Woods Fresh-Air coop build

[saysfaa]

.. I will measure next week when I get home..,

Well, life happened, my apologies.

I bought two thermometers of the same type. They read the same when side by side. I checked them many times over two days.

Short version is inside is warmer and dryer when the temperature is falling. And outside is warmer and dryer when the temperature is rising.

Long version in next post.

 

[saysfaa]

...Long version...

I wired one to the garden fence less than ten steps from the coop. And the other to the wire wall inside the coop. Both are about the height of the roost. And waited a few hours.

At 2 pm
Inside: 30 F (-1 C), 88 humidity.
Outside: 32 (0 C), 78 humidity

At 3 pm
Inside: 30 F (-1 C), 78 humidity
Outside: 32 F (0 C), 73 humidity

At 4 pm
Inside: 30 F (-1 C), 78 humidity
Outside: 33 F (0.5 C), 78 humidity

At 5 pm
Inside: 30 F (-1 C), 82 humidity
Outside: 30 F (-1 C), 80 humidity

At 6 pm
Inside: 32 F (0 C), 85 humidity
Outside: 34 F (1 C), 82 humidity

At 7 pm
Inside: 30 F (-1 C), 85 humidity
Outside: 32 F (0 C), 82 humidity

At 7 am
Inside: 34 F (1 C), 85 %
Outside: 35 F (1 C), 80%

I realized directly above the open water pail might not be a representative place. At 7 am, I moved the thermometer to the nail holding the window in.

At 8 am
Inside: 30 F (-1 C), 85%
Outside: 35 F (1 C), 80%

Nearly touching the window might not be either. At 8 am, I moved it to above the nest boxes.

At 9 am
Inside: 32 F (0 C), 82%
Outside: 37 F (2.7 C), 50%

At 10 am
Inside: 36 F (2 C), 78%
Outside: 36 F (4.5 C), 50%

At 11 am
Inside: 44 F (6.6 C), 53%
Outside: 40 F (4.4 C), 40%

At noon
Inside 46 F (7.7 C), 45%
Outside: 40 F (4.4 C), 40%

At 12:30 pm
Inside: 46 F (7.7 C), 43%
Outside: 40 F (4.4 C), 39%

At 1:30 pm
Inside 42 F (5.5 C), 44%
Outside 39 F (4 C), 39%

At 2:40 pm
Inside: 39 F (4 C), 51%
Outside: 34 F (1C), 55%

At 3:45 pm
Inside: 34 F (1 C), 60%
Outside: 30 F (-1 C), 67%

There are pictures if anyone wants them. At least until I delete them but I'll wait at least a week.

 

[saysfaa]

The weather was thick clouds the first day. The second day dawned mostly clear. Some haze and scattered clouds both which stayed through the morning. Clouds moved in during the early afternoon.

Possibly, the temperature inside was affected by the several days of near zero F (-17 C) temperatures we had up until the day before the first day of the trial. There is quite a lot of mass inside the coop that may have been a factor in how responsive inside was on the first day.

 

[Ted Brown]

Well, life happened, my apologies.

I bought two thermometers of the same type. They read the same when side by side. I checked them many times over two days.

Short version is inside is warmer and dryer when the temperature is falling. And outside is warmer and dryer when the temperature is rising.

Long version in next post.

I just went through a 30 degree tempeture inversion/re-inversion in 30 hours.

Net net is?

 

[saysfaa]

I just went through a 30 degree tempeture inversion/re-inversion in 30 hours.

Net net is?

I'm not sure what you mean by net net. ??

 

[Ted Brown]

I'm not sure what you mean by net net. ??

I understood your data to say coop temperatures track outside temperatures but delayed?

If correct adding heat (original premise of this thread?) is a waste?

 

[saysfaa]

Oh. It means what is the bottom line..
to me, that is the people who see their coop is warmer and those who don't are both correct.

I had to reread the thread to remember why I was measuring (not sure if that is eye roll at myself, hiding under a chair, or just laughing at myself.) Anyway, I was just curious - and saw thermometers that also measured humidity for less than $5 - just about the time this thread started talking about whether the coops are warmer inside than outside without a heat source other than chickens or a sunny day.

I don't recommend heating coops; it is better to have the ventilation. Although, I've moved a bit from never a good idea to add some heat (as long as the ventilation is there too). I looked into the biology of cold adaptation - some of the mechanisms take some priming.

I guess I was off topic. And getting further off topic.