Energy-optimized poultry production
4 ways to save money and reduce your CO2 emission
Energy optimization can help you save money and reduce your CO2 emissions in your poultry production. This article provides tips and tricks to help you better control and measure your heat for optimal results.
1. Spiraflex
The Spiraflex finned tube heating system is designed to be installed beneath the air inlets to ensure proper ventilation while avoiding cold air downdrafts. Unlike calorifier heaters, a Spiraflex heater does not create drafts. The system provides an even heat distribution throughout the house, resulting in a uniform production environment. This system also promotes excellent air quality by not releasing CO2 into the air, which can negatively impact the air quality in the house.
A significant advantage of Spiraflex is that you can choose your preferred heating source. The system operates through the supply and circulation of hot water, which can be adapted to various heating sources, such as straw-fired burners, natural gas, oil, coal, wood chips, electricity, or others. The flexibility allows you to select the most cost-effective heating source for your production.
2. SmartHeat
Heat monitoring in kW or kWh is more accurate than the typical % of heating measurements. SmartHeat looks at the water temperature in and out of the house and the water flow.
The monitoring may not directly save you money, but it does provide insights into your consumption and allows you to compare the consumption levels of different houses in your production. With SmartHeat connected to your BlueControl, you can access real-time and historical data for water temperatures and receive alarms for low temperatures and limited flow rates. You can measure actual heat energy consumption in kW and kWh, which provides a unique opportunity to compare sections and houses and optimize your energy usage.
SmartHeat offers the following benefits:
- Intelligent room heating monitoring.
- Constant feedback on energy consumed for heating.
- Early warning of irregularities on the BlueControl controller.
3. CO2 sensor
If your minimum ventilation rate is too high, you could lose heat unnecessarily from your livestock house. However, if you control the minimum ventilation based on the measured CO2 level, the system will extract only the required amount of air and heat necessary to bring the air quality to an optimal level. It will help you save energy on heating and ventilation.
4. Intelligent Humidity Control
Usually, the controller uses a humidity sensor inside the house to measure the humidity of the air. If the air is too humid, the system will increase the ventilation and heating. However, when the weather outside is humid too, it can be redundant to keep ventilating and let more humid air into the house. This scenario can be avoided with an outdoor humidity sensor installed under a radiation shield. With Intelligent Humidity Control, the controller will know when it does not make sense to increase ventilation and add heat to control humidity, thereby saving energy.