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Cowshed source heat pump?

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
How about putting waterpipes through the concrete floor of a shed to keeping suckler cows on deep litter?
When I forget to cut the bands on a straw bale it's very warm underneath by next morning.
It's probably too late for us now as cows planned to go within 5 years.
Could lay a second 6" skin of concrete over existing?
Should be a grant for it? ;)
 

holwellcourtfarm

Member
Livestock Farmer
I wondered about doing that years ago. It could complement solar thermal quite well as the solar give oodles of hot water in summer and using the warmed water from the cowshed loop to feed a ground source heat pump would keep the efficiency very high in winter when it usually drops off.

Put it into the concrete base for a dung clamp and stir it occasionally and you could probably get the water produced up over 60⁰C by mid winter.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
My shed 90 ft x 50 ft.
27m x 15m x .15m depth
60 cubic m concrete. Plus feed passage 75 cube.
Roughly £7500 concrete cost, call it £10k all in. Own labour plus helpers.

House costing 1500 litres kero to heat for year. £1k at moment.
Might save £700 less extra electric to pump water around. £500?
20 year payback even at current prices.
Might have to keep b+b pigs to heat it in summer..... but then corn will need another shed.
And then there's the carbon bootprint of the concrete.
If putting new floor in then pipework is a no brainer.
 

Nearly

Member
Location
North of York
So as soon as I start to pull heat out of it the job is stuffed?
3rd cottage we're converting is surrounded by concrete, farmyard and buildings so piping into ground source is a no no especially on dry sandy soil.
Wind turbine into 2 element immersion heater then.
 

Highland Mule

Member
Livestock Farmer
So as soon as I start to pull heat out of it the job is stuffed?
I’m pretty sure the cattle shed would be frozen from below if you started pulling any meaningful amount of energy away from under them. I wouldn’t bother with shyte source heat pumps no - maybe enough to give a standpipe a bit of warming if the flow is low enough, but not for anything serious.


3rd cottage we're converting is surrounded by concrete, farmyard and buildings so piping into ground source is a no no especially on dry sandy soil.
Speak to a specialist - I’ve heard some places can work with deep vertical pipes tapping into the groundwater.
 

Wisconsonian

Member
Trade
So what makes digestate warm?
the gas they burn to heat it up.

I don't know how any of this could possibly work, pen manure would have to be dry and aerated to warm, then it would give off too much gas for the livestock health. Packed manure won't heat. Liquid manure won't heat.

Jean Pain proposed a compost hot water system. Lots of examples on youtube if you want to see how to make it work, and get the rough parameters.
 

S J H

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Bedfordshire
I’m pretty sure the cattle shed would be frozen from below if you started pulling any meaningful amount of energy away from under them. I wouldn’t bother with shyte source heat pumps no - maybe enough to give a standpipe a bit of warming if the flow is low enough, but not for anything serious.



Speak to a specialist - I’ve heard some places can work with deep vertical pipes tapping into the groundwater.
I've read that gardeners at an open garden were having trouble with the change of ground temperature from a ground source heat loop, so I dont know what the change in temperature could do to affect the livestock.
 

Mattiwilkin

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
Yorks
We have installed a system below our slurry pits in a pig building. Pipes are in screed.

They have been doing this in Denmark for 25 years. It is only just up and running but going fine so far.

We are told this also reduces ammonia by up to 50% by cooling the slurry and locking in the ammonia
 

Exfarmer

Member
Location
Bury St Edmunds
There is no reason why you could not harvest the heat from manure, but you would have to be very careful. The heat is caused by the action of bacteria, and to a degree the hotter they get, the faster they breed, until they literally kill themselves by the heat.
The rate of reproduction , roughly doubles with every ten degree increase in temperature.
The danger you dace is if you try and harvest too much heat, you will slow the breeding rate of the heap and yield will be lost.
Worse still, is the fact that a heap of muck is a reasonable insulator, it may well appear to be very warm but the actual heat there to harvest may not be that great.
 

sjt01

Member
Mixed Farmer
Location
North Norfolk
There is no reason why you could not harvest the heat from manure, but you would have to be very careful. The heat is caused by the action of bacteria, and to a degree the hotter they get, the faster they breed, until they literally kill themselves by the heat.
The rate of reproduction , roughly doubles with every ten degree increase in temperature.
The danger you dace is if you try and harvest too much heat, you will slow the breeding rate of the heap and yield will be lost.
Worse still, is the fact that a heap of muck is a reasonable insulator, it may well appear to be very warm but the actual heat there to harvest may not be that great.
It seems to work well at Fen Farm. There is possibly a low enough heat conductivity through the muck that the active part stays quite warm, while only the underside is cooled by the gshp loop. He has put enough pipe in that there will only need to be a very small dT for it to work.
 

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Webinar: Expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive offer 2024 -26th Sept

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On Thursday 26th September, we’re holding a webinar for farmers to go through the guidance, actions and detail for the expanded Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) offer. This was planned for end of May, but had to be delayed due to the general election. We apologise about that.

Farming and Countryside Programme Director, Janet Hughes will be joined by policy leads working on SFI, and colleagues from the Rural Payment Agency and Catchment Sensitive Farming.

This webinar will be...
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