Heating my Chicken coop

Re: Heating my Chicken coop

RossD wrote: »

I am looking to run 4 300watt radiant light bulbs. I am wondering what type of inverted would be needed what type of turbine/panels and how many batteries would I need. If this sounds ignorant I am sorry I have no idea about any of this and I am kinda jumping in here. Any advice or info would be much appreciated.

Basically, running electric heat is very power hungry, and for an off grid power system, usually prohibitively expensive.

For example, say you run the bulbs 50% of the time:

• 4* 300 watts * 0.50 duty cycle * 24 hours per day = 14,400 WH = 14.4 kWH per day
• 14.4 kWH per day * 30 days per month = 432 kWH per month

That is more power my suburban San Francisco area home with 4 people uses in a day (I do have natural gas for heating/cooking/hot water). Lucky chickens.

For an off grid home, using about 100 kWH per month or ~3.3 kWH per day is a good target. And that would cost you several tens of thousands of dollars worth of solar array+battery bank+electronics.

More or less, off grid solar cost around $1-$2 per kWH--Or about 10x the power costs of grid/utility power. And remember if you need the heating during the winter, it would be even more difficult to get enough solar energy (and during bad weather).

Just to give you a quick idea of what an off grid system would look like with a "nominal" design for an off grid home:

• 14,400 WH per day * 1/0.85 inverter eff * 1/48 volt battery bank * 2 days storage * 1/0.50 max discharge = 1,411 AH @ 38 volt battery bank (huge)

And if you live in Toronto area of Canada, using PV Watts with a fixed array tilted to 44 degrees from horizontal:



Month

Solar Radiation
(kWh/m²/day)



1
2.69



2
3.51



3
3.98



4
4.68



5
5.29



6
5.48



7
5.51


8
5.23


9
4.96


10
3.61


11
1.95


12
1.97


Year
4.07



Since you would want winter heating, then 1.95 average hours of "noon time sun" per day:

• 14,400 WH * 1/0.52 off grid system eff * 1/1.95 hours of sun per November day = 14,201 Watt solar array minimum (November/December solar power availability)

And two to three $600 Solar charge controllers + $12,000 worth of lead acid batteries + $14,000 to $18,000 worth of solar panels another $5,000+ for racking+wiring, etc...

Add a 12kWatt or larger genset and 140+ amp at 48 volt AC battery charger for bad weather recharging of the battery bank.

Wind turbines have approximately 10-15% average collection from wind. To get 14.4 kWH per day from wind:

• 14,400 WH * 1/24 hours per day * 1/0.15 turbine factor = 4,000 Watt turbine (very roughly)

--Assuming you have good winds in the winter (winds are highly variable and site specific. Nominally a 60-90+ foot tower would be needed for most places--If you have enough wind).

Obviously, lots of assumptions here and we can talk details--But it sort of gives you a starting back of the envelope set of hardware to get started.

In general, it is usually much better to start with conservation... Reduce your power needs to the absolute minimum needed, then look at grid power (if power is only 100's of feet away, burying a cable is going to be more cost effective).

Look around for taking care of chickens in cold weather--There is quite a bit out there from people whom (appear to) have successfully kept chickens in cold climates:

http://www.the-chicken-chick.com/2013/11/surviving-winter-with-chickens.html

-Bill

Re: Heating my Chicken coop

Note, I am not a fan of small wind turbines.... I see you are thinking about Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) which have even worst performance than HAWTs.

Turbulent wind has very little useful energy in it, and can cause mechanical problems by buffeting turbines.

Turbines need to be in non-turblent are--Typically 60' or higher... Perhaps 30' in an open plan (not hills/trees/buildings up wind).

-Bill