Poultry house power usage

R J · Sep 3, 2022

Hi all , just wanted to compare what other poultry houses use in electric ?
(Laying houses )
Ours is a 32000 flat deck big dutchman system with 57kw of solar pv on the roof , we use 65000 kwh per year .
Thanks

Frodo · Sep 3, 2022

I was looking at this very thing today(prompted by another forum.

my 32000 multi tier used 65034 kw hrs in the last Callander year, which included a 6 week turn around (t suited me to have a decent break).

I have 50kw of solar panels, which generated 42990kwhrs. A further 37158 were imported, while I exported 15114.

Others were quoting a much higher use than mine, I imagine everyone is using low energy lights, but I guess one advantage of living in Scotland is ventilation fans will run less.

R J · Sep 3, 2022

OK , that's interesting ,sounds a fair bit lower than us , our 65000kwh is what we import off the grid , that's with our solar helping out too ,
Solar pv generation is 45000kwh but not sure what we export as we haven't a export meter ,
We're using fluorescent strip lights at the moment

Frodo · Sep 3, 2022

R J said:
OK , that's interesting ,sounds a fair bit lower than us , our 65000kwh is what we import off the grid , that's with our solar helping out too ,
Solar pv generation is 45000kwh but not sure what we export as we haven't a export meter ,
We're using fluorescent strip lights at the moment

I think bfrepa were using 100,000. I have got in the habit of reading the meters daily, so am fairly confident about my figures. The long turnaround would save some. And as I say living in cool Scotland.

it would be interesting to have a breakdown of usage.

R J · Sep 3, 2022

Wow 100,000 units , that will be painful when it comes to electric contract renewal ,
I think I'm going to add to our solar capacity to help and maybe look at LED lights too

Frodo · Sep 3, 2022

Glad I have solar, the pay back just now is mental. I hadn’t really considered free range as being big energy users, but the figures are scary.

running a potato cold store just now must be frightening

stretch3050 · Sep 4, 2022

I have 2 16000 bird units that use 25,000 kph per year (per shed), Both sheds are Big dutchman step systems. I'm just having 30kw put on each shed, so hopefully that will help, our contract with our buying group ends on 30th September and we still haven't got a price going forward!

R J · Sep 4, 2022

stretch3050 said:
I have 2 16000 bird units that use 25,000 kph per year (per shed), Both sheds are Big dutchman step systems. I'm just having 30kw put on each shed, so hopefully that will help, our contract with our buying group ends on 30th September and we still haven't got a price going forward!

Are they multi teir systems ?
25000 kwh per shed seems pretty good

stretch3050 · Sep 4, 2022

Yes both multi tier, in Harlow sheds

Nearly · Sep 4, 2022

@chickens and wheat

chickens and wheat · Sep 4, 2022

I'm broilers so quite different. but 1p/bird per week thats with solar but also with some gshp. so the lack of heat requirement lately balances out the extra solar production.

that could double+ if not on a fixed price

Chickcatcher · Sep 5, 2022

Here goes for a bit of reality.
Broilers here 7 batches including heat I am thinking I am using 0.887Kw of Energy/bird ( electric and wood pellets)
Cost per bird with electric about to hit 60p/Kw and wood pellet at 10.5p/Kw will be 32p/bird and 14p/Kg.
Gone from 8p/bird, 3.4p/Kg at last years prices.
Electric still not fixed for next year though.

GoodEgg · Sep 6, 2022

For those with solar, would you mind sharing what sort of setup you have gone with and who you bought it through? Has anyone built in battery storage?

Chickcatcher · Sep 6, 2022

The company I used went bankrupt, had it 10 years Canadian Solar Panels, 3 set us and use about 60% of annual production. No Batteries.

Fogg · Sep 6, 2022

I've a similar setup to Chickcatcher. I bought a 150kw setup (600 x 250w panels with six inverters) for £130k 7 years ago. I just got a standard var rate bank loan. At the time the interest rate charged was something like 2.1% over base, which was nothing, and the leasing outfits seemed to operate on closer to 7%.

It's generated over 1gw now... At around 140,000kwh per year, ~60% gets used on site, 40% is exported. So even without fit and export, it's saved £100k on electricity bills so far, and that's at historical affordable prices. Going forward I'd be lost without it.

Still, 60% of our electricity usage is bought from the grid. Which is why I've been stripping out flouresecents and putting in LEDs this afternoon.

chickens and wheat · Sep 6, 2022

100kw bought 2020, 73k but with expensive transformer upgrade need. Old transformer was maxed out as it was so needed upgrading really
10kw in 2013 12.5k. But these generate fits.

Annual solar 105000kw, export of 30000

Daniel · Sep 6, 2022

Fogg said:
I've a similar setup to Chickcatcher. I bought a 150kw setup (600 x 250w panels with six inverters) for £130k 7 years ago. I just got a standard var rate bank loan. At the time the interest rate charged was something like 2.1% over base, which was nothing, and the leasing outfits seemed to operate on closer to 7%.

It's generated over 1gw now... At around 140,000kwh per year, ~60% gets used on site, 40% is exported. So even without fit and export, it's saved £100k on electricity bills so far, and that's at historical affordable prices. Going forward I'd be lost without it.

Still, 60% of our electricity usage is bought from the grid. Which is why I've been stripping out flouresecents and putting in LEDs this afternoon.

Our multitier has has 68 x 5ft fluorescent tubes in, the tubes are 58w and apparently the dimmer ballasts in each fitting use 13w.

71w x 68 fitting16 hours a day x 365 days a year = 28195kwh/year.

Our import rate has just jumped to 65p/unit so that’s £18300 a year just for lighting?!

Fogg · Sep 6, 2022

I double checked your maths as that looked obviously wrong. It isn't.

You're going to get a pretty rapid payback from LEDs. You can save £13300 per year by spending £449 net of VAT.

Philips LED Tube T8 CorePro (EM/Mains) Standard Output 20W 2200lm - 865 Daylight | 150cm - Replaces 58W

Philips LED Tube T8 CorePro (EM/Mains) Standard Output 20W 2200lm - 865 Daylight | 150cm - Replaces 58W starting from . Order ! Free LED-Advice: !

www.any-lamp.co.uk

It should take 12 days. that sounds wrong too, you might want to check my maths.

stretch3050 · Sep 6, 2022

Fogg said:
I double checked your maths as that looked obviously wrong. It isn't.

You're going to get a pretty rapid payback from LEDs. You can save £13300 per year by spending £449 net of VAT.

Philips LED Tube T8 CorePro (EM/Mains) Standard Output 20W 2200lm - 865 Daylight | 150cm - Replaces 58W

Philips LED Tube T8 CorePro (EM/Mains) Standard Output 20W 2200lm - 865 Daylight | 150cm - Replaces 58W starting from . Order ! Free LED-Advice: !

www.any-lamp.co.uk

It should take 12 days. that sounds wrong too, you might want to check my maths.

Fairly sure they need to be dimmable, Our multi tier has dimmable fluorescents. I've always had a nightmare finding led bulbs that can be dimmed

Fogg · Sep 6, 2022

I figured that. Still, with energy prices where they are it might pay to put in a cheap LED system that gives a sensible baseload of light and run it in parallel with the flourescents that can be employed when you need a different intensity.

Or replace the whole lot with a dimmable LEDs. They've come on in leaps and bounds in recent years.

Poultry house power usage

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0 %

Up to 25%

25-50%

50-75%

75-100%

100% I’ve had enough of farming!

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