Velvet harvested in season goes straight into a freezer and has to stay frozen until it leaves the farm. Alongside that, a deer shed runs lighting in the darkened pens that keep stags calm, electronic scales and EID readers, a hydraulic crush in some sheds, and a wash-down pump. Lose power during a velvetting day and you lose lights, weighing and refrigeration at once. A freezer that fails overnight might not be noticed until morning, by which time a season's harvest is at risk.
Hydrogen is made overnight on off-peak power and kept at 30 bar or less in a buffer that holds for weeks. When the grid drops, a LiFePO4 battery and 15 kW hybrid inverter take over instantly, and the fuel cell keeps the battery charged. The freezer compressor never sees a gap, and the shed stays dim and calm rather than suddenly pitch black. Freezers, lights, scales and a crush pump fit comfortably within 15 kW continuous.
How it works →
Deer are flighty, and a generator starting up beside the yards is exactly the noise you do not want. There is no engine in this system, so it runs quietly beside the shed. The trade-off is cost per unit of energy: round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, so it makes sense as backup for a shed and freezer, not as a cheaper everyday supply.
A freezer is a small cycling load, so stored hydrogen goes a long way. Exact hours depend on the size of the store and everything else running, and that is calculated in the pilot from your own loads.
The inverter and controller know the moment the grid drops. How alerts reach your phone, and whether there is mobile coverage at the shed, would be set up as part of a pilot install.
The system can be installed for cold sites, but water in the loop has to be protected from freezing. That is part of the site plan in the pilot, not something to leave to chance.
Pilot installs go to people on this list first. Rural homes, farms and remote sites especially. No spam, no payment.