Heating issues relating to daily temp swings, solar heating

[MissPrissy]

In a properly closed in shelter without drafts and with the feeding of cracked corn scratch in the evening each chicken can produce several btu's of body heat. It has been documented as much as 8 BTU's per hour per bird. Chickens can and do generate heat and stay very warm and comfortable naturally when properly maintained.

I am not in anyway attempting to create any type of arguement. I am simply pointing out that nature is able to take of her own without alot of human intervention.

 

[Zenbirder]

Quote:
You are 100% right, a solar light produces almost no heat. I have some and really like the way I can get from one building to another in the evening without carrying a flashlight.
The system I am working on is very different. We are using a small pump powered by electricity to push water through a solar panel of several square feet. The water heats up from exposure to the sun and is put into a tank inside the coop. During the night the system shuts down and the tank sits there and passively gives off the heat of the water. It will not make the coop hot, just keep it warmer than it would be otherwise. When we get it installed I will post pics.

I am a big fan of using solar power when practical. We would love to buy solar panels for generating our electricity, but the math even with current rebates from the gov. makes it not financially the right time. Our house is passive solar, in the winter we will get to 80 degrees in the family room just from the sun shining in the windows. We supplement that heat with our wood stoves.

 

[greginshasta]

Oh ya - sorry, so many posts on similar topics recently, I forgot that you mentioned this in your earlier thread. Randy across town has the same system and he is able to produce tomatoes much earlier in the spring and much later in the fall using that strategy.

Should probably be really nice. I still defer to the original concern, however, that coddling the birds with unnatural temperature adjustments could impact them in the long run.

 

[kstaven]

Have you ever considered using wind power zenbirder? Most parts of TX get enough wind to make it practical and the cost/watt is so much better than solar. I am currently building two turbines here to put up in the spring. Costs are about 1/10 of the commercial units and you can tailer the windings to use low wind conditions much more efficiently.

Wanted to add that in the next two years we will be totally off grid in an enviroment that is far less than ideal for solar or wind. For us the combination of alternative options makes it feasable.

 

[Zenbirder]

Wind isn't probably the best for us, we are down in a draw. If our house were at the top of our driveway on the ridge it would work. I don't expect we will be off grid, we are not trying that hard right now. We use wood for heating because it costs so little. They are usually thinning the forest for fire protection somewhere near here. It doesn't cost much more than gas for the truck and chainsaw, and time.

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

Zenbirder, my solar green house in Indiana (which didn't get NEARLY as much sun as ya'll get in NM) never went below 45 degrees. I had a system much like you describe, but also had a couple of oval, 3' tall stock tanks along the north wall, which was cinder block and was painted navy blue, to absorb more heat. We had 2" blueboard insulation on the OUTSIDE of that block, to keep the thermal mass inside.

Last night, here in Texas, the temp fell to 40 degrees and my hens chose to sleep outside instead of in their coop.

I think you've got a great idea. Have you read the book Solviva? That was where I got most of my ideas, although I had already noticed that the greenhouse in which I kept my water lily tanks never got below 40 degrees, even in the coldest, dreariest weather of IN.

 

[wortgames]

Zenbirder, I know exactly the type of system you are talking about and they are certainly very effective (I am in Australia though where we get quite a lot of sunlight, they aren't for everybody). You don't even need an electric pump if the panel can be about level with the tank - the simple act of heating the water will create a surprisingly effective thermosyphon. All you'd need is to install a single valve somewhere in the system so you can 'turn it off' when the weather is warmer. It also makes a huge difference if the solar collector is protected from draughts. The best one I ever used was a sheet of copper, with a horizontal zigzag of copper pipe soldered to it, all painted black and sandwiched between a sheet of plywood behind and a glass panel in front. The water would be hot enough to take your skin off within minutes on a good day! If you have sunny days in winter then I have no doubt it would make a big difference to the temperature inside the coop at night, especially if you have bricks or something else to help act as a heat bank.

I think the trick with any kind of heating for animals though is to allow the animals the freedom to move between warmer and cooler areas as they choose. If they are locked into a space which you are heating, you owe it to them to be very precise about how you do it. If they have no ability to regulate their own heating, then it would probably be best to use an accurate thermostat rather than rely on such a variable system which could overheat if you get a couple of warm days in a row or underheat if you get a couple of grey and dreary ones.

 

[FarmerMack]

As MissPrissy put so well "Until electricity was available in rural places sometimes not until the 1930's or even later - how do you think farmers raised their own chickens?"

A most Excellent train of thought. I am constantly pointing out to my family that our great grandfather wasnt about to heat or cool his barn anytime of the year. The animals in it did as farm critters have for thousands of years they huddled together for warmth and stayed away from drafts. Grampa lived in Maine and being a Maine Yankee wouldnt have bothered wasting money on heat for farm animals.
So the coop I currently have under construction will have no heat, I will use a thermal cube for the heat lamp for the waterer, and the DLM (pine shavings) on the floor. The areas where I feel drafts might occur I'll use some "great stuff " prior to painting the entire thing inside and out "barn white" (sold at home depot for $10/gal). The North wall will have some insulation board on the outside as I have some left over from an in-home project. I did manage to find a used Anderson window 47" x 46" for 15.00 which is installed in the SE wall, so they actually will have better window than the ones in my 167 yr old farm home does, hmmm

. The ladies will need to do like all chickens before them did when winter came to the North East, stay indoors huddle together at night if need be. Enjoy the sunny days when we have them and be chickens. Oh ya and lay some eggs girls LOL

Farmer Mack

 

[suburbanhomesteader]

I'm not taking a side in any of the opinions here, but I have visited homes in foreign countries where the animals live on the ground floor (not a heated area) and the humans live above them because the heat from the animals, in a draft-free area, rises and heats the human living quarters.

Pretty cool idea, but I also recognize that animals and humans living in such close proximity is what can give us Swine Flu, etc.

 

[deanna&rich]

Quote:
Actually, it's not living close to animals that gives us swine flu. It's the way we create antibiotic resistant bacteria and viruses, by overusing antibiotics in healthy animals and in people for every tiny little cold. Now we have superbugs.