Energy consumption of heat pads and heat lamps and aerial environment in a commercial swine farrowing facility

Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to compare two localized heating methods, namely heat pads and heat lamps, in a commercial swine farrowing facility. Two farrowing rooms each with 44 crates were instrumented for monitoring room environmental conditions (temperature and relative humidity) and energy consumption. One room was equipped with 175W (per crate) heat lamps and the other room with 65W (per crate) heat pads. The piglet mortality and weight gain were recorded. The air temperature in the two rooms was maintained at the same level using environmental controllers (set at the same setpoint). However, the relative humidity in the lamp room was found to be lower than that in the heat pad room probably due to more ventilation required to remove more sensible heat produced by the lamps. There were no significant differences in the mortality rate and weight gain between heat pads and heat lamps. The daily energy consumption by heat pads was 2.9 kWh less than that by heat lamps per crate. This represents a 73% saving of energy required for localized heating.