Chiller-Based Mushroom Plant
A central chiller plant pumping chilled water to an air-handling unit in each growing room. MushroomWale engineers it for multi-room shelf farms from 500 kg/day up, and prices it against DX and ammonia for the same site before recommending any of the three.
Is a chiller the right cooling for a mushroom farm?
A chiller-based (chilled-water) mushroom plant cools every growing room from one central plant through chilled water at 5–7°C. In MushroomWale's engineering study it has the lowest electricity per kilogram of mushroom at 500 kg/day (1.38 kWh/kg) and the second-lowest at 1,000, 2,000 and 5,000 kg/day, but a higher capital cost than DX rooms, so on capital plus ten years of electricity it wins at none of the four capacities studied. It fits multi-room shelf farms that want one machine room, no refrigerant in the rooms and no ammonia licensing.
Where a chilled-water plant fits
Many rooms, one plant
A chiller plant serves every shelf room from one machine room, so refrigerant piping never enters the growing rooms and adding a room means adding an air-handling unit, not another condensing unit.
Lowest electricity per kg at 500 kg/day
1.38 kWh per kilogram in the study, against 1.52 for DX and 1.79 for ammonia. Second-lowest at every larger capacity.
Stable coil temperature
Chilled water at 5–7°C gives a coil that holds humidity without the frosting and defrost swings of a DX evaporator running hard in a 42°C summer.
No licence trigger
A water-glycol loop carries no PESO pressure-vessel licence and no ammonia detection or emergency ventilation requirement in the machine room.
What the study found for chilled water
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.
At 5,000 kg/day the chilled-water design runs 45 rooms on 763 TR at ₹25.37 Cr capital and ₹23.81 Cr of electricity over ten years, against DX at ₹19.92 Cr and ₹24.85 Cr. The gap is capital, not energy — which is why the study flags its own shelf-room basis as the thing to measure next.
- 500 kg/day · 5 rooms · 1.38 kWh/kg (lowest) · ₹5.14 Cr over ten years*
- 1,000 kg/day · 9 rooms · 1.19 kWh/kg · ₹8.20 Cr over ten years*
- 2,000 kg/day · 18 rooms · 1.85 kWh/kg · ₹21.14 Cr over ten years*
- 5,000 kg/day · 45 rooms · 1.70 kWh/kg · ₹49.17 Cr over ten years*
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.
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 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.
What MushroomWale supplies in a chiller plant
Central plant
Air-cooled or evaporative-condensed screw or scroll chillers with N+1 where the room count justifies it, primary and secondary pumps, buffer tank, glycol dosing and a plant-room control panel.
Room air handling
One air-handling unit per shelf room with chilled-water coil, three-way control valve, fresh-air and recirculation dampers, humidification and CO₂-driven fresh-air control.
The rest of the plant
PPGL PUF shelf rooms, Phase-III composting and tunnels, cold store, power, civil guidance, DPR and training — the same turnkey scope as every MushroomWale project, priced from rate card v2.88.
Rooms below 500 kg/day are supplied as DX rooms with Daikin or Carrier condensing units — see climate-controlled rooms. Learn how a growing room's air is managed at MushroomFarming.in.
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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Why Choose MushroomWale
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.
Bank-Recognized DPRs
Bank-format DPRs prepared to NABARD, NHB and MIDH norms for loan and subsidy applications.
Price a chiller plant against DX and ammonia for your site
One quotation, three refrigeration options, the study's numbers behind each.