Most kiwifruit orchards with frost protection rely on a weather station or temperature probes in the canopy, an alarm that rings a phone, and a pump shed controller that starts sprinklers or signals a wind machine. These electronics draw almost nothing, but if they lose power the first you know of a frost is browned buds in the morning. Spring is also when orchards are busiest with budbreak sprays and canopy work, so nobody wants to be checking batteries in the alarm box.
The frost protection itself is usually beyond this system. Overhead sprinkler pumps run hard all night and wind machines are big engines or motors, both drawing far more than 15 kW. With round-trip efficiency of 30% or less, powering them from hydrogen does not make sense. A larger or multi-unit setup sized in the pilot might help in some smaller blocks, but for many orchards the honest answer is that frost machinery needs its own supply.
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Beyond the alarm and controllers, an orchard often has a packing shed, spray tank filling pump, workshop, and the family home on the same property. Those fit within 15 kW continuous, and keeping them on one backed-up supply covers the orchard's daily running through an outage. Hydrogen is made on off-peak power and stored at 30 bar or less for weeks, with an instant switch-over so controllers never reset.
Usually not. Frost sprinkler pumps draw well over 15 kW and run for hours. The controller and alarm can stay alive, but the pump needs a much larger supply or a multi-unit setup sized in a pilot.
Wind machines are far too large for this system. Many run on their own engines. The system can keep the alarm that triggers them working, which is the part most likely to fail quietly in an outage.
If the alarm and any modem or repeater are on the backed-up circuit, yes, as long as mobile coverage holds. The switch-over is instant, so the alarm does not reset or miss a reading.
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