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
DX (direct expansion)
Daikin or Carrier condensing unit and ductable evaporator per room, bag racks
Calibrated 1.10 kW per TR.
Read the DX pageChilled 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 pageAmmonia (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 pageWhat 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 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.
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 1.79) — 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
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Engineering Expertise
Agrimotion Engineering Private Limited is a registered EPC company (CIN U43900UP2023PTC185328, GSTIN 09AAZCA0158R1ZP) based in Firozabad, Uttar Pradesh.
Proven Track Record
Turnkey mushroom projects from 6-room starters to 30-room commercial facilities.
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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.