With the new development of mushrooms in Taiwan, the Agricultural Test Institute has developed an electric energy sensing system to monitor the electricity consumption of growing mushrooms.

The annual output value of mushrooms in Taiwan is more than NT $10 billion, but the cultivation of mushrooms, including Pleurotus eryngii and Flammulina velutipes, needs environmental control, which consumes a lot of electricity. In order to assist the mushroom industry to use electricity reasonably, the agricultural experiment has implemented the plan of "energy-saving evaluation and abnormal warning function of the electric energy sensing system in the mushroom cultivation field", and the actual application of mushroom cultivation will make it possible for commercial use in the future.

Take Pleurotus eryngii, Flammulina velutipes and other medium-temperature mushrooms commonly eaten by Chinese people as an example, the usual temperature has to be controlled at about 20 degrees and about 18 degrees when producing mushrooms, and the cost of electricity often accounts for 25% to 30% of the planting cost in the environment-controlled mushroom house.

Fang Yidan, chief secretary of the Agricultural examination Institute, says that in general, mushroom operators can only see the total electricity charges and kilowatt-hours over a period of time, such as Taiwan Power's bills, so it is not easy to estimate the cost, and they cannot fully grasp the electricity consumption of each planting room. Through the electric energy sensing system developed by the Agricultural Test Institute, it can actually measure the electricity needed by various mushroom cultivation banks, and mushroom farmers can solve problems in cultivation rooms with high power consumption, and the system can also provide warnings for situations such as power jump and reduce the loss of mushroom farmers.

Fang Yidan said that the plan is currently working with an apricot abalone mushroom farmer in Taichung. He uses an electric energy sensing system to measure that frequency conversion air conditioners can actually save at least 20% more energy than traditional air conditioners. Therefore, frequency conversion air conditioners are selected. It is also found that some cultivation rooms have air conditioning leakage or poor insulation. By solving these problems, electricity consumption can be reduced by about 20% to 30% a year. In the future, the Agricultural Test Institute also plans to cooperate with environment-controlled mushroom houses such as Flammulina velutipes and Hongxi mushrooms to obtain more data to facilitate the launch of a commercial sensing system.

The agricultural experimental institute implements the plan of "energy-saving evaluation and abnormal warning function of electric energy sensing system in mushroom cultivation field", and actually applies mushroom planting, which is likely to be commercial in the future.