently. They’re a better way to automate.

Lumo’s patented smart valves lie at the heart of the system. Each valve comes with a built-in flow meter and powerful onboard computer. The valves are also wireless, solar-powered, and cloud-connected, which makes them quick to install, simple to use, and easy to maintain.

You control your Lumo valves using our irrigation management system called the Ops Center. That’s where you’ll be able to schedule your irrigation cycles, see a record of all your irrigations block by block, and get access to our minute-by-minute Flow Vision charts, which allow you to monitor the performance of your irrigation system in real time.

Lumo was founded in 2022, after our cofounder Devon Wright searched far and wide for an automation and water management solution that would work well for his small orchard in Occidental, and was unable to find a modern system that provided him with accountability.

After speaking with more local growers, and even working as an irrigator for a short time, he came to understand that this problem was widespread. Almost every grower wants automation, but they also need accountability, affordability, and reliability–things that previous generations of solutions were simply unable to provide.

Lumo’s mission is to radically improve freshwater efficiency use in agriculture and to protect our food and water security for future generations. The precision irrigation system we’ve built around our smart valves is how we intend to do that.

Lumo is designed to make the lives of vineyard managers and irrigators easier. The goal is to help you get more done and be more effective. Save time. Avoid headaches and hassles. Get the right volumes on the right blocks at the right times.

Let’s talk about how we do that.

With Lumo, you can schedule your irrigations in advance. The valves will automatically open at whatever time you pick and they’ll close either after a set amount of time or after a certain volume of water has been delivered. This saves your irrigation team the trouble of turning valves by hand and saves a ton of driving time for your more remote ranches.

Lumo also saves your team from having to walk your lines looking for leaks. With a flow meter built directly into each valve, the Lumo system monitors your flow rates and will send you an alert if it detects a flow rate that’s way higher or way lower than normal.

This has helped growers catch things like broken lines, open air vents, clogged emitters, old worn out emitters, clogged filters, main line breaks, problems with pressure, and pump issues of various kinds.

Rather than worrying about the health and performance of your irrigation system, and wasting time looking for problems, the Lumo system will bring those problems to light and help you focus on what needs fixing.

Rather than using a spreadsheet or a pen and paper, you can do all your irrigation scheduling in the Ops Center, which is super straightforward to use.

But even better, you’ll then be able to see exactly how much water each of your irrigations delivered and whether you’re truly putting on the volumes you planned to.

Having easy access to this data allows you to dial in your irrigation precision over time, rather than accidentally underwatering, or overwatering just in case.

Having flow data for every block puts you in a better position.

It gives you peace of mind that your system is performing the way you expect and your vines are getting the water they need.

It allows you to prioritize your maintenance efforts, focusing on the blocks where performance has declined the most and spending time fixing only what’s broken.

It gives you more fine-tuned control over your irrigations, allowing you to irrigate based on exact volumes rather than rough durations.

And it gives you clearer visibility into how much water your irrigation system can actually put down in a set amount of time, and to make data-driven decisions about your infrastructure investments.

In the end, irrigation is one of the most important tools you have at your disposal for improving crop quality and yield. And yet, getting the right volumes on the right blocks at the right times can be incredibly time consuming and difficult.

Lumo is built to make it easier to reach your desired level of precision without wasting all your time turning valves, looking for leaks, and worrying about whether your system is performing as expected. It automates lots of the manual work. It catches leaks automatically. And it gives you the data you need to sleep well at night.

Thank you for being on this journey with us. Thank you for your trust. We do not take it lightly.