An energy audit identified an opportunity to improve the air conditioning system for growing mushrooms, achieving annual electricity savings of $9,000 and demand saving of 23kW, which could potentially save around $400 per month in demand charges. Additional operating profits given increases in product volume are $442,000 per year. Emission savings have been estimated to be 34.3 t CO2-e per year.

The mushroom farm, located near Townsville in North Queensland, currently has twelve small growing rooms with a total growing shelf area of 960m2. The growing rooms have 6 cycles per year with each cycle taking mushrooms from spawn to full size and fresh for delivery to supermarkets. The farm’s main energy consumption is the air conditioning plant for environmental control. Lighting and machinery power demand is negligible and remain turned off for the majority of run hours.