Should I Uninsulate my coop for the Spring/Summer?

[KenLamWV]

This last fall, I treated my girls right and spent time and money to insulate my entire coop with pink fiberglass insluation and then covered it all with 1/2 inch plywood. Well its time to spring clean the entire coop and was wondering if I should go ahead and remove the insulation. Will the insulation make the coop hotter in the summer? It might take a little time but I don't want the girls to die of heat exhaustion while they are trying to lay their eggs. If the weather is nice this weekend, I hope to get it all cleaned and ready for the warmer weather. This is my second year raising chickens and would like to get some advise from some of you veterans of chicken raising. I'd appreciate it. Thanks- Ken Lamoureux

 

[mochicken]

The insulation will also help keep it cool, you need to have plenty of ventilation to get the humidity and heat out and get fresh air in. I plan to add a couple of those solar exhause fans to my coop for the summer, they are about 25 bucks each and will work for blowing air or exhaust and they are solar so when the sun is out the fan works. You can actually buy they type that clips on car windows and screw it to the coop near the windows in the coop, that would do the same thing and they are around 10 bucks on ebay

 

[lwhaley]

NO WAY! The thing to do is ventilate the coop. Unless there is some kind of bad water damage to the walls then the insulation and walloboard will serve for next winter. The main options for ventilation are doors, windows, and fans. In my insulated coop I am planning to put a gable fan on a thermostat for when open doors and windows are not enough or not possible.

 

[mochicken]

What I did in my dog house in the past is buy a "solar gable fan" from ebay and installed it opposite of his door into the house and to the right, what it did was the same thing an attic fan in a house did, it sucked air through the door and it had a constant breeze in there. I believe that particular gable fan was 160 bucks but you can make them or buy them much cheaper on ebay. It worked great and my dog spent more time laying in the doorway of his house than he did searching for shade in the past.

I cut the wire between the solar panel and the fan and installed a thermostat that turned the fan on if it hit 70 degrees and stayed on until it got back to 70. Some people use hot water heater thermostats but they usually come on at 90 or so and I dont like the idea of it getting 90 before it comes on. Solar is the way to go on this, you might pay a little more in the beginning but the savings and fire risk that you avoid over the years are well worth it.

 

[AinaWGSD]

The wonderful thing about insulation is that it works both ways. Leave the insulation, it should help keep the coop cooler in the summer because it insulates against changes in temperature, not against cold temperature. The one downside is that it will also slow cooling if the coop does become hot, so a solar fan would be an excellent idea to help move air through and keep the temperature more reasonable.

 

[krcote]

Quote:
EXACTLY!

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
No.

(Nor will it keep the coop *cooler* in the summer, unless you have bare metal walls in which case it can *sometimes* make some difference on the ceiling or S/W walls)

The thing that keeps the coop as cool as possible in the summer is ample ventilation. It does not require any more ventilation with an insulated coop than with an uninsulated one either, btw, except in very unusual and relatively-temporary circumstances.

So, aim for plentiful airflow, and you will be fine

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Thomas423]

Everyone has already said this, but insulation also works to keep the coop cool.
My coop is a good 10 - 20 degrees cooler in the the summer than outside temps.
The problem with that is they tend to play inside more than I would want them to.

 

[patandchickens]

The ONLY way to get cooler indoor temperatures thru insulation is to have quite a large coop with dirt floor or other large thermal mass, and minimal daytime ventilation. (e.t.a. -- well, or airconditioning or evaporative cooler, obviously

)

So this does not apply to all that many people. Even when you do have those circumstances, the effect often starts to peter out by July/August, as the thermal ballast of the coop finishes warming up.

The best most people are going to achieve is to have the indoor coop temp be the same as the outdoor shade temp.

Pat

 

[elmo]

Quote:
I don't know the science of it, but I do know how our coop is working in my own experience. Our new coop is fully insulated with radiant roof sheathing, and it's got adequate ventilation, too. And we get some seriously hot weather in North Texas. We've already had one 90 degree day this spring, and several in the upper 80's, and our new coop was in operation since last August.

When I step inside midday on a hot day, it's noticeably cooler inside the coop than just outside, which is all in the shade. By late afternoon, the inside of the coop has heated up to the point that there's no noticeable difference between the inside temp and the outside temp.

I think the most significant feature of our new coop is its location under trees in the deepest afternoon shade in our yard.