While the case studies are actual, the names and locations have been changed to protect the identity of the clients.
Background
Thakur farms is a climate-controlled hydroponic farm based in Jaipur. The temperature during the summer season reaches around 44 C to 47 C. They have installed a fan-and-pad system, fogging system, pad water chilling system, and multiple air circulation fans to control the temperature.
All these systems were being operated manually by the farm staff. Generally, they used to switch on all the cooling systems in the morning (when their shift started) and switch them off in the evening (when their shift ended). In addition, they used to intermittently operate the fogging system whenever they felt the temperature was high.
Problem Statement
How to reduce the electricity bill and minimise human errors?
1. The manual operation of climate control equipment led to high electricity bills, thereby impacting the farm's bottom line.
2. Misses in the manual process led to brief periods of extreme temperature, which led to bolting in a few sensitive crops.
Solution Approach
We implemented an IoT-enabled rule-based system to operate different equipment in sync.
The following were the key features:
- Clubbing of exhaust fans into two subsets.
- Operating exhaust fan subsets based on temperature threshold.
- Operation of cooling pad system based on temperature with time-based interval cut-off.
- Operation of chilling pad system linked to the temperature threshold.
- Operation of the fogging system linked to humidity and temperature threshold with time-based interval cut-off.
- Operation of air circulation fans linked to temperature with time-based interval cut-off.
- Operation of all the above sub-systems in a priority order governed through a rule engine.
Results Achieved
- Total units consumed during Aug, Sep, and Oct 2021 - 12,226.
- Total units consumed during Aug, Sep, and Oct 2022 - 7,450.