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Summary

A new excel spreadsheet has been developed to help broiler producers, equipment salesmen, and poultry company employees to accurately predict air speed in a tunnel-ventilated house. Over the past five months the spreadsheet and an accompanying descriptive newsletter has been distributed via the Poultry Housing Tips email distribution list. Another 1,210 people have viewed the newsletter pertaining to the spreadsheet on line and approximately 1,500 people have downloaded the spreadsheet from our website. The spreadsheet is presently being used by at least one major fan manufacturer to help accurately design tunnel-ventilated poultry houses. When utilize in the design process, it is estimated the spreadsheet can reduce poultry house electrical costs by 10 to 20% which could save the typical poultry grower thousands of dollars a year. Furthermore, by assuring the ventilation system is properly designed to achieve the desired level of air speed and therefore bird cooling producers should be more profitable during hot weather flocks.

Situation

Airspeed is the primary and most effective method of cooling poultry in hot weather. The challenge is that it is fairly difficult to predict the air speed in a tunnel house. Poultry producers and ventilation system designers chronically underestimate the static pressure that tunnel fans are actually working under during hot weather which results in lower than expect air speeds and reduced bird cooling. Furthermore, since it is difficult to predict the actual static pressures the fans are operating against producers are often select inappropriate fans which can result in higher than expected operating costs. What is needed is tool to provide poultry producers with realistic estimates of static pressure and average house speed, in a tunnel house and to help ensure that they are designing their houses in such a way to maximize bird cooling while minimizing operating costs.

Response

A new excel spreadsheet has been developed to help broiler producers, equipment salesmen, and poultry company employees to accurately predict air speed in a tunnel-ventilated house. Over the last two years, thousands of air velocity and static pressure measurements have been made on dozens of tunnel-ventilated broiler houses across the southeast U.S. as part of an in-depth study (funded by U.S. Poultry and Egg Association) to determine what factors affect air speed and distribution. From this study, relationships between air velocity and static pressure along the length of a tunnel house were quantified (which along with tunnel fan performance data) allowed tunnel air velocity and static pressure for the first time to be accurately predicted. The spreadsheet can be used to answer a variety of questions about air speed and static pressure in a tunnel-ventilated house such as: How does evaporative cooling pad condition affect air speed? How tunnel fan selection affect the resulting air speed and resulting bird cooling? How does the condition of tunnel fans affect air speed? How does adding fans and not increasing pad area affect air speed? How does tunnel door/curtain size affect air speed? How does increasing pad area affect air speed?

Impact

Over the past five months the spreadsheet and an accompanying descriptive newsletter has been distributed via the Poultry Housing Tips email distribution list. Another 1,210 people have viewed the newsletter pertaining to the spreadsheet on line and approximately 1,500 people have downloaded the spreadsheet from our website. The spreadsheet is presently being used by at least one major fan manufacturer to help accurately design tunnel-ventilated poultry houses. When utilize in the design process, it is estimated the spreadsheet can reduce poultry house electrical costs by 10 to 20% which could save the typical poultry grower thousands of dollars a year. Furthermore, by assuring the ventilation system is properly designed to achieve the desired level of air speed and therefore bird cooling producers should be more profitable during hot weather flocks.

State Issue

Agricultural Profitability and Sustainability

Details

  • Year: 2012
  • Geographic Scope: National
  • County: Clarke
  • Program Areas:
    • Agriculture & Natural Resources

Author

  • Czarick, Michael

Collaborator(s)

CAES Collaborator(s)

  • Fairchild, Brian D.
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