Smart idea? Or no?

[crazy4ChickensNducks]

You do not need a heat lamp. I did not even use a lamp when it got to -25 degrees below 0. A heat lamp will kill your chickens faster than the cold

 

[PirateGirl]

Most people either supplement niacin with either brewers' yeast, cattle b-complex from the ranch store, or liquid human b-complex from the pharmacy.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

I'm in Cleve OH and we get -15 for a week every winter. I do not need a heat source in my coop. So you probably don't need one for yours. YMMV. I know someone up here who used a heat lamp and it kept her chickens so warm they burnt up in a coop fire that nearly spread to her house. :T So it's best to not use heat lamps if you can avoid them.

Back to solar panels and fans, depends on how big the fan is. A $90, 40"x27" solar panel like this says it produces 0.5kwh/day under ideal conditions. The internet tells me that a box fan on average is gonna use 0.07kw/hr so over the course of a day, running 24 hours, will eat up about 1.7kwh. So it would take a patch of $400 of solar panels, spread over a 2'x14' area, to likely power the average box fan 24/7.
Compare this to a tiny computer fan like this, this tiny fan is only 4" and uses 8w/hr so 0.008kw/hr, so it only uses about 0.2kwh/day. You could run two of these off of just one of the solar panels above forever until the parts burn out.

Incidentally, if you wanna know how much it would take to heat a coop, a 250 watt space heater or a 250 watt light bulb run 12 hours a day would run 3kwh/day, or would require a solar array of 12 panels costing $600 and covering an area of 100sqft. And that's during the summer, when sun conditions are ideal. In the winter when less light hits your panels so you would probably need twice that. To heat a 10'x5' coop with just two heat lamps for 12 hours a day would require a 20'x20' solar panel array.

Also incidentally, looking up LED lights online, the wattage of a 60-watt-lumen-equivalent LED is 9 watts, so you could run two big LED light bulbs off of one solar panel as well, 24/hours a day. They would produce no heat. Which means for extra winter lighting in your coop, a tiny solar panel could run a bright light in your coop for a few hours a day no problem, even though heating and cooling are expensive.

Heating and cooling are the most energy intensive things we do in the western world.

 

[Folly's place]

It's more 'user friendly' to have a well constructed coop, with a windbreak to the west and north, and maybe an insulated roof (for summer heat issues). And to have chicken breeds that cope well with cold weather, rather than Silkies or birds with large single combs.
You will want electricity out there, for having unfrozen water, and lighting. Taking fresh water out three times a day is not fun, so heating for the waterers is really good. Also, if the coop isn't close to your house with many birds, an all-weather water hydrant is wonderful!
Mary

 

[PirateGirl]

I'm in Cleve OH and we get -15 for a week every winter. I do not need a heat source in my coop. So you probably don't need one for yours. YMMV. I know someone up here who used a heat lamp and it kept her chickens so warm they burnt up in a coop fire that nearly spread to her house. :T So it's best to not use heat lamps if you can avoid them.

Back to solar panels and fans, depends on how big the fan is. A $90, 40"x27" solar panel like this says it produces 0.5kwh/day under ideal conditions. The internet tells me that a box fan on average is gonna use 0.07kw/hr so over the course of a day, running 24 hours, will eat up about 1.7kwh. So it would take a patch of $400 of solar panels, spread over a 2'x14' area, to likely power the average box fan 24/7.
Compare this to a tiny computer fan like this, this tiny fan is only 4" and uses 8w/hr so 0.008kw/hr, so it only uses about 0.2kwh/day. You could run two of these off of just one of the solar panels above forever until the parts burn out.

Incidentally, if you wanna know how much it would take to heat a coop, a 250 watt space heater or a 250 watt light bulb run 12 hours a day would run 3kwh/day, or would require a solar array of 12 panels costing $600 and covering an area of 100sqft. And that's during the summer, when sun conditions are ideal. In the winter when less light hits your panels you would probably need twice that.

Also incidentally, looking up LED lights online, the wattage of a 60-watt-lumen-equivalent LED is 9 watts, so you could run two big LED light bulbs off of one solar panel as well, 24/hours a day. They would produce no heat. Which means for extra winter lighting in your coop, a tiny solar panel could run a bright light in your coop for a few hours a day no problem, even though heating and cooling are expensive.

Heating and cooling are the most energy intensive things we do in the western world.

Thank you for providing such a good explanation. I have researched this much in the past and remembered deciding it wasn't worth it and wasn't realistic to heat with solar although lighting or an automatic coop door was doable.

 

[Nellydog]

So could I run 2 computer fans in the summer on 1 solar panel and use that same solar panel in the winter to have an light to keep egg production up

 

[PirateGirl]

Also, from an expense perspective, it would likely be cheaper to higher a master electrician to run permanent electric to your coop and then you have it tied to your grid or home electric system and don't have to worry about "having enough" power ever and it would likely be only a small expense on your monthly bill.

 

[PirateGirl]

or you could look into building a soda can solar heater, so you'd be adding heat to your coop directly from the sun instead of running any devices

 

[Nellydog]

Does it take a lot to do it, my uncle is an electrician. I always thought that would be a pain though does anyone have experience doing it?

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Nelly, yes that would be a more practical plan. You could get one solar panel, battery and hookups, put two computer type fans near the top of the coop to vent out hot air in the summer, or run a light or two for a couple hours in the winter. In theory, under good conditions. Remember that there are bad conditions even in the summer - one cloudy overcast week and your electricity production tanks. Tree shade falls on your panels for 2 hours a day? That's a lot of lost power.

So yeah, I'm a big fan of solar because on a large scale solar pays off because, well, it's on a large scale under ideal conditions. And much of the time the solar can be on rooftops which are useless and turn them into something useFUL, like putting solar panels over a parking lot. Parking lot is just as useful as before and now it generates electricity.

And on a very small scale such as with lighting the technologies have advanced to the point that most electronics cost very little to run.

But on a medium scale, it's a pain to consider running your appliances off of solar power without importing it from the desert or having huge swaths built into your rooftops.

Installing a single solar panel, especially one with a built in converter or kit, should be something most DIY savvy adults could learn to manage. I would enlist the help of an electrician if you have access to one but my understanding is they're not so hard to wire up. I haven't done it myself, though.