Mushroom Farm Dramatically Reduce Their Consumption of Fuel by choosing GalxC to Supply and Install Chillers
The Mushroom Farm uses a number of mushroom growing tunnels to produce large numbers of mushrooms.
The project commenced in September 2010 and finished in January 2011 (however monitoring was conducted prior to September 2010 and post installation in January 2011 to enable the client to gain the optimum results from their chiller).
GalxC had previously supplied and installed water chillers for the farm which provided chilled water cooling for the mushroom growing tunnels. The water chillers previously installed by GalxC were two 150kW water chillers.
The Client Wanted to Increase Production by 100%
The Client wanted to increase their mushroom production by 100%. They required additional chilled water for air handling units, which would produce the optimum conditions needed for mushrooms in the growing rooms.
GalxC used its chiller experience to understand the objectives of the client as well as recognising the importance of energy consumption. We understood the environmental conditions of the site, including the fact that each growing tunnel had an air handling unit with a hot and chilled water coil in it, to produce the right conditions for mushroom growing. This meant the GalxC team were able to offer the best advice to their Client about their additional cooling needed to increase their mushroom production.
The Project
The original project involved supplying a 350kW boiler to supplement the Client’s existing boiler, to give them a total heating capacity of 700kW. The original brief from the Client required a hot water supply of +80°C. However, the GalxC engineers conducted on site tests and found that between March and October the existing hot water system could be run at no more than +55°C and at +60°C during the colder months.
The Solution
We suggested an alternative to an additional boiler, the Multi-Function Unit. This is a four pipe total heat recovery unit, which provides a hot and chilled water circuit simultaneously. It was the perfect solution, supplying hot water at +55°C and chilled water at +5°C. Owing to the nature of mushroom growing, the Multi-Function unit was the ideal chiller unit, providing hot water from both the rejected heat and also independently of the chilled water circuit, so it was not reliant on heat recovery alone and therefore a more cost effective option. The boiler’s COP of 0.95 was not as advantageous to the client when compared to the Multi-Function’s COP of >8 when in Total Heat Recovery.
GalxC took a holistic approach to the site requirements so as well as supplying and installing a 350kW multi-function unit to support the extra production we also incorporated the already installed boiler to provide supplementary support during periods of low ambient temperature conditions.
The Result for the Client - Savings of £6,500 per month
Customer service is central to the GalxC ethos. Therefore, after the system was commissioned, we monitored the results, which showed that the Mushroom Farm reduced its consumption of boiler fuel from 3000 litres a week to only 10 litres a week. This is giving them a saving of approximately £6,500 per month on boiler running costs, in addition to the huge savings that were made on their capital outlay.
The whole project was a great success. Running costs for the growing room are now at an all-time low, which considering the current economic conditions, enables the Client to be much more competitive.
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