A small goat dairy runs a vacuum pump for the milking plant, often on a raised rotary or a parlour of a dozen or so places, a milk vat chiller, a hot water cylinder for the wash, kid rearing feeders that warm milk replacer, and lights. Because goat milk is often sold as specialty product or made into cheese on site, losing a vat is a bigger share of income. Kidding season adds heat lamps and feeders, at the same time spring weather is at its most unsettled.
The electrolyser runs overnight on off-peak power between milkings, filling a hydrogen buffer at 30 bar or less that keeps for weeks. During an outage, the LiFePO4 battery and UPS-mode inverter switch instantly, so the vacuum pump and vat controller do not reset. The fuel cell then carries the shed through the milking and keeps the vat cold afterwards.
How it works →
A small goat dairy's vacuum pump, vat chiller and kid feeders usually fit within 15 kW continuous. Larger goat operations with big rotaries, large vats and on-site processing may need a larger or multi-unit setup sized in the pilot. Round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, so the value is in protecting milkings and stock, not cutting daily power costs.
Possibly, if the combined load stays within 15 kW. Cheese vats with electric heating can be heavy. The pilot would log both the dairy and cheese room to see whether one unit covers them.
No. The switch is instant in UPS mode, so the vat chiller keeps cycling as normal and the milk stays in its cooling window. The vat controller also keeps its record, which is useful if anyone asks about the outage later.
That depends on how much is stored and what runs. The store keeps for weeks without losing charge, and runtime for your dairy would be calculated in the pilot from your actual loads.
Pilot installs go to people on this list first. Rural homes, farms and remote sites especially. No spam, no payment.