01 Feb TainoLeaf reduces electricity consumption by over 30% using Farmio

Summary

An indoor farm requires different systems for irrigation, fertigation, lightings, and climate control. Each of these systems should be setup sensitively for optimum yield. Otherwise, owners of an indoor farm might have high operational costs and yield losses. 

The owners of TainoLeaf, a small-scale indoor farm company, suffer from high input and energy costs. This case study addresses the challenges our customer TainoLeaf faced and how Farmio’s automation system helped them overcome these challenges.

Challenge

TainoLeaf is a small-scale indoor farm company. TainoLeaf has timers for lighting and irrigation, HVAC equipment, and other necessary devices such as pH meters. Even if they know how important airflow is for an indoor farm, they don’t have automation on their farm. Thus, their ventilators and air conditioners run all day long, causing excessive electricity usage. They have to go set the timers for lighting and irrigation every day. They sometimes face yield loss because they are not always available to go to the facility to set the timers and always running HVAC equipment isn’t efficient. For nutrient dosing and fertilizing, they measure pH and EC levels once a day. According to the results, they add the required amount of acid-based regulators and nutrients to the irrigation tank manually. They spend too much time on everyday easy tasks. Their operation is very costly because of inefficient electricity and nutrient usage.

Solution

Farmio is a solution that automates a facility and enables the owner to monitor and control all factors that affect plant growth in an indoor farm. ForFarming team sent XYZ Farm the documents for easy setup. Farmio has connected to TainoLeaf’s existing timers, lights, HVAC equipment, and other sensors and integrated them in a single interface. Farmio continuously collects RH, ambient temperature, and other data from multiple points in their facility to get a complete picture of the climate. The automation system adjusts the ventilation, heating/cooling, and humidifier/dehumidifier to keep indoor conditions is at the desired level. Thus, ventilators and air conditioners only work when it is necessary. Farmio sets flexible schedules for each of their plantation units and automatically provides light and water to their crops at the right time and for the right duration. 

Farmio constantly measures the EC and pH to detect the amount of nutrients and the level of acidity in real-time. The automation system calculates and adds the amount of nutrients and acid solution required into the irrigation tank to fertigate TainoLeaf’s plants optimally.

Results

Since TainoLeaf started using Farmio, they have been able to monitor and control their farm remotely. They don’t have to go set timers for lighting and irrigation every day. They save the time and effort that they spent on easy tasks formerly. In addition, they increased their yield thanks to the automated AI of Farmio while saving electricity and fertilizer. Ventilators and air conditioners only work when it is necessary. Their total costs including electricity and nutrient costs have been reduced by 36 percent.