Evaluation of construction and insulating material used in broiler houses, a case study of several broiler houses in Adana/Turkey and Urmia/Iran

In the construction of a poultry house, one must take into consideration the local climate of the region where the facility is being built. Proper selection of the construction material according to the local climate will have a major impact on the operational cost of the facility and will help minimize the cost associated with the ventilation, heating and cooling systems. This study aims to address the issues related to the selection of the construction material used in broiler houses and provide ways for mitigating such problems. Specifically, it investigates the construction material used at several industrial broiler houses located in Adana, Turkey and Urmia, Iran. Among the broiler houses, under investigation, that are located in Urmia, one of them (C) have used sandwich panels in their ceiling structure, while the construction material of other parts of the buildings (walls, floors,…) are fairly similar. Compared to the other similar facilities, those that used the sandwich ceiling panels (C poultry) had 35% and 39% less heat transferred between the outside and the inside of the facility during summer and winter seasons, respectively. When comparing the broiler facilities located in Adana vs. those that are located in Urmia, it was found that Adana facilities required considerably less amount of ventilation during the summer seasons. Even though the average density of hen weight per square meters in Adana facilities (26,15-33,33 kg/m2) are larger than those in Urmia facilities (20,02-26,04 kg/m2). Also it should be noted that the average temperature during the summer season in Adana, on average, is higher than that in Urmia. It is believed that use of better insulating material in the Adana facilities is the reason for the reduced ventilation requirement.