“Air travels from the easiest place, so for example, putting a fan above an open door will never give you full barn ventilation, as the fan will pull from the open door below,” Benoit says. Put fans as far away from the air inlet as possible this way, air is drawn across your building. “Always talk to the company providing your fan as to what the recommended inlet space is for your application.” “It may seem to be OK to match a fan size to an inlet size-for example, a 12-inch exhaust fan to a 12-inch inlet shutter-but in fact, it puts too much stress on your fan motor, which may cause it to fail sooner than expected,” says Kathy Benoit, FarmTek’s livestock specialist. Mechanical Ventilation (e.g., exhaust fans, motorized shutters or inlets)Īlways provide enough inlet space when using exhaust fans. These features will be less efficient if your barn is poorly oriented, however. Depending on the type of ventilation you go with, you want to keep a few things in mind: Good ventilation goes beyond the orientation of the barn, including fans and vented roof ridges and eaves. “In warm climates, the opposite is true, where directing the natural breeze through the building will have a natural cooling effect.” “In cold winter climates, you want to orient openings (aisleway doors, stall doors, etc.) away from the prevailing wind to create a wind block,” Anderson says. In this case, you want to orient one side of the barn with openings toward the prevailing wind direction and make sure that other buildings or natural features don’t create a wind block.” “In barns, the most common is to create large openings in the side of the barn to allow breezes to flow through the building. “Natural ventilation can be accomplished by a number of techniques,” says Seth Anderson, principal architect at Ascent Architecture and Interiors and small-farm owner in Bend, Ore. Ventilation comes down to more than just opening a window. In reality, the building up of ammonia in the air from urine and feces is detrimental. “Many people believe closing a barn up tight against foul weather is a good idea. “ Ventilation is one of most critical considerations of barn design,” says Laurel Bishop, national sales assistant for barn and farm-building custom designer at MD Barnmaster. If you’ve never built a barn before, you might not realize the forethought that goes into the placement and orientation of the structure on a property, but one that’s poorly sited will cost you money and worry for the life of the structure. Each use needs to be considered during your barn construction to be sure you get the right light, ventilation, ease of access and distance from neighbors, and these concepts are all affected by the siting of your new barn. If you’re involved in a barn-construction project, it can be just as exciting as planning your birthday party when you were a kid-except way more stressful.Ī barn could house your livestock and your machinery, it can act as a storage area for hay and tack, it can be a workshop and a studio, and it might even do all of these things at once. Building a new barn is a once-in-a-lifetime project for many small-scale farmers.
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