Energy consumption certification of animal housing: results from the EPAnHaus project

Climate control is a fundamental aspect in livestock housing, because it allows to maintain adequate indoor environmental conditions, optimize the production and assure animal welfare. Being mainly carried out by mechanical systems, climate control entails a remarkable energy consumption. Considering the expected rise of energy use in the livestock sector, the lack of information regarding this energy share and the absence of an agreed methodology for its evaluation, specific studies are required. In this paper, results of EPAnHaus project are discussed. The project final objective is the improvement of the energy performance for climate control in livestock houses by establishing an energy certification scheme. EPAnHaus project also produced a set of general and specific information regarding energy performance levels of animal houses, valuable for decision management by breeders, agricultural engineers and politicians. An exhaustive literature review, for identifying existing energy benchmark values for climate control at European level, preceded and provided the basis for the identification of a methodology to estimate the energy consumption for heating, cooling and ventilation of the houses. The chosen methodology was adopted in developing energy simulation models for different animal production (pigs, poultry), which were calibrated and validated by means of a wide dataset of acquired data. Benefits due to the adoption of innovative equipment for climate control in livestock housing (e.g. electronically commutated motor fans) have been also evaluated by the developed modeling framework, showing the effectiveness of retrofit measures. The simulation tool proved its effectiveness during the design stage of climate control setups.