Hog Barn Goes Geothermal

In February of 2009, Buchanan & Hall of Stratford, ON, converted a hog farm from a traditional Propane system to geothermal. Buchanan & Hall had installed a WaterFurnace 5 ton Premier AT unit in the owner, Fred Schuler's home approximately 15 years ago, so he was already familiar with the benefits of geothermal technology. He inquired regarding the feasibility of converting the existing single stage 200,000 BTUH propane boiler in his barn (used year-round to heat the floors in the nursing barns) to geothermal, as propane costs for the year were over $45,000.

There were 3 five-ton Versatec Water-to-Water units installed connected to a common 120-gallon hot water storage tank. The source loops use 12,000 feet of ¾” pipe and 6,000 feet in the natural ventilation air stream of an adjacent Sow barn. The barn loop has a plastic trough system that collects the condensate that forms on the loop pipe. All loops are run in a series/parallel configuration so that excess barn energy can be used to warm the ground loops.

The existing boiler was temporarily left in place in case of system shortfall. Schuler, the owner, reports that the constant output temperature of the geothermal system (set at 115 degrees Fahrenheit) has the added benefit of providing a more even and constant temperature to the floors resulting in a lower overall set point with increased comfort to the nursing pigs. The old boiler had large swings in temperature as it staged off and on.
 
The system was in operation during the latter half of the winter. The heat pumps are staged at 2 degree Fahrenheit increments and so far, only the 1st and 2nd stage units have run. Source loop temperatures have also remained surprisingly high in spite of the constant “heating only” application, indicating that the barn source loop is performing better than expected.

A dedicated Power Meter was added to monitor electricity consumption. So far Fred says he is very encouraged by the results and now wants to remove the propane system entirely. Based on current propane costs, he expects his payback should be less than 2 years.

Buchanan & Hall has been installing and servicing geothermal systems since 1983, and have been a WaterFurnace dealer for the last 20 years.

Request a Free Geothermal Information Package
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