DX vs Chiller vs Ammonia for a Mushroom Plant
Three refrigeration typologies, four capacities, twelve complete plant designs priced from one rate card. The numbers below are MushroomWale's own engineering study, published with the gaps it records — not a brochure.
Which refrigeration is best for a mushroom farm?
It depends on capacity, and the study says so with numbers. On capital cost plus ten years of electricity, DX rooms (Daikin or Carrier condensing units, bag racks) are lowest at 500 and 1,000 kg/day by 16–20%. At 2,000 kg/day DX and ammonia are 0.44% apart — a tie the tender decides. At 5,000 kg/day ammonia is lowest, ₹41.96 Cr against ₹44.77 Cr, subject to two unpriced handling items. Chilled water wins the total at no capacity but has the lowest electricity per kilogram at 500 kg/day and the second-lowest elsewhere.
The three typologies
Each drawing traces the cooling path the study priced: where the refrigerant is, and what reaches the growing room.
- DX
DX (direct expansion)
Daikin or Carrier condensing unit and ductable evaporator per room, bag racks
Calibrated 1.10 kW per TR.
Read the DX page - Chiller
Chilled water (chiller)
Central chiller plant, chilled water to an air-handling unit in each shelf room
Calibrated 0.95 kW per TR.
Read the Chiller page - Ammonia
Ammonia (NH₃)
Ammonia plant in a machine room, secondary coolant to the shelf rooms; no ammonia in the growing rooms
Calibrated 0.85 kW per TR.
Read the Ammonia page
What the study says at each capacity
The study ranks each design on one number: capital cost plus ten years of electricity at ₹8 per kWh. It does not model labour, compost, maintenance, revenue, payback or IRR.
- DX (direct expansion)
- Inside the band — not decisive
- Ammonia (NH₃)
- 500 kg/dayLowest ten-year totalDX (direct expansion)₹4.29 Cr+19.8% vs Chilled water (chiller)Lowest electricity per kg: Chilled water (chiller) · 1.38 kWh/kg
- 1,000 kg/dayLowest ten-year totalDX (direct expansion)₹7.04 Cr+16.5% vs Chilled water (chiller)Lowest electricity per kg: Ammonia (NH₃) · 1.17 kWh/kg
- 2,000 kg/daySwitch-overInside the band — not decisiveDX (direct expansion)₹19.17 Cr0.44% vs Ammonia (NH₃)Lowest electricity per kg: Ammonia (NH₃) · 1.63 kWh/kg
- 5,000 kg/dayLowest ten-year totalAmmonia (NH₃)₹41.96 Cr*+6.7% vs DX (direct expansion) — subject to two unpriced handling itemsLowest electricity per kg: Ammonia (NH₃) · 1.41 kWh/kg
- DX bag-rack rooms are the lowest capital-plus-electricity choice at 500 and 1,000 kg/day, by 16–20%.
- At 2,000 kg/day DX and ammonia are 0.44% apart — inside the ±12% band. The study does not call a winner there; the tender does.
- At 5,000 kg/day ammonia is lowest: ₹41.96 crore against DX's ₹44.77 crore over ten years, with the lowest electricity per kilogram (1.41 kWh), the fewest rooms (19 against 55), the least land (16.5 against 21.1 acres) and the smallest crew (98 against 169) — subject to two handling items the total excludes.
- Chilled water wins the ten-year total at none of the four capacities, but it has the lowest electricity per kilogram at 500 kg/day (1.38 kWh) and the second-lowest at every other capacity, and the study records its own chilled-water result as unreconciled.
All twelve designs, one metric
Capital cost plus ten years of electricity at ₹8 per kWh. Rate card v2.88 (1 September 2026); run 20 September 2026. Every priced total carries a ±12% band.
| Capacity | Refrigeration | Rooms | TR installed | kWh / kg | Capex | 10-yr electricity | 10-yr total | Acres | Crew |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 500 kg/day | DX (direct expansion) lowest | 6 | 74 | 1.52 | ₹2.16 Cr | ₹2.13 Cr | ₹4.29 Cr | 1.5 | 18 |
| Chilled water (chiller) | 5 | 202 | 1.38 | ₹3.20 Cr | ₹1.94 Cr | ₹5.14 Cr* | 2.0 | 14 | |
| Ammonia (NH₃) | 4 | 140 | 1.79 | ₹4.07 Cr | ₹2.50 Cr | ₹6.57 Cr* | 2.2 | 11 | |
| 1,000 kg/day | DX (direct expansion) lowest | 11 | 135 | 1.23 | ₹3.60 Cr | ₹3.45 Cr | ₹7.04 Cr | 2.7 | 34 |
| Chilled water (chiller) | 9 | 203 | 1.19 | ₹4.87 Cr | ₹3.34 Cr | ₹8.20 Cr* | 3.6 | 26 | |
| Ammonia (NH₃) | 5 | 170 | 1.17 | ₹5.00 Cr | ₹3.28 Cr | ₹8.28 Cr* | 2.8 | 21 | |
| 2,000 kg/day | DX (direct expansion) Inside the band — not decisive | 22 | 329 | 1.93 | ₹8.35 Cr | ₹10.81 Cr | ₹19.17 Cr | 8.4 | 68 |
| Chilled water (chiller) | 18 | 406 | 1.85 | ₹10.78 Cr | ₹10.37 Cr | ₹21.14 Cr* | 11.3 | 50 | |
| Ammonia (NH₃) | 8 | 420 | 1.63 | ₹10.14 Cr | ₹9.11 Cr | ₹19.25 Cr* | 6.9 | 40 | |
| 5,000 kg/day | DX (direct expansion) | 55 | 733 | 1.78 | ₹19.92 Cr | ₹24.85 Cr | ₹44.77 Cr | 21.1 | 169 |
| Chilled water (chiller) | 45 | 763 | 1.70 | ₹25.37 Cr | ₹23.81 Cr | ₹49.17 Cr* | 28.3 | 123 | |
| Ammonia (NH₃) lowest | 19 | 780 | 1.41 | ₹22.25 Cr | ₹19.70 Cr | ₹41.96 Cr* | 16.5 | 98 |
* The study calls a winner only when the margin is 5% or more. Chilled-water and ammonia totals exclude a mechanised handling line and picking trolleys, which have no citable Indian price yet; DX bag rooms carry neither.
How to read the table
The study ranks each design on one number: capital cost plus ten years of electricity at ₹8 per kWh. It does not model labour, compost, maintenance, revenue, payback or IRR.
Capex is every priced line in the plant — grow rooms with panels, racks, air units and fittings, the central plant room, automation, civil work at ₹3,200 per m², gallery, cold store, power, site development, the composting plant and its tunnel refrigeration — plus 9% soft costs and 18% GST. Land purchase, working capital, compost and spawn are not in it.
Ten-year electricity is the design-hour demand at a 0.42 annual load factor, 24 hours, 350 days, at ₹8 per kWh, times ten — no escalation and no discounting.
kWh per kg is the same electricity divided by the design's annual output. It is where chilled water and ammonia show their advantage; the ten-year total is where DX's lower capital shows.
An asterisk marks a total that excludes the two unpriced shelf-room handling items. DX bag rooms carry none.
Twelve complete plant designs, priced from one rate card.
What this study does not tell you
- The study ranks each design on one number: capital cost plus ten years of electricity at ₹8 per kWh. It does not model labour, compost, maintenance, revenue, payback or IRR.
- At 1,000 kg/day the ammonia design has 4 production rooms (5 with the buffer room), filled 11.25 days apart, so 3 days in every 45-day cycle fall where every room is between flushes: no harvest those days. That is a dispatch-continuity issue caused by the room count, not by the refrigerant.
- An ammonia receiver above 1,000 litres needs a PESO pressure-vessel licence: that applies at 2,000 and 5,000 kg/day, not at 500 or 1,000.
Open gaps the study records
- G-1
- Compost respiration heat in the growing room has no primary source; 150 W per tonne is provisional (band 100–300).
- G-7
- Per-TR plant capex uses the firm's allowances; Indian chiller and ammonia quotations are still to be obtained.
- G-8
- Calibrated kW/TR (DX 1.10, chilled water 0.95, ammonia 0.85) sits 2–3% below the figures the firm previously published.
- G-10
- The often-quoted 39% ammonia-over-R404A COP advantage was not verified and is not used anywhere on this site.
- G-12
- DX rooms use a measured 1.35 kW per bay; shelf rooms use a computed fan load. Chilled water sits within 5% of DX on kWh/kg at 5,000 kg/day (1.70 vs 1.78) — a shelf-room air unit still has to be measured.
- G-15
- The yard allowance cannot hold the condenser footprints drawn for chilled water at 500–2,000 kg/day and ammonia at 500–1,000 kg/day; land and capex may move with vendor drawings.
Frequently asked questions
It depends on capacity. On capital cost plus ten years of electricity, DX rooms are lowest at 500 and 1,000 kg/day by 16–20%; at 2,000 kg/day DX and ammonia are 0.44% apart and the tender decides; at 5,000 kg/day ammonia is lowest, subject to two unpriced handling items. Chilled water wins the total at no capacity but has the lowest electricity per kilogram at 500 kg/day and the second-lowest elsewhere.
A DX (direct-expansion) room has its own condensing unit outside and an evaporator inside; the refrigerant itself cools the room air. A chilled-water room has an air-handling unit with a water coil, fed from a central chiller. DX gives room-by-room independence at lower capital; chilled water gives one plant room, no refrigerant in the rooms and 3–9% less electricity per kilogram.
In the study, at a 0.42 load factor and 350 operating days: DX 1.52, 1.23, 1.93 and 1.78 kWh/kg at 500, 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 kg/day; chilled water 1.38, 1.19, 1.85 and 1.70; ammonia 1.79, 1.17, 1.63 and 1.41. The figures depend on room count and design, which is why they are not monotonic with capacity.
One number: capital cost plus ten years of electricity at ₹8 per kWh, with no escalation and no discounting. Labour, compost, maintenance, revenue, payback and IRR are not modelled. A winner is only called when the margin is 5% or more, because every priced total carries a ±12% band.
It is not the lowest ten-year total at any of the four capacities, because its higher capital outweighs its electricity saving over ten years. But the study records its own chilled-water figure as unreconciled — DX rooms use a measured bay load, shelf rooms a computed one — and chilled water is within 5% of DX on kWh/kg at 5,000 kg/day. It is a candidate, not a loser.
MushroomWale's own engineering set, 'Mushroom Project (DX, Chiller and Ammonia)', run on 20 September 2026: twelve complete plant designs priced from rate card v2.88, with every figure traced to its source and a snapshot gate that fails if any of them drifts. The study's fifteen open gaps are listed on this page.
Yes. Ask for the refrigeration comparison in your quotation and the same plant is priced as DX, chilled water and ammonia, with the study's numbers beside each and the tender items marked.
Why Choose MushroomWale
- 01
Engineering Expertise
Agrimotion Engineering Private Limited is a registered EPC company (CIN U43900UP2023PTC185328, GSTIN 09AAZCA0158R1ZP) based in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh.
- 02
Proven Track Record
Turnkey mushroom projects from a 2-room starter to a 20-room commercial farm.
- 03
Bank-Recognized DPRs
Bank-format DPRs prepared to NABARD, NHB and MIDH norms for loan and subsidy applications.
Get all three priced for your capacity
MushroomWale quotes DX, chilled water and ammonia for the same site and shows the study's numbers beside each.
- Turnkey farms built
- Pan-India delivery
- Bank-ready DPR