How a farmer saves money with heat recovery
Saving money with heat recovery
Henry Esveld is a proud young farmer located in the middle of the Netherlands at Ederveen, Gelderland. He currently has a company with his father Jan, and has the ambition to take over the business in the future. In 2012, a new house was built for over 2500 piglets and 408 sows, with the climate system being supplied by Boon Agrosystems, a local installer of farm systems for more than 25 years.
Last year Henry and his father decided to invest in renewable energy to reduce costs and lower their carbon energy footprint. As a result, 420 solar panels were mounted on the roof to generate an annual yield of 124,000 kWh. Furthermore, Henry and his father wanted to reduce the use of gas in the stables to create a more sustainable business. This is where they were introduced to Inno+ and our Triple-EEE heat recovery concept through Boon.
Heat recovery with the Triple EEE system
This is a system that takes thermal energy from an air scrubber and converts it to usable warmth, to condition incoming air during cold periods. It has the potential to convert 1 kW of electrical energy to 77 kW of thermal energy and typically bridges a temperature gap of +/-10 degrees. This is a highly efficient approach when you compare to the normal practice of using a heat pump, where the COP is around 1 to 4kw conversion. The fact that the farm uses solar, means that in effect the thermal energy will be provided for free, once the cost of the system has been recouped. A period of typically 4-5 years. As the farm already had air scrubbers installed, this was an ideal opportunity to make use of the energy, improve the climate in the piglet stalls and save money at the same time.
After several visits to farms already running this system and speaking to other farmers, Henry and Jan were convinced and decided to invest in October. Even under the current project load, we still managed to have the system running operationally by 18 December, giving the farm a chance to benefit from ‘optimal climate’ for the remaining winter months.
I visited the Esveld family after Christmas to look at the results, take some pictures and discuss the possibility to run a case study and prove the system we sold him delivers. I was met by a very enthusiastic farmer who could not wait to tell me the system was constantly providing +10 degrees warmth in the stalls. Whilst on site the outside temperature was around 3.8°C, whilst the empty stalls were running at 16.8°C. With these facts in mind, we sat down over coffee and worked out how we would measure energy saving, climatic conditions and how these benefit the health and performance of the animals. We expect to publish these results at the end of April when the case study is complete.
Interested how the Triple EEE heat recovery system can help your business? Feel free to fill in the contactform below, or contact Pieter Hanssen at phanssen@inno-plussystems.com
