A typical extraction room runs a radial or tangential extractor, an uncapping machine or heated knife, a honey pump to the settling tank, and often a hot room to keep supers warm so the honey flows. Many sheds add a wax melter and a dehumidifier when moisture content is borderline. Most of these are moderate loads that run for long hours during the flow. A power cut does not just stop the spin, it lets the hot room cool, and getting it back up to temperature costs hours.
The electrolyser charges overnight on off-peak power, or from wind or micro-hydro on a remote site, and stores hydrogen at 30 bar or less. During the day, a fuel cell and battery carry the shed through any outage with an instant switch-over, so the extractor does not jerk to a stop with a full load spinning.
How it works →
Heat is the expensive part of a honey shed. Electric hot rooms and wax melters running off stored hydrogen are possible within 15 kW, but because round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, heating from hydrogen costs more energy than heating straight from the grid. The system is best used to keep the shed running through outages, not to replace your normal heating supply. If your hot room, melter and extractor all run hard at once, the pilot would check whether that fits in 15 kW.
No. The hybrid inverter runs in UPS mode, so the switch-over is instant and controllers on the extractor and pumps do not see a gap. That is the main reason it is designed with a battery as well as the fuel cell.
It is designed to AS/NZS 60079 and ISO 19880, with redundant leak sensors, automatic shutdown and venting. It would normally sit outside the extraction room itself, the same as any switchboard equipment you keep away from sticky work.
Yes, if you pair it with a wind turbine or micro-hydro to make the hydrogen. Without either, it needs grid power to charge. A remote honey house is a good test of the pilot sizing.
Pilot installs go to people on this list first. Rural homes, farms and remote sites especially. No spam, no payment.