Pierr Hebting
Pierre Hebting of Happy Vineyards on Black Sage Road near Oliver thinks he is one of the luckiest guys in the Valley.
Pierre Hebting, who emigrated from the Alsace area of France in 1976, started farming in 1989. In 1993 he bought 25 acres near Oliver and in’97 he started his own vineyard – growing grapes, something that runs in his family. Now in 2012 he has set his target at four tons per acre. But that’s not the only reason he thinks he is lucky. Hebting has been working with FortisBC, and has found a way to grow better quality grapes, use less energy and save money in the process.
Pierre Hebting, who emigrated from the Alsace area of France in 1976, started farming in 1989. In 1993 he bought 25 acres near Oliver and in’97 he started his own vineyard – growing grapes, something that runs in his family. Now in 2012 he has set his target at four tons per acre. But that’s not the only reason he thinks he is lucky. Hebting has been working with FortisBC, and has found a way to grow better quality grapes, use less energy and save money in the process.
“I told them I wanted to stay off grid during peak times and irrigate in the evenings. FortisBC has a special rate for night power. It’s easy to do with a drip line and we have the computer turn on the system at night.” In March, FortisBC’s Barry Bryant came out and installed Hebting’s Time-of -Use meter.
Saving power isn’t the only reason Hebting has gone to night watering. He does it for the plants. “If you irrigate a grape vine in the daytime in the summer you automatically get diseases,” he explains. “The stoma of the plant reacts to heat and sunlight. When the stomata are open the carbon dioxide comes out. You put water on the leaf when they are open and disease gets in and you end up with powdery mildew. If you irrigate at night, the stomata are closed and you have very little problem with diseases. If we work with the natural cycle of the plant, we gain.”
When Hebting purchased his farm it had an old irrigation system, using five to seven gallons per minute. As that much water can leach the fertilizer out of the soil, he switched to a wind fighter sprinkler in 1999, which only takes 1.8 gallons per minute. Then he got some great advice from German Barahona of Nulton Irrigation. “He pointed out my pump was too big and had way too much power consumption. I went down to a 15 hp submersible eight-stage pump. It was amazing how I did all my irrigation in less time.”
Barahona also advised Hebting to put in drip line irrigation, a fairly major expense.
The total projected cost was $30,000. Hebting decided to do some of the work himself to cut costs. He laid conduit with electrical wiring with the pipe so he could eventually computerize his system. The Environmental Farm Plan helped him put in the drip line and in the end his total cost was $22,000 for 17 acres. A year later he was running the entire system on his computer.
His next step is to install moisture sensors in the soil so he doesn’t water unless he has to. “That is my number one priority,” he said. “After that we will get the variable frequency drive (VFD) for the pump.”
Hebting had PowerSense Energy Efficiency representative, Perry Feser, come out to discuss VFDs. “When you slow down the motor the energy used is drastically reduced,” explained Feser. “Most pumps are designed to pump a certain amount of water per minute. If you don’t need that much water, you benefit by attaching a variable frequency drive to your pump. In theory, if you reduced the pump volume by 20 per cent you could save 40 per cent on energy costs.”
For Hebting, all his hard work has paid off, having cut his electrical use in half since 2003. “I’ve saved about $10,000 over the past nine years so it paid for almost half of my drip line.” He’s also helping to protect the environment and, as he put it, “If we farmers don’t protect the environment who will?” ■
Energy savings are available through FortisBC for upgrading irrigation pumps and equipment with energy efficient features such as variable speed drives, energy efficient motors and digital control. The PowerSense program is connected to the B.C. Ministry of Agriculture’s Environmental Farm Plan. This is a no charge, confidential, voluntary process available to producers to identify both environmental strengths and potential risks on their farms. For a limited time, farmers will receive a rebate when they complete energy efficient upgrades to their irrigation pumps under the direction of a Certified Irrigation Planner.
