How Much Propane Does A Broiler House Use? (With Calculator)

Learn and plan how much propane gas your commercial broiler house will use per year

Situation

Propane gas is one of the largest cost items on a broiler farming income statement.

The use of propane gas to heat broiler houses to sufficient temperature for optimal production and growth literally eats away at your profits.

Consideration

If you are planning:

• a start-up broiler operation as an independent,
• under a contract, or;
• just wanting to expand current operations –

…getting a firm estimate on propane consumption and cost helps assess feasibility.

You certainly don’t want to underestimate such a cost that contributes major expense to your farm.

Also, having a rock solid method of accurately forecasting your propane gas usage means you’ll always be able to benchmark your actual costs against a standard.

This will help you establish better control over your costs year on year.

Case Study: How Much Propane Does A Broiler House Use? (With Calculator)

What you get…

The eCourse Begins Here

Problem

You’ve got a master plan to start up a medium scale commercial broiler farm in your region.

Currently, you’re tallying your running expenses and trying to arrive to the most accurate picture of what your financial overheads might be.

You’ve heard that propane gas cost is huge from a broiler farm. Even with cost savings of adopting partial house brooding vs. whole house brooding, either way, broiler farmers still use huge amounts of gas to get results.

You’re keen to put together a winning project report for your broiler farm in order to secure funding.

The task you have now is to find a reliable method for forecasting your propane gas usage.

Supporting Facts

1. Your proposed broiler farm will be 25,000 birds.
2. You’ve decided on an All-In-All-Out rearing system. So, in a year you’ll complete 7 rearing cycles, 6 weeks long back-to-back (with 2 weeks rest in between).
3. Your planned farm will operate in the Republic of Ireland.
4. You plan your broilers to be finished at 2kg live weight.

Expert Approach

You find a useful calculation breakdown written by the Agriculture and Food Development Authority for the Republic of Ireland, otherwise known as Teagasc.

Within the article you find the following metrics to help your efforts in calculation:

1. “A 73m x 18m 27,000-bird broiler house (without renewable energy installed) on average consumes 240-270 megawatt hours (MWh) of heat energy/year.”
2. “1.43kWh per bird”
3. Birds will be raised to 2kg target, marketable weight.
4. Typical energy input:
   • 71.5kWh per 100kg heat input.

Solution

Broiler House Propane Gas Usage Calculation

1. 71.5kWh heat input required for every 100kg of bird raised.
2. At 2kg per bird, 100kg will comprise 50 birds.
3. There is a 71.5kWh requirement for every 50 birds, per rearing cycle.
4. Per bird, the requirement per rearing cycle is 1.43kWh.
5. Multiply this proportional usage figure by 25,000 birds and we get 35,750kWh.
6. Multiply this usage figure per batch by number of batches reared per annum, in this case 7 batches and the estimated annual propane gas consumption per annum for your 25,000 broiler farm is 250,250 kWh.

Use the quick calculator

 

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