Controlled barn heating at a broiler farm

Poultry farms have a high energy requirement. This requires an installation that ensures safe and controlled heat output – and that also has an attractive payback period.

Jan Verhoijsen runs a broiler farm in Someren, North Brabant. Verhoijsen could still remember the old situation with the fire-hazardous propane-fired hot air units. When he wanted to expand in 2012, he sought the latest and most cost-efficient heating technology for his new barns. The Challenge: Broiler farms have a high energy requirement. Six or seven times a year, chicks a few days old arrive in the barns, requiring an ambient temperature of 37°C at that time. Over the subsequent six to nine weeks, the temperature is gradually reduced until the chicks are fully grown. Required: an installation that ensures safe and controlled heat output – and that, moreover, has an attractive payback period. The Solution: Bergen Smart Energy installed a 500 kW biomass boiler with indirect-fired heaters for both the new and existing barns. For the storage and supply of the fuel – the wood pellets – Bergen collaborated with Nijborg Agri, Bergen’s regular silo partner. The result: the barn consistently maintains the correct temperature for the chicks, and heating costs have been significantly reduced. Chick farmer Verhoijsen, who operates at multiple locations in Brabant, is so satisfied with the solution that he subsequently had Bergen Smart Energy renovate the existing barns as well. Bergen Smart Energy has since become Chick farmer Verhoijsen’s regular partner.