Fluorescent vs. incandescent bulbs: How much will your poultry farm save?

Learn how much money your poultry farm will save with fluorescent bulbs vs. incandescent bulbs.

Situation

Fluorescent bulbs are known to be more energy efficient and generally more economical than incandescent bulbs.

And whilst it is feed cost that contributes the majority direct cost of sale, overheads (particularly) energy bills are still considerable.

Consideration

For a poultry farm to maximise it’s profitability, owners must exercise prudence in cost control.

Overheads are notorious for eroding financial gains in business.

Even the smallest, most marginal lapse can extrapolate into great sums over years of trade.

That is, even something a seemingly insignificant as your choice of light bulb.

Cumulative hours of usage spread over production cycles and years of production can become colossal.

Being diligent in this area, like many others can collectively add noticable buoyancy to your budget.

Case Study: Fluorescent Bulbs vs. Incandescent – How Much Will Your Poultry Farm Save?

What you get…

The eCourse Begins Here

Problem

Your current choice of incandescent light bulbs within your poultry houses has been a doubt in your mind for quite some time.

You are aware that fluorescent bulbs are much more economical.

Your rationale is,

“If it make’s sense for big business to save money through fluorescent lighting…then surely my poultry farm could save also…”

However, you’re not convinced on exactly ‘how much’ and whether it’s worth the short-term effort/cost replacing them.

So, you decide to perform a quick desk study to produce a reliable assessment to guide your decision.

Supporting Facts

1. You run a broiler farm.
2. You’re operating an All-In-All-Out rearing system, this means 7 rearing cycles in year, each lasting 6 weeks long.
3. Throughout the rearing cycle, the broilers will approximately require 10 hours of artificial lighting per day.
4. Your broiler house has 50 incandescent bulbs.

Expert Approach

You find a study written by Michael Czarick (Extension Engineer of The University of Georgia Extension).

Within it you find the following facts to support your cost assessment:

1. A fluorescent light bulb requires roughly 1/5th of the energy of the equivalent incandescent type.
2. A fluorescent light bulb should last up to 10x longer than an incandescent bulb.
3. There is a straight correlation between like-for-like counterpart fluorescent vs. incandescent bulbs:
   • 5 watts vs. 25 watts
   • 7 watts vs. 40 watts
   • 9 watts vs. 60 watts
   • 11 watts vs. 75 watts
4. Fluorescent bulbs can’t be dimmed (THINK: brooding and grow out).
5. Don’t affect production vs. incandescent lighting.
6. Fluorescent bulbs are much more expensive than incandescent bulbs.
7. Investing in fluorescent bulbs vs. incandescent bulbs for your poultry farm might generate ROI after two years (or less than a year if your birds continually live under roofing).

Solution

Lighting System Evaluation Calculator

1. Yearly lighting hours = Daily lighting hours x Weeks of Production x 7
2. Electricity cost = Yearly lighting hours x Number of bulbs X Bulb wattage X Cost of kw / hr of electricity X 0.001
3. Cost of bulb replacement = Number of bulbs x Yearly lighting hours x [for incandescent = 0.001 or for fluorescent 0.0001] x Cost of bulb replacement
4. Total lighting cost = Electricity cost + Cost of bulb replacement
5. Yearly savings = Cost of incandescent lighting – Cost of fluorescent lighting
6. ROI = (No. of bulbs x Cost of fluorescent bulb) / Yearly savings

Use The Calculator

 

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Further Questions

How might fluorescent bulbs measure up against LED for cost efficiency?[