Cool your cows more efficiently with dairy ventilation fans
Dairy farmers know how important it is to keep cows cool. Due to their inability to sweat, cows need assistance when the temperatures rise to keep them healthy and producing at optimal levels. Hotter summers in California are making it harder to keep dairy cows from experiencing heat stress.
High-efficiency ventilation fans provide a means to regulate temperatures for cows, increasing their health and production and saving energy.
The Agriculture Energy Savings Action Plan (AESAP) is now offering rebates of $80/unit for larger fan sizes, up to 84” to help maximize your ventilation efficiency. These rebates are in addition to the existing rebates for fans ranging from 24 inches to 48 inches. With these rebates now available, the long custom incentive process is no longer required. Simply provide us with an invoice for installed qualifying fans with required documentation and a rebate check can be processed for you.
Upgrading to larger fans in a dairy facility can boost efficiency by replacing existing smaller fans with fewer, larger ones. Larger fan upgrades can also increase airflow in facilities, leading to cooler spaces to encourage increased milk production.
AESAP recently assisted a dairy farm that was looking for a solution to replace aging fans to ensure the health and productivity of their cows. The farm took advantage of free technical assistance provided by AESAP to create a plan that included the costs, payback time and incentives available for the project.
Dairy fan upgrades
The farm installed thirty high efficiency 84-inch ventilation fans in their facilities. The new fans will save the farm more than $68,750 a year in utility costs. The farm received $27,000 in incentives from AESAP for the project, giving it a payback period of just three years.
The streamlined rebate process makes it easy to receive a rebate for larger fan sizes. No pre-approval is required! You can simply submit your invoice from your fan expansion project with required documentation to receive a rebate.
Boost your savings by pairing dairy fans with variable frequency drive (VFD) upgrades
The variable speeds and temperature sensors on the new fans allow them to operate at lower speeds in cooler temperatures and higher speeds when the temperature rises. The older fans only had one speed meaning they operated at 100% whether it was 70 degrees or 90 degrees. In addition to the enhanced features on the new fans, they are more efficient than the fans they replaced meaning that even when they are operating at 100%, they are using less energy than the previous fans.
AESAP is here to help your dairy!
AESAP has helped provide incentives for hundreds of fan installations for California dairy farms. The program has paid out incentives to farmers to offset the costs of the fan upgrades. In total, these fans are expected to save the farmers a substantial amount of electricity every year while increasing milk production.
Ready to get started on a fan expansion project? Get in touch with the AESAP team to get started.
Posted January 31st, 2024
