Temperature and Humidity Profiles of Broiler Houses with Experimental Conventional and Tunnel Ventilation Systems

This article describes the spatial and diurnal patterns of air temperature and relative humidity (RH) in commercial-scale broiler houses (12 122 m, 40 400 ft) using experimental conventional and tunnel heating, cooling, and ventilation systems. The experimental broiler houses used 76-cm (2.5-ft) side curtains and combined mechanical and natural ventilation. Heating was provided by propane brooders and space furnaces. Cooling was accomplished with side-mounted cooling fans and misting nozzles in the conventional houses, but with fans and evaporative cooling pads in the tunnel houses. Interior mixing fans, arranged to circulate air in a racetrack fashion, were used in the tunnel houses.