Water filled milk jugs as insulation?

[Country Parson]

The milk jugs will be useless for your intended purpose. As another commenter noted, this isn't insulation but rather (in theory) a thermal ballast. But, it will only work as a thermal ballast if it comes in direct contact the outside light (and not through just one window or two). Some specially designed greenhouses use them. The light comes in through the greenhouse glass (or even plastic). The light can escape back out but the heat is trapped. As the room is heated, the water absorbs the room's heat. This heat is then slowly released back into the room during the night. For this to work, your building would need to be designed to be able to be self-heated in the day-light hours.

If you place jugs of water in a shed, they will simply freeze. If anything, it will just make your harder to heat. The chickens produce a heat of their own, and now their heat will be fighting against the (1) outside weather, and (2) inside temperature---which has just been made more constant (in a negative way) by the jugs of ice.

If you can get straw bales, they make the best insulation. The have an R-value of over 50, which is far higher than anything in the walls of a standard home. You can also use them in the Spring for your garden. If you want to keep them clean, throw a tarp over them (or the chickens will poop all over them).

You can also put the straw on the outside of the coop. Old time farmers used to line the outside of their homes with straw bales during the winter. I have straw inside my coop against two walls (where my prevailing winds come).

I would suggest, however, that insulation probably isn't needed. Last year I kept my girls in a metal shed (just one sheet of bare metal), and as you know sheet-metal has no insulation value. But, it is an effective wind block (which is more important, anyway).

 

[patandchickens]

I wouldn't think that filling the jugs with water would be helpful -- but have you considered filling the jugs with playing SAND instead? Earthen materials should insulate, I would think.

Nope. Sand (or dirt or anything else like that) is almost as bad as water -- pretty conductive (=NONinsulating) and its only real merit is as thermal ballast. The role of dirt in earth-bermed or underground houses is often misunderstood, but to the extent it plays any insulating role it is only when there are *many feet* thickness of it. Chiefly it is thermal mass and conducts heat up from underground where the temps are more stable.

If you want to make an insulated wall out of the jugs, honestly leaving them empty (lidded but full of air) is probably the most effective solution. However the wall would have to have NO AIR GAPS in order to be insulating one half of the building from the other (so just stacking 'em won't do much) AND there would need to be an inherent source of temperature differntial between the two halves for it to be worthwhile, just the chicken's body heat is not likely to make much difference.

But, it will only work as a thermal ballast if it comes in direct contact the outside light (and not through just one window or two)

No, they merely need to be in somewhere that gets warmth. It does not matter whether they are heated by direct sunlight falling on the jugs or by the warmth of air that has been heated by sunlight falling on *it* (or any other heat source).

While jugs of warm water will carry some warmth into the night, you would have to have a massive number of them to heat a shed-sized coop at ALL and there is no way you could be filling and carrying and stacking all those jugs *every night* as you'd have to if you're going to use the warm tapwater method. it is more useful for very tiny coops.

There are other things you can do with old milkjugs, like use them as little cloches for starting garden plants next year or for storing emergency water supplies... I would suggest they'd be more appropriate for something like that.

Pat​

 

[bonder]

But I kinda think - unless it is wicked cold ~ like 0'F

Ha ha! 0'F isn't wicked cold, at least not around here!

My chickens have survived temps of 10 to 15 below so far with no ill effects and NO heat.

Thank you all for the replies. Alas, I will find a better, more efficient use for my milk jugs. I'm bummed that it won't work but I appreciate the information. The chickens will be just fine in their current digs without the added insulation.

I like the idea of straw bales! We buy the chicken bedding in big bale shaped bags, so maybe I'll just stock up on those and put them along my tarped off wall. Certainly not the "free" insulation I was going for with the milk jugs but we gotta have the bedding anyway.

Btw: what do you all pay for a bag/bale of bedding? My extended family also raises chickens so we were comparing the prices of everything at Christmas dinner...

 

[ChickensAreSweet]

$7.79 per bale of pine shavings

 

[OkChickens]

My 52 chickens have done fine down to about 7-8 degrees without heat! I have 2 heated water bowls to keep it from freezing. I also have a uninsulated 20x35 coop.

In the evening I toss some scratch or cracked corn to warm them up. I would not use gallon water jugs for insulation it just will not work.

-Nate

 

[Big Dreamer]

They are starting to make homes more often that are made from hay bales and cement mud stuff, and they say the hay can either keep it really cool inside for warm weather or really warm inside for cold weather, so i think hay would be your best bet, because its cheap, it works as a wind block and its an insulator..

 

[Talihofarms]

Themal ballast,Thermal mass...it's a chicken coop. There is no advantage to using water jugs, unless you have enough of the warm stuff to offset the cold area. That would require too much expense. Your most cost effective option is to keep the living area free from drafts. Air infiltration. And use a natural heat source. The most cost effective is decomposition. I am in the midwest and we get below zero weather quite often. It is as simple as having 8-10" of shavings on the coop floor and leave the poop in with it. It works just fine and you can use it in the spring garden for fertilizer. Or throw it in the compost pile.

just my.02


Good Luck

 

[Country Parson]

Patandchickens, my point with the thermal ballast was that the jugs have to be heated by the room, which is in itself heated by direct contact with outside light. Perhaps I wasn't clear. Regardless, her building isn't a greenhouse, and has no other source of day-time heat, making heat-saving/transfer impossible---i think that is the point both you and I are making.

Bonder, the best place to get straw bales is to go to a local farmer that you know uses them. They usually get their bales far cheaper that you and I can get them (or possibly even make their own). I bought mine from a dairy farm neighbor at $1.25 per bale. I also asked around and got another 20 bales for free from friends. I even picked up 5 free bales from a local church that had used them for decorations at a summer picnic. If bales are kept dry they will last for years.

Don't use hay bales. Their value of insulation may be similar (I don't know), but chickens will tear them up. I had one hay bale given to me and the chickens pecked it apart getting the seeds.

I keep my milk jugs around for cold snaps in the early spring. They do a wonderful job protecting plants.

 

[OkChickens]

Hay is not what you want to use! Straw is thicker and is great for bedding. I have an uninsulated coop and I use the deep litter method and works great! Straw is much better than hay!

-Nate

 

[Treesa]

Last winter I filled two milk jugs with very hot water for our very small coop. I placed it inside where the girls sleep just before I went to bed only when the temps were really cold or the wind chill was bitter. I never had one freeze or burst or get knocked over. Seemed to help, at least it made me feel better, lol.