An effective automated control system for low temperature and high humidity mushroom house

AN EFFECTIVE AUTOMATED CONTROL SYSTEM FOR

LOW TEMPERATURE AND HIGH HUMIDITY

MUSHROOM HOUSE

Mohd Syahrin Amri

, Nurazreen Insyirah

, Mohd Farriz Md Basar

Amar Faiz

, Faizal Yaakob

, Mohamad

Haniff Harun

, Mohd Yuhazri Yaakob

and

Mohd Syukor Ahmad

1_{Fakulti Teknologi Kejuruteraan Elektrik dan Elektronik, Malaysia} 2

Fakulti Teknologi Kejuruteraan Mekanikal dan Pembuatan Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Hang Tuah Jaya, Durian Tunggal, Melaka, Malaysia

3

Sinar Syukrawie Enterprise Lot Jalan Gadek, Ampang Bt Gadek, Alor Gajah, Melaka, Malaysia E-Mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT

Low temperature, high humidity and good ventilation are the important components towards developing mushroom house and produce a healthy mushroom growth. For conventional mushroom house, exhaust fans and humidifier or also known as mist spray were normally used in the mushroom’s house and being manually switched on or off by users. The objectives of this project are to control the mushroom house temperature at below 30°C and humidity above 60% by developing an automated control system using Arduino Uno with solar system for power source. Researchers had designed an automated control system with additional custom cooling pad added to the existing exhaust fan and humidifier systems. This is to further reduce the mushroom house temperature and increase the humidity which the overall system will be monitored and controlled through mobile phone application. Data logger had been used to monitor daily performance and results showed from 12.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m the temperature and humidity had entered the critical condition oyster mushroom in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka whereby it reached high temperature (>30°C) and lower humidity percentage (<60%) and this may cause the mushroom dry and subduing the mushroom growth. The implementation of automated control system with combination of custom cooling pad, exhaust fan including humidifier had given significant lower mushroom house temperature and higher humidity level which control to ideal mushroom growth environment automatically. Results showed with automated control system the average temperature had been successfully reduced from max 38.7°C to min 29.4°C while the humidity average performance had been significantly increased from min 52.7% to 79.4%. The mushroom house had been successfully developed towards ideal mushroom growth condition with the assist of automated control system.

Keywords: control system, cooling pad, humidity, mushroom house, temperature.

1. INTRODUCTION

Mushroom industry had been growing every year in Malaysia [1], Indonesia [2] and Thailand [3] due to its demand. The attempt of venturing towards mushroom business became popular due to the uncritical weather for both regions. Mushroom cultivation requires attention especially on the control towards the temperature and humidity. A lots of activities had been done such as developing an automatic system or fuzzy logic system to control the temperature and humidity to achieve to a level that can act as a catalyst towards the mushroom growth [4].

Exhaust fan and humidifier / mist spray are the common combination system that been used in mushroom house in order to reduce the temperature and increase the humidity which suits to the mushroom natural growth. Before turning on the above tools it is important for the researcher to know the condition of the existing temperature and humidity behavior in Malaysia especially in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.

The aim of this research is to reduce mushroom house temperature to below 30°C and increase the humidity above 60% especially during the critical period from 12.00 p.m - 5.00 p.m in Melaka, Malaysia to promote

the mushroom towards its ideal growth environment for faster harvesting activities for entrepreneurs to experience.

2. METHODS

It is important to control the current temperature and humidity performance in order to ensure the oyster mushroom growing without any issue with any condition of weather in Melaka, Malaysia. The objectives of this paper is to control and monitor the mushroom house temperature at below 30°C and humidity above 60% by developing an automated control system using Arduino Uno with solar system as a power source. The overall control system consists of cooling pad, exhaust fan, humidifier, solar system, Arduino with combination of bluetooth, humidity and water sensor which could be referred to Figure-1 below.

3. MUSHROOM HOUSE

been recommended to his customer which produced a good ventilation towards the mushroom growth process. The wall of the mushroom house being wrapped by black netting which produced good ventilation as well.

Figure-1. Overall control system components.

The design of mushroom house could be referred to Figure-2 for reference. The mushroom house had been installed with 3 units of 12 inch exhaust fan at back, two humidifiers and submersible water pump with 6 meter maximum head which allocated in 20 gallon water tank for water storage purpose.

Figure-2. Mushroom House design.

The water pump then being link to the custom cooling pad with 1mm jute material thickness which allocated in front of the mushroom house for additional cooling effect and increasing humidity purpose. All the electrical appliances being connected to relay on a circuit which controlled by Arduino Uno. The Arduino being powered by solar battery with 12V and 268Ah capability.

The mobile phone applications then being developed to monitor the system performance by Bluetooth connection as per Figure-3 below.

Figure-3. Mobile phone application.

status of the fan, humidifier and submersible pump could be checked from the mobile phone whether it is ON or OFF.

Table-1. Control System operations.

Exhaust

Fans Humidifiers

Submersible Pump

Temperature

> 30°C ON ON ON

Temperature

< 30°C OFF OFF OFF Humidity >

60% OFF OFF OFF

Humidity <

60% ON ON ON

Water tank

level high ON ON ON

Water tank

level low ON ON OFF

The submersible pump will be protected by water sensor which allocated in the water tank and if there is no water the water pump will be turned off to avoid overheating and damaging the water pump itself.

4. CUSTOM COOLING PAD

Custom cooling pad are being designed to reduce mushroom house temperature and increase humidity. It has been added to the conventional system (exhaust fan and humidifier/mist spray) to increase humidity and reduce the mushroom house temperature as well. The material used was jute woven roving with thickness of 1mm. The size of the cooling pad designed around 5 feet x 5 feet being allocated at front side of the mushroom house. The water from the water tank will be pumped up to the roof to reduce the roof temperature and the water will be collected by the gutter which allocated at left and right of the end roof. The water then go through main pipe and move into the cooling pad. The water will go through the tiny hole and drip onto the top of jute woven roving material and then went to lower area and flow back into the water storage tank. The water then will be reuse back for pumping up to the roof again for cooling purpose. The details of the custom cooling pad could be referred to Figure-4 for reference. Jute being selected for custom cooling pad material due to its highest cooling efficiency [5] and this will be evaluated to monitor the performance.

Figure-4. Custom cooling pad allocation.

5. EXHAUST FAN

3 units of 12 inches exhaust fan had been installed in the mushroom house to evaluate its effect towards the temperature and humidity performance. The reason of installing the exhaust fan is to remove the hot air in the mushroom house and reduce the internal temperature. The installation of the exhaust fan could be referred to Figure-5 which allocated at the top backside area of the mushroom house.

Figure-5. Exhaust Fan.

6. HUMIDIFIER

2 units of humidifier being allocated on the mushroom house flooring which plan to increase the mushroom house humidity. The humidifier will release the mist in order to increase the mushroom house humidity. The humidifier being place at left and right flooring of the mushroom house and the humidifier design can be referred to Figure-6 as reference. The humidifier reacts to the pool of water and convert it to steam [6] which to increase the mushroom house humidity.

Custom Cooling

Figure-6. Humidifier

The custom cooling pad, exhaust fan and humidifier then being evaluated to understand the individual component and combination performance towards mushroom house temperature and humidity by using Design of Experiment (DOE) as stated in Table-2.

Table-2. DOE Run.

7. DATA LOGGER

Data logger being used to record both temperature and humidity performance with and without system implementation. Data logger being hung in the mushroom house and recording being done for 24 hours to understand the overall performance in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. Data logger had been set to record the data with the interval of 5 minutes only in hot and sunny condition to understand the worst case scenario on each run of experiments. If raining, the run will be cancelled and the experiment will be taken again. The data logger condition could be refer to Figure-7 for reference.

Figure-7. Data Logger.

8. RESULTS

The whole day result for temperature and humidity in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka had been recorded from the data logger for few days. The results are important in order to understand how the system should operate by minimizing the usage of the battery that being charged by the solar panel. The daily temperature and humidity monitoring results could be referred to the data logger results in Figure-8.

Figure-8. Humidity and temperature daily monitoring.

From the data logger results in Figure-8 showed that from 8.00 a.m to 9.00 a.m the humidity starts from 85% dropping to 73%. From 10.00 a,m to 11.00 a.m the humidity still dropping from 67% to 63% and from 12.00 p.m to 1.00 p.m the humidity continuous to drop from 59% to 54%. From 2.00 p.m to 3.00 p.m humidity start to rise from 55% to 56%. Then from 4.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m humidity rapidly increase back from 62% to 65%. After 5.00 p.m the humidity will rise up to maximum humidity 94% at 5.30 a.m and continue to drop again following to the cycle.

From Figure-8 then the temperature performance being monitored. From 8.00 a.m, the starting temperature hits 26°C and then rise to 30°C at 9.00 a.m. At 10.00 a.m

Exhaust Fan Humidifier Cooling Pad

Run 1 0 0 0

Run 2 0 0 1

Run 3 0 1 0

Run 4 1 0 0

Run 5 0 1 1

Run 6 1 0 1

Run 7 1 1 0

Run 8 1 1 1

to 11.00 a.m the temperature stabilize at 33°C region. At noon 12.00 p.m to 1.00 p.m the temperature start to rise from 34°C to 35°C. Then from 2.00 p.m to 3.00 p.m the temperature recorded at 35°C to maximum 37°C. From 4.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m the temperature starts to drop from 34°C to 35°C and after 5.00 p.m the temperature start to drop to minimum 26°C at 5.30 a,m. From overall results the humidity and temperature have an inverse effect towards each other. When temperature high, the humidity will become lower and vice versa.

According to the mushroom experts in Malaysia and Indonesia, the ideal environment for oyster mushroom harvesting environment are with condition temperature lower than 30°C and humidity with the range of 60-80% [2] [7]. From the daily monitoring results, the critical temperature and humidity observed falls in the range from time 12.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m. This data is important since the control system is using solar application for the power management. It is very crucial to ensure the system to turn on 24 hours thus the data will give estimation time for the system to be activate during the critical humidity and temperature which is in the range of 5 hours per day (in the range of 12.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m). However when the temperature indicating below 30°C and humidity above 60% the system will automatically stop to reduce the solar battery consumption.

Below in Figure-9 is the data collection for mushroom house temperature based on all runs during critical environment which is from 12.00 p.m to 5.00 p.m to understand the important electrical components to achieve lowest mushroom house temperature condition. The objective of this analysis is to understand which combination (exhaust fan, humidifier and customize cooling pad) will provide the lowest mushroom house temperature results

Figure-9. Mushroom house temperature monitoring.

Run 1 is a condition where the system is not being activate (all component set to OFF) and represent

the current temperature in Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka. Result showed when system not being activate, the temperature is consider critical for oyster mushroom growth whereby the temperature ranging from 33°C to 39°C which is way higher from target max 30°C. From all runs, results showed that only run 8 (exhaust fan, humidifier and custom cooling pad activated) data do not intersect with Run 1 (origin) and it has the lowest range temperature value compared to others. Run 1 and Run 8 data then being analyzed using T-Test in Table-3 for significant test results.

Table-3. T-Test results on Temperature performance.

From T-Test result we can conclude that turning ON exhaust fan, humidifier and custom cooling pad had significantly lowering the mushroom house average temperature from 35.7°C to 31.2°C. As for overall recorded by data logger, the system managed to bring down the mushroom house temperature from maximum 38.7°C to minimum 29.4°C. Further verification to see the effect of custom cooling pad towards the mushroom house can refer to Figure-10 and Figure-11 by using thermal imager. Using thermal imager, custom cooling pad showed that area with water flow can bring down the temperature from max 37°C to 27.5°C which combination of exhaust fan and humidifier had significantly reduced the average mushroom house temperature performance.

Figure-10. Dry cooling pad area showed temperature ~ 37°C. 29 31 33 35 37 39 12.00 p m 12.20 p m 12.40 p m 1.00 p m 1.20 p m 1.40 p m 2.00 p m 2.20 p m 2.40 p m 3.00 p m 3.20 p m 3.40 p m 4.00 p m 4.20 p m 4.40 p m 5.00 p m

Temperature Monitoring

Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4

Run 5 Run 6 Run 7 Run 8

Run 1

Run 8

Min

33.0

29.4

Average

35.7

31.2

Max

38.7

32.6

Figure-11. Wet cooling pad area showed temperature ~27.5°C.

The humidity performance then being collected and analyzed. The objective of this analysis is to identify which combination will provide the highest mushroom house humidity performance. The humidity performance then being monitored according to Figure-12. Results showed that humidity performance on Run 8 had much higher humidity from Run 1.

Figure-12. Mushroom house humidity monitoring.

Further T-Test had been done and results showed that Run 8 having significant higher humidity performance compared to Run 1 per Table-4. By implementing the automated control system the humidity had been increased in the average of 58% to 73.5% which is suitable for oyster mushroom growth. From overall results the humidity able to increase the humidity level from minimum 52.7% up to maximum 79.4%.

Table-4. T-Test on Humidity performance.

9. CONCLUSIONS

The additional custom cooling pad and the automated control system that had been implemented at mushroom house in these activities had significantly reduced the temperature and increased the humidity which act as catalyst towards oyster mushroom cultivation especially during dry season. With this approach will help to boost the mushroom growth and reduced the dried mushroom occurrence.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

This research has been carried out under short term grant # PJP/2018/FTK (3C)/S01593 and authors would like to thanks Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) for supporting and contributing towards this paper. Team also would like to thanks Sinar Syukrawie Enterprise for the technical expertise given towards mushroom cultivation information in this project.

REFERENCES

[1] I. Mat, M. R. M. Kassim, A. N. Harun and I. M. Yusoff. 2018. Environment control for smart mushroom house. in 2017 IEEE Conference on Open Systems, ICOS 2017.

[2] R. Y. Adhitya et al_{. 2017. Comparison methods of}

Fuzzy Logic Control and Feed Forward Neural Network in automatic operating temperature and humidity control system (Oyster Mushroom Farm House) using microcontroller. in 2016 International Symposium on Electronics and Smart Devices, ISESD 2016.

[3] T. Kaewwiset and P. Yodkhad. 2017. Automatic temperature and humidity control system by using Fuzzy Logic algorithm for mushroom nursery. in 2nd Joint International Conference on Digital Arts, Media and Technology 2017: Digital Economy for Sustainable Growth, ICDAMT 2017.

[4] X. Wang and Y. Liu. 2013. The Study of the Agricultural Product Storage Temperature and Humidity Control System. pp. 46-49.

[5] F. Al-sulaiman. 2002. Evaluation of the performance of local fibers in evaporative cooling. 43: 2267-2273. 27 37 47 57 67 77 87 12.00 p m 12.20 p m 12.40 p m 1.00 p m 1.20 p m 1.40 p m 2.00 p m 2.20 p m 2.40 p m 3.00 p m 3.20 p m 3.40 p m 4.00 p m 4.20 p m 4.40 p m 5.00 p m

Humidity Monitoring

Run 1 Run 2 Run 3 Run 4

Run 5 Run 6 Run 7 Run 8

Run 1

Run 8

Min

52.7

68.4

Average

58.0

73.5

Max

64.1

79.4

[6] A. S. Otálora, L. A. G. Trujillo and J. D. S. Losada. 2015. Design and Implementation of a Fuzzy Control System of Relative Humidity and Temperature for a Neonatal Intensive Care Incubator. 10(2): 847-853.

[7] G. M. Fuady et al_{. 2018. Extreme learning machine}