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Home / Uses / Can hydrogen power a small farm cool store?

Small cool stores fit. Big ones need something bigger.

A cool store is one of the first things a grower worries about in an outage. Whether this system can carry yours comes down to the size of the refrigeration plant, so here is the honest version.

What a small cool store looks like

We mean a single coolroom on a farm or lifestyle block: an insulated panel room the size of a garage or smaller, one condensing unit outside, an evaporator fan inside, a door heater and a light. It might hold bins of fruit, boxes of vegetables, flowers, or meat from home kill. Loads like this sit comfortably inside 15 kW continuous, with the battery taking the compressor start surge.

What it would keep running

  • Condensing unit compressor
  • Evaporator fans
  • Door heater strip
  • Temperature logger and alarm

What a large cool store looks like

Commercial packhouse cool stores, controlled atmosphere rooms and multi-room facilities run large compressors, many evaporator fans, and sometimes ammonia plants. They draw much more than 15 kW and run around the clock in season. One unit is not the answer there. A larger or multi-unit setup sized during the pilot might cover part of it, and for some sites hydrogen is simply not the right fit. We say this plainly because a cool store that warms up is a costly mistake, and an oversold backup system would make it worse.

How it works →
The H2OME loop: an electrolyser splits water into hydrogen, the hydrogen is stored in a tank for weeks, a fuel cell turns it into electricity for your home, and the water returns to the loop.

How it works for a small room

Hydrogen is made overnight on off-peak power, or from wind or micro-hydro, and stored at 30 bar or less for weeks. When the grid fails, the inverter switches instantly and the fuel cell runs the compressor on and off as the thermostat calls. A well-insulated room with the door kept shut holds temperature well, which stretches the hydrogen further. Round-trip efficiency is 30% or less, so running a cool store from hydrogen every day costs more energy than the grid. It is for outages.

Questions

How do I know if my cool store is small enough?

Look at the compressor nameplate and count the evaporator fans, then add anything else on the same supply. Better still, a pilot would log the actual draw over a hot week. If the peak and running load fit inside 15 kW, one unit is realistic.

Can several units run a bigger cool store?

Possibly. A larger or multi-unit setup can be sized during the pilot. But for big controlled atmosphere stores or ammonia plants, the honest answer may be that this is not the right tool, and we will say so.

Does it keep the temperature logger running?

Yes. Loggers and alarms are tiny loads and the switch-over is instant, so the record stays unbroken. That matters if you need to show a buyer or auditor that product stayed cold through the outage.

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