Alberta Hutterite Colony Introduces Energy Conserving Technology to Egg Laying Barn

Builders of a new egg-laying barn in Alberta’s Brant Hutterite Colony hope it will create as much energy as it uses, and help create a sustainable egg industry in the province, reports The Western Producer. Darrel Mandel of the Hutterite colony told reporter Mary MacArthur that “We always try to be pretty modern, but we felt this showed us even more ways that we could be more efficient.”

Among the state-of-the-art facility’s proposed energy-efficient features are the following:
• Solar PV modules that will generate electricity for the barn
• high efficiency fans and lights and walls with maximum insulation value
• a heat recovery ventilation system that preheats cold air entering the building with the exhausted air leaving the building
• sensors allow the heating and cooling systems to be turned on in areas that need it rather than throughout the entire building.
• a highly insulated overhead door to help reduce heat losswhile loading eggs
• a concrete foundation for the layer and pullet barn built more than a metre below the frost line
• walls made with two by eight inch studs rather than two by six studs for energy efficiency

The energy efficient measures are supported by incentives from the Egg Farmers of Alberta. The incentive requires the colony to allow students, egg producers and government officials to study the energy efficiency of each piece of equipment.Other egg producers who want to increase energy efficiency in their barns will be able to use information from the monitoring system, which tracks equipment energy use and calculates the estimated payback period.