Automating irrigation, pumps and solar energy on a finca in Mallorca

Automating irrigation, pumps and solar energy on a finca in Mallorca solves a problem familiar to anyone with land in the Pla, in the Serra or near the coast: the finca is far away, water is expensive and scarce, the power goes off at the worst possible moment and nobody wants to drive up every evening to check whether the pump has started. With Home Assistant and a handful of well-placed sensors, your finca tells you what is happening, waters when it should and makes use of the sun you already have on the roof. Everything runs locally, independent of any manufacturer's cloud.

Starting and stopping pumps from your phone, with protection

The first thing almost everyone asks for is to be able to switch the well or irrigation pond pump on and off without walking to the pump house. A small control unit is installed next to the pump's control panel, and from then on the pump appears on your phone as just another button.

What makes the difference is what surrounds that button:

• Dry-run protection: a level sensor in the well or a flow detector on the delivery pipe stops the pump if there is no water. A submersible pump running dry is ruined in minutes.
• Pressure control: a pressure transducer on the pipe allows the pump to start when pressure drops and stop when the setpoint is reached, and also raises an alert if the pressure spikes or falls suddenly (that is how a burst pipe is detected).
• Maximum run time: if the pump has been running longer than expected, it stops and alerts you. It is the simplest protection and the one that avoids the most grief.
• Logging: how many hours the pump has run each day, how many starts it has made and how much it has consumed. That data is stored on your own equipment.

All of this happens within the finca, in the pump house panel. The phone is for looking and for giving orders, but the protections act even when nobody is connected.

Sector irrigation based on soil moisture and the forecast

A conventional irrigation controller waters at seven in the morning on Tuesdays and Fridays, rain or shine. In Mallorca, with water restrictions that return every summer and wells whose levels drop in August, that no longer makes sense.

Irrigation is divided into sectors (the fruit trees, the vegetable garden, the garden by the house, the young olive trees) and each sector has its own rules:

• Soil moisture probes buried at root depth. If the soil is still damp, that sector does not water.
• Weather forecast: if rain is expected in the coming hours, watering is postponed and a rain gauge on the finca then checks whether it really rained.
• Time windows: watering at night or at dawn to lose less water to evaporation, and never during the windiest hours.
• Priorities: if the tank is low, the critical sectors water first and the lawn waits.
• Sequencing: sectors open one after another so that the pump always works at stable pressure.

The solenoid valves you already have are connected to the system from the irrigation shed. If a sector is far away, it is covered by radio, with no cables or Wi-Fi, over hundreds of metres.

Levels in tanks, cisterns and irrigation ponds

Knowing how much water you have is the basis for everything else. A level sensor is installed in each tank, cistern or irrigation pond: a submersible pressure sensor for irrigation ponds and deep cisterns, ultrasonic for closed tanks, or simple float switches for a minimum and maximum warning.

With that, the system knows at every moment:

• How much water is left in each tank, in litres and as a percentage.
• How much has been consumed today and this week.
• How fast it is emptying, to estimate how many days of irrigation remain.
• When to refill from the well, and to do so only when the level drops below a threshold and stop on reaching the maximum, without overflowing.

If you hire water tankers when the well cannot keep up, this information avoids ordering them late or ordering too many.

Using the solar surplus: pool, irrigation and Victron

Many fincas in Mallorca already have solar panels, often with batteries and a Victron, Fronius, SMA or similar inverter. Home Assistant connects to that equipment and sees in real time how much you produce, how much you consume, how much goes to the battery and how much is left over.

That surplus is the cheapest energy you will ever have, and it can be directed to the loads that are in no hurry:

• The pool filtration pump starts when there are spare kilowatts and stops when a large cloud comes over, until the day's filtering hours are complete.
• Refilling the tank from the well is done during daylight hours, rather than at night drawing on the battery.
• Irrigation of large sectors is scheduled for midday if the soil allows it, or limited at night to whatever remains in the battery.
• The electric water heater or the pool heat pump is activated on surplus.

With a Victron inverter the readings are taken locally, within the finca, without going through the manufacturer's portal. You see the battery's state of charge, voltage, temperature and history on your own screen, and you can create rules such as "if the battery drops below the threshold we set, stop everything non-essential and alert me".

Alerts by WhatsApp or Telegram, and what keeps working without internet

Measuring is of little use if nobody finds out. We configure alerts to WhatsApp or Telegram for what really matters:

• The pump has stopped due to dry running or abnormal pressure.
• The tank is below the minimum.
• The power has gone off at the finca (and when it came back).
• The battery is low or the inverter has reported a fault.
• Tonight's irrigation has completed, or could not be carried out.
• A daily summary with levels, pump hours and solar production.

On the equipment, in plain language: discreet sensors and control modules, a central unit in the house or the pump house, and radio where Wi-Fi does not reach. It carries a small backup battery to keep running through the usual power cuts, and everything is controlled from within the finca, independent of any manufacturer's cloud. Which specific components go where is decided during the technical visit; that is part of what we do for you.

Without internet, the finca keeps working: the pump protections, sector irrigation, tank refilling and solar surplus rules all run locally. The only things lost while there is no connection are access from outside and alerts to your phone, which are sent as soon as it returns. If the finca has no fibre, a low-power 4G or 5G router solves it.

Frequently asked questions

Can I keep the irrigation controller and the pump I already have?

In most cases, yes. The existing solenoid valves are connected to the new control system, and the pump is driven through its contactor without replacing it. During the technical visit we review the panel, the valves and the pipework and tell you what can be reused and what should be replaced.

What happens during power cuts?

The central unit has a small battery that keeps it on during the cut, so it records when the power went off and alerts you. When the power returns, the pumps and irrigation do not all start at once on their own: the system checks levels and pressure before resuming, to avoid dry starts after an outage.

How much does it cost to automate the irrigation and pumps on a finca?

It depends on the distance between the house, the well and the tanks, on the number of irrigation sectors and on what you already have installed. That is why we do not give a price without seeing the finca: we carry out a technical visit and give you a fixed price in writing before starting.

If you have a finca in Mallorca and want to stop driving up to check the pump, tell us how your irrigation, water and energy are set up and we will tell you what can be done. Request an assessment