Animal house climate control system and method for automatic configuration of the system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10772286-B2
Application number	US-201615580223-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jun 3, 2016
Priority date	Jun 3, 2015
Publication date	Sep 15, 2020
Grant date	Sep 15, 2020

Abstract

A climate control system ( 20 ) for an animal house ( 10 ) is configured by determining a minimum ventilation curve for required minimum ventilation. A plurality of ventilation stages is created based on the minimum ventilation curve and the plurality of ventilation fans ( 23 ) in the climate control system, each stage providing a percentage of the required minimum ventilation. Creating the stages includes prioritizing the ventilation fans to create a selection hierarchy and determining a minimum stage ventilation and a maximum stage ventilation for each stage. Ventilation fans are selected following the hierarchy that provides the desired percentage of the minimum required ventilation. An increment between a maximum stage ventilation and a minimum stage ventilation for the next higher stage is defined, wherein the minimum capacity level is a function of the minimum capacity of the group of fans added to the next higher stage and the maximum capacity for the next higher stage is determined based on the increment.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A method for automatically configuring a climate control system for use with an animal house, the climate control system configured for the number and type of animals contained within the animal house, the climate control system having a plurality of climate control input devices to measure a temperature of a location within the animal house, the climate control system also having a plurality of ventilation fans, the plurality of ventilation fans including a smallest diameter variable pit fan, a largest diameter variable pit fan, a smallest diameter on-off pit fan, a largest diameter on-off pit fan, a smallest diameter variable sidewall fan, a largest diameter variable sidewall fan, a smallest diameter on-off sidewall fan, a largest diameter on-off sidewall fan, a smallest diameter variable tunnel fan, a largest diameter variable tunnel fan, a smallest diameter on-off tunnel fan, and a largest diameter on-off tunnel fan, and the climate control system having a control unit configured to operate the ventilation fans, the method comprising:
determining a minimum ventilation requirement comprising required minimum ventilation for the animals contained within the animal house;
identifying the plurality of input devices and plurality of ventilating fans in the climate control system to the control unit;
determining a plurality of ventilation stages based on the minimum ventilation requirement and the plurality of ventilation fans in the climate control system, wherein each stage provides a percentage of the required minimum ventilation, wherein determining the plurality of ventilation stages comprises:
prioritizing the plurality of ventilation fans to create a selection hierarchy, wherein the selection hierarchy prioritizes the plurality of ventilation fans based on whether the prioritized fan is a variable pit type fan, an on-off pit type fan, an on-off sidewall fan, a variable tunnel fan, or on-off tunnel fan, and an airflow capacity for each of the plurality of prioritized ventilation fans;
determining a minimum stage ventilation and a maximum stage ventilation for each stage;
determining a group of ventilation fans from said plurality of ventilation fans following the selection hierarchy that provide the desired percentage of the minimum required ventilation;
defining an increment between a maximum stage ventilation and a minimum stage ventilation for a next higher stage, wherein the minimum capacity level is a function of the minimum capacity of the group of fans added to the next higher stage and the maximum capacity for the next higher stage is determined based on the increment;
continuing defining the plurality of stages until all of the plurality of ventilation fans are used; and
determining a start and stop temperature for each of the plurality of stages.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of prioritizing the plurality of ventilation fans also accounts for the location of each of the plurality of ventilation fans for desired exhaust distribution.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein the increment is between 10-15% of the maximum air flow for the lower stage.

Assignees

• Gsi Group Llc

Inventors

• Weiss Adam
• Laberge Benoit R
• Gaudreau Yvon
• Saad Khaled
• Bégin Nicolas

Classifications

• F24F11/77

  by controlling the speed of ventilators · CPC title

• F24F11/64

  using pre-stored data · CPC title

• F24F11/38

  Failure diagnosis · CPC title

• Y02P60/12

  using renewable energies, e.g. solar water pumping · CPC title

• Y02P60/50

  Livestock or poultry management · CPC title