Looking for suggestions for Solar Powered Heat Lamps

Humidity plays a big part...even with lots of ventilation, it's hard (impossible) to get rid of.
I think its darn near unavoidable, at least where I live, unless you have full on HVAC controlled coop.....
......or are willing to heat free flowing air, which I am not.

I've had several seemingly serious bouts with frostbite, big black patches on wattles and comb tips.
Never had anything more than a day or so of swelling, on only on the worst (drinking drips on the roosters),
I left my hands off it but a close eye on it and had no infection.

My big old white rock rooster got a crew cut the first winter in the coop....as others have said, unless you can forced air heat in your coop....it's almost unavoidable in some areas. This past winter I didn't even try to heat the coop and even used the screen door in milder weather....no frost bite on anyone...and they seemed to be more comfortable. So no heat, just good ventilation....not drafty.

rottlady said:

stumbled across this thread and have not yet read all the replies but wonder in the meantime- to save me time did anyone come up with a way to solar heat a small coop to save the combs on birds like Cream legbars in sub zero NH winters?

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There blunt truth is no practical way to heat a coop with solar short of spending $1000s... Yeah, you can do something like a 'green house' and if you were able to mediate the venting you could boost the heat during the daylight hours but that boost will diminish to nothing come night... There are other radiant heat collectors but again, it's only going to work past the daylight hours unless you spend a great deal, there is simply not enough hours of light during the winter to collect enough energy to provide 24 hours of heat without a huge investment...

I was thinking something with a battery that is charged via solar panel not something fully passive

rottlady said:

I was thinking something with a battery that is charged via solar panel not something fully passive

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As I said it's going to cost $1000s in solar panels to power even a small heater 24 hours a day in the limited winter hours...

NOT solar powered. Battery powered that the solar charges the battery BIG difference

ie solar powered electric fences are very limited BUT put the same fence on a big battery and have a solar panel that charges the battery and you get a fence with enough whallop to keep in a bull

rottlady said:

NOT solar powered. Battery powered that the solar charges the battery BIG difference

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No not a big difference, in fact no real difference, batteries are simply a holding system they do not 'create' any additional power over what the solar input creates originally... The available energy in the battery can not exceed the solar input it gets unless you charge it by another means...

If one was to get these http://www.harborfreight.com/45-watt-solar-panel-kit-10-pc-kit-68751.html that is a 45W solar panel, that means on the very best of very best days in perfect sun light, angled directly at the sun it might put out 45W of energy... Now there are additional losses along the way as well, you can probably subtract about another 20% in total losses between the 45W of potential energy taken in and the energy actually available to use after conversions...

Now as I said that is 45W/hour on the best of the best days and to optimize output it would require a tracker to move the panels and follow the sun (more cost)... But the reality is we don't get 'perfect' sunlight days and even if we do it's only for a few hours generally... If you look at a solar light calculator for your area you can estimate how many good daylight hour equivalents you get a day in your area http://www.solardirect.com/pv/systems/gts/gts-sizing-sun-hours.html ... I live just outside Chicago, so during the winter months my solar daylight equivalent is about 1.47 hours... That means I could expect the above solar panel to put out potentially 45 watts for a whopping 1.47 hours during the winter, that means after additional losses it might be able to power a 40W light bulb for about an hour each day, that isn't going to heat your coop... If I wanted to power a 250W heat bulb for 24 hours during the winter, I would need approximately 100 - 125 of those panels! Or about a $18,000 - $22,000 investment...

If solar was cheap and easy everyone would be doing it, there is a reason not everyone is doing it...

ie solar powered electric fences are very limited BUT put the same fence on a big battery and have a solar panel that charges the battery and you get a fence with enough whallop to keep in a bull

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World of difference...

Solar electric fences are very low wattage and they are generally pulsed... A good solar electric fence will only draw between 10 and 20 watts and have about a 100 microsecond pulse every second,to put that into perspective that means it's only really charging the wire for a grand total of 0.0864 seconds A DAY! They are designed to be efficient, heating devices are not...

You can go buy a 'stun gun' that runs off 2 AAA sized batteries and it will kick you to the ground and whallop a bull as well, doesn't mean those 2 AAA batteries are going to heat your coop...

FYI I'm an electronic design engineer by trade, pushing power numbers is what I do every day...