Air Rotation System
Over the years of poultry house research,
studies have been conducted by major universities,
concerning the heat delivery systems and
the heated air stratification common in
poultry houses. Research has
shown that creating certain air movement
patterns within a poultry house will lead
to significantly reduced heating costs.
At AgSolutions, we have taken those research
results a step further.
As all poultry
growers know, the heated air will rise in
a poultry house. There can be a difference
of several degrees between the temperature
at the ceiling and the level of the birds.
The grower is burning fuel to heat from
the ceiling down is not cost effective.
The addition of "stir fans" of one type
or another has shown to significantly reduce
the costs for heating. Stir
fans are typically a paddle-type fan which
moves the air up from the floor, across
the ceiling, down the walls and back across
the floor. Heated air stratification
is then essentially eliminated.
More of the heat that the grower is paying
for is at the level of the birds.
Our air rotation system utilizes basically
the same air pattern along with other improvements
In most open
warehouses and factories built in recent
years, more consideration has been given
to the costs for heating and cooling the
facility. More and more building
designers are utilizing equipment commonly
referred to as "air rotation units" or "air
turnover units". This equipment
can be provided with either heating or cooling
capabilities or both. The equipment
often looks like a very large upflow residential
furnace, and works somewhat the same.
Air is pulled in at the bottom and blown
out of the top. The difference
is that true air rotation units move much
more air but at a lower air speed.
Because so much air is moved the air will
spread out evenly in the facility and the
temperature will be nearly the same anywhere
in the building, from top to bottom.
Because of the even temperatures the fuel
costs are much lower.
AgSolutions
Innovations
The AgSolutions
system borrows from the same operational
cycle as the described air rotation units.
Air is moved up towards the
ceiling, across the ceiling, down the walls
and across the floor to the house center,
then back up to the fan... similar to a
simple stir fan. The grower
will see an immediate reduction in his heating
fuel costs. We have added
another component to make our system even
more cost effective, a heating section.
The
heating section of our system is a hot
water coil. The coil is
attached to the discharge side of the
fan. When there is a demand
for heat heated water will flow through
the coil. The air moving
through the coil picks up that heat and
distributes it evenly throughout the
area of influence of that fan.
The grower has then eliminated air
stratification, condensation is "wicked"
away by the moving air, and the heat is
where the grower needs it.
Since our system is "pressure neutral",
it has no effect on any operation of the
fans or the pressure within the house.
It is only utilizing the air that is
already present.
Testing
over the years has shown that the removal
of any combustion process gases from the
house will greatly improve flock production.
Inside furnaces and "pancake"
brooders both produce harmful byproducts
of combustion which require additional ventilation
to remove those gases. Both
the inside furnaces and pancake brood heaters
simply allow their combustion gases to spread
within the house. The grower
then has to ventilate more to remove those
gases. Burning both LP gas and
natural gas produces moisture.
LP gas, the predominant fuel for poultry
growers, can produce over three gallons
of water for every gallon of fuel burned.
As poultry growers you know the issues with
excessive moisture within your houses.
The grower must ventilate more to eliminate
that additional moisture as well.
Since
our combustion process takes place outside
of the poultry house, there are no additional
issues like combustion gases, combustion
condensation moisture and additional ventilation.
A heating source is installed
outside the house and then piped to each
heating coil. The heating device
can be a
waste oil boiler fueled with
waste/used oils.
With our
system we encourage the grower to allow
the fans to operate at all times.
The heating is cycled by starting or stopping. Our system
also provides benefits when not utilizing
the heating section. As the
fans should operate continuously, the gases
from the normal respiration of the birds
are more quickly moved in to the air stream.
In the warm weather months, the moving air
actually increases the cooling effect for
the birds. The birds have a
tendency to stay more active during the
warmest parts of the day.
They eat more and drink more, thereby
increasing their weight.
Since our fans are of a "two-speed" type,
the fans can be switched to the "high" speed
for additional cooling benefits.
Since our system is pressure neutral, there
is no adverse effect on normal ventilation.
At AgSolutions,
we feel that our poultry house heating system
is by far the most cost effective, efficient
and useful heating system available to poultry
growers today. The pancake brooders
and hot air furnaces can work well.
But both have their drawbacks and the grower
is still dependent upon his fuel gas provider.
The new radiant system works well... but
they have serious issues that growers must
be made aware of. The shiny
cover shield MUST be kept clean or the heat
tube WILL burn out on its top.
With the top burned out the grower will
likely face serious damage to their house.
Some of these systems still vent their exhaust
gases in to the building. None
of these other mentioned systems has any
benefit except when heating.
We have
had growers ask about the possibility of
running cooled or somewhat cooled water
through the coils in the warmer months.
Some have suggested running the water
through the coils before it goes to the
water lines. Others have
suggested installing a loop from their
lakes to circulate cooled water through
the coils. All of these
ideas are possibly workable, but that
would be left up to the individual
grower to decide the merits.
At AgSolutions,
we are continuously testing our system to
take advantage of improvement opportunities.
We listen to the growers, to their assessments
and suggestions. For most poultry
growers to maintain their livelihood, alternative
heating solutions and systems should be
considered. AgSolutions has
the heating solutions expertise and industry
knowledge to assist you.
See also
"AG SOLUTIONS CLIENT
POULTRY FARM
LP GAS / WASTE OIL COMPARISON"
