Benefits of Super Therm® over Poultry Barns
By J.E. Pritchett, SPI President and Super Therm® inventor
We did test with Gagle Foods which is a large Chicken farm.
We coated a test building with Super Therm® and reduced the temperature inside the barn by 15°C during the summer. So, during the summer, we could stabilize the heat and the chickens ate more and gained weight faster.
Then they checked the interior temperature during the winter months. What was found was that the body heat from the chickens was not lost through the seams of the metal roofing because the Super Therm® had sealed it and as the metal warmed, the heat did not escape from the metal as fast. Whereby, the body heat was captured inside the poultry barn to the point that the heat never was used through the winter months.
The statement that this reduces heat on the roof during the summer but never made a difference inside the house is ½ true and ½ wrong.
Here is what happens:
As the roof faces the radiation of the sun, it heats up – fact and no argument.
This heat then is able to “re-radiate” to the interior. Anyone can get on a ladder and as they near the roof, they feel the hot roof radiation to the interior. Again, a fact and no argument.
What is happening inside the room where the chickens are sitting is that the body heat from the chickens is increasing and rising as heat rises.
This body heat mixes with the re-radiation of the heat from the roof and this is the main problem inside the chicken house. Combining both heat sources creates a tremendous amount of heat captured inside the barn.
“AS” these two heat sources mix, the intensity of the heat builds. As it builds, the heat level drops because the area next to the roof is saturated. “IF” this heat level drops enough to the level of the chickens heads, all the chickens in the house will heat stroke and die.
Point – The heat level must be forced to be maintained well over the heads of the chickens to prevent this from happening.
Therefore, if you coat the roof with Super Therm®, it will prevent the roof from heating to 65°C or more than ambient and causing this re-radiation of heat inside the attic area. If you can prevent this “heat load” from happening, then you have reduced the “amount” of heat building up inside the barn.
Now, simply install a single exhaust fan in the apex of the roof at one end or both to pull the “body heat” out of the barn and the chickens are maintained at a comfortable temperature for growing.
As to winter, if you coat the roof / and if possible walls to seal and reduce the heat lost off of the roof, the body heat from the chickens can be used to help hold the heat inside the barn to reduce the heating needed.
I grew up on a farm. Caught chickens by hand placed in cages to ship out by truck. I worked in the barns and understand how heat affects the chickens in both summer and winter. Super Therm® protects chickens and adds to the profit of chicken farmers.
