My story of finding and building the best heater

[Dim2000]

We have a plethora of wild birds and buy BOSS (black oil sunflower seeds) from TSC, Walmart, or a farmer, in 40# bags. We go through about 1 bag in two weeks.

No particular reason we wanted chickens other than they are cool walking around our yard. We have the most gorgeous moving yard ornaments!

I love it!

 

[Dim2000]

Chickens are very different than birds. I understand they are birds, but they are more so farm animals. They are extremely intelligent with different personalities, and their antics are hilarious. My husband wanted chickens for eggs and meat. After our chicks arrived, it took me about 5-seconds to inform him that the eggs will be nice, but not important; and we will never eat our chickens.

I have couple of cats, and find them very comforting. After spending some time with chickens, I find them comforting and calming . So you treat them like your pets, right?

 

[triciayoung]

I have couple of cats, and find them very comforting. After spending some time with chickens, I find them comforting and calming . So you treat them like your pets, right?

Yes. This is why having them outside in the extreme elements can be so stressful.

 

[Dim2000]

I have been noodling over this topic for quite some time. I hyper insulated my home and and made many habitats for my kids critters. Our first incubator was made from an old cooler. My coop fires and poor chick health lead me to follow the “mother heating pad” approach, even for raising 40 Cornish cross at a time. I’ve explored about every aspect of heating I can imagine.

I’ve learned a couple things about heat… mainly that we mostly think about air temperature when we think of heat but rarely do you hear people talk about how a warm object is actually radiating infra red/radiant heat, that can travel quite a distance through the air. The reason this is important is that a warm blooded animal radiates a lot of heat that can, relatively easily, be reflected back at it using foil coated poli iso insulation… that fancy stuff you see at Home Depot or lowes. Its value is not well reflected in the R-rating system, and is poorly understood by most consumers, being much more useful than people realize for creating creature comfort. I used it in my kids rooms and it’s so effective that after you sit in a spot for a bit it begins reflecting heat back at you (in rays of light you can’t see/far red infra red). I’ve since used it in making heated enclosures for reptiles.

What would I do for a dog house? I’d build the dog house from scratch out of 2x4’s, cut panels of poli iso about a half an inch smaller than the spaces between studs and use spray foam to seal the edges to the wood, I’d use the insulation with the reflective foil, pointing to the inside, using a thin laminate for the inside walls just enough to protect the insulation. On the curling I’d also use 2”+ reflective insulation and leave it unprotected to maximize the radiant heat reflection from the dog. Id consider creating what they can a thermal dam across the entrance, requiring the dog to walk up some steps to get inside, having the outside opening lower than the entrance… a little hard to explain, basically it’s a way to trap warm air, keep it from escaping, but still allowing in some fresh air. Make the dog house just large enough for the dog to be comfortable curled up… the less air space you have the more it will retain heat. Depending on the dog, that might be all you need to do. If that’s not enough I’d buy a large under tank heater, the kind that peels and sticks, have a 1/4” piece of glass cut to its size for thermal mass and attach the tank heater to it, and mount the heater/glass to the ceiling. If you want to get fancy with a thermostat, you can buy one of those thermostats for sprout tray heaters, that has a metal thermostat probe you can move around and test. I use a laser temp gun to fail things like this in.

There you go, that’s my hyper over thought way to keep a dog house heated economically through cold winter nights. Any other approach I’ve found to heating is wildly wasteful and expensive in terms of energy consumption. If you do it right the first time you’ll save a lot of money on electric bills over the long haul.

Thanks for details - I have build my dog's house with insulation and 2x2 insulated baseboards, however - there are times, I am not home and she is outside, and here in Calgary temps can drop down fast to -30 or so, so I must use additional heat source to kick in to ensure safe of the dog. As I mentioned - I couldn't find efficient, yet powerful and safe enough heater - thus all my journey of designing and building safe, monitored and powerful heater started

 

[Dim2000]

What does this coop look like.....got pics, inside and out?

Not yet - still in design - I build it from the existing tool shed - it is not insulated yet, however - I succeeded to raise the temperature there to about 0C, with my mock-up heater prototype, , having outside temperature of -25C.