Northern coop insulation and ventilation questions, please share!

[latebloomer]

you may want to try passive solar with some stone or concrete pavers as a heat sink

 

[Noymira]

Quote:
I saw some mention of this in some other posts, definitely going to look into this more. Thanks!

 

[Noymira]

I realized that I was missing the obvious while looking at my shed.
The roof line is still open to the outside on two walls!

One wall faces S and the other faces N, the N facing side is the side that has the long roof overhang on the back, thus is mostly protected. I could just cover these in hardware cloth and use them! I was thinking of closing off some, and using hardware cloth on the others and making drop down flaps to close them off if needed.

I also want to add windows on this big E facing wall, I think it would make a huge difference in the light coming into the coop. Do you think plexi will be enough, or is that not think enough to avoid a lot of heat loss? If I could do plexi I might do the top triangular shaped areas, but if not I'll look for some smaller windows to fit below.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
You willl need to close the north-facing ones off during the worst of the winter, though, otherwise you will get too much wind coming in (even with the roof overhang). Just the south-facing ones "might concievably" be enough ventilation if you keep the coop very dry and poo-free and don't have many chcikens in it; but more ventilation would be better.

Do you think plexi will be enough, or is that not think enough to avoid a lot of heat loss? If I could do plexi I might do the top triangular shaped areas, but if not I'll look for some smaller windows to fit below.

Plexiglas is totally fine. Anything else transparent you use will lose just about as much heat, and unless the window is *vast* and/or there is a significant heat source (active heating, or heat stored from daytime in thermal mass) it is not a major issue. You can tape one or even two layers of bubblewrap onto the window if you want a bit more insulation for wintertime, they make it translucent-not-transparent but you still get a pretty decent amount of light coming in and a layer of bubblewrap is good for maybe as much as R1, which for a window is significant. All you're really trying to do is prevent condensation.

Speaking of condensation though, I forget whether it has been mentioned earlier, but in VT you will NEED to insulate the underside of that sheet-metal roof there. Just glueing rigid foamboard up there is fine. Otherwise it will become an intractable condensation farm and keep your coop excessively humid.

Pat​

 

[Baymen Moe]

Here's an example of my ventilation that was approved by patandchickens a few years ago. They are vent's that are adjustable from the outside of the coop. I can go from totally open to closed if needed. They are lower on the back side of the coop and higher on the front of the coop to move the air through.

 

[Volvo Farmer]

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You have those front and back? That looks like about 6 sq ft of ventilation and you have 12 birds? I thought patandchickens recommended 1 sq ft/bird. I'm in the process of building a coop very similar to yours and I was about to put over double that in my plans, and I have more openable windows than you do too. What you have looks very nice. I have an 8x8 coop and am planning for 12-15 birds. You think I can get by with six vents like you have? I especially like how you can close them.

 

[Noymira]

Quote:
Oh yeah, I was definitely planning on insulation the underside of the roof (otherwise in the summer it would be VERY warm in there). I will also add ventilation on the E and W facing walls in addition to the roof line vents and build a way to close the N facing vents as needed.

Should I build flaps to close the roof line vents on the S facing wall as well, or can those stay open all the time?

 

[Noymira]

Quote:
Thanks for the pics, those are great vents, and look pretty easy to build. I'll add something like that to my E and W facing walls, although I may make mine to close from the inside since I don't have an overhang like yours.

 

[Baymen Moe]

Quote:
You have those front and back? That looks like about 6 sq ft of ventilation and you have 12 birds? I thought patandchickens recommended 1 sq ft/bird. I'm in the process of building a coop very similar to yours and I was about to put over double that in my plans, and I have more openable windows than you do too. What you have looks very nice. I have an 8x8 coop and am planning for 12-15 birds. You think I can get by with six vents like you have? I especially like how you can close them.

I also have two full length 4ft windows that are part of my ventilation set up. I have had no problems with this set up. Obviously the more ventilation the better. I avoided putting vent's on the other side because of my roost set up.

 

[western edge]

Keeping the humidity down in the winter is the challenge in my hen house. In order to get rid of the moisture I must leave the vents in the top of the coop open to a point where I loose a lot of the warmth created by the 45 hens in the coop. I do have it partially insulated cause the winter temps are quite extreme.
I found a post on BYC about venting the moisture with a vertical duct of some makeup starting at 12 to 18 inches from the floor of the coop, running through the roof creating a convection. I think thats the term: duhh : I will try this upgrade in my hen house. If I can close my upper vents I bet I can raise the temp considerably.