Comparison of the performance of different heating systems in poultry farms in terms of temperature uniformity and energy consumption

Abstract

A large part of fuel consumption in agriculture is related to the poultry industry. Fuel consumption in our country's poultries is more than international standards. High consumption of fossil resources in this industry, despite the cheapness of fuel in Iran and the allocation of subsidized fuel, imposes a high cost on poultries and reduces the possibility of their competition in global markets. Also, the quality of heat provided to chickens is one of the main concerns of the poultry industry, which plays a key role in production efficiency. In poultry heating, heating systems of hot air furnaces (conventional heaters, jet heaters), underfloor heating systems and umbrella radiant systems and tubular radiant heating systems are used. According to the present study, among the common heating systems, tubular radiant heating systems with energy consumption of 6.8 MJ/m2, the lowest energy consumption and suitable temperature uniformity at a height of 30 cm with mean temperature of 28.52±2.50°C. They had. Underfloor heating systems had the best temperature uniformity with mean of 26.10±2.18°C, but their energy consumption was estimated to be 30% higher than that of tubular radiation system. Conventional heater system with mean temperature of 25.83±5.16°C and jet heater system with mean temperature of 23.94 ±5.41°C in terms of temperature uniformity is the worst condition and conventional heater system with energy consumption of 14.3 MJ/m2 and Underfloor heating with energy consumption of 30.3 MJ/m2 had the highest energy consumption.