I was asked to comment on an installation at a mushroom farm.

The system was a real mess of badly installed parts, home made fan coils, undersized liquid receiver and much more.

The client said that he has lost 2 compressors and by the looks of things, the will be more to come.

I started of nitpicking about every detail but then I thought, the actual design is WRONG!

There are 10 growing rooms, each with a fan-coil unit. Refrigerant control is by the Danfoss AKV-15 electronic expansion valve.

From what I can tell, the Danfoss Adap-Kool control is ideal for steady load refrigeration rooms.

But the growing cycle in a mushroom farm has dramatic load changes and I'm not sure how a solenoid type valve responds.

Could this be the reason that 2 compressors have failed? Liquid slugging back when the farmer changes the growing cycle.

Personally, I would have used a chiller with a primary/secondary circuit.

Is there a better way to control big load changes with direct refrigeration?