We first set foot on this project in June last year to lay the first zone of almost 11,000 ft of tube. The farmer had purchased the Garn from me the year before in anticipation of building a new milking facility and used it the winter of 2009/10 to heat his house only. He moved it to the barn boiler/wood room during last summer and we got it running in January of this year while they worked on the interior of the new facility.
In a dairy barn the primary use is for heating wash water. The Garn is keeping 450 gallons at 120* and 240 gallons at 160*+ at all times. The heating side of the system consists of about 1500 sq ft which will be kept at around 55-60. (office, break room, parts room, vet room) About 3600 sq ft which will be kept at 35-45* (milking parlor area) and around 1500 kept at 45-55* (milk tank room and calf feed room) There is also a 60 x 120' area outside (holding area and return alleys) that is tubed so it can be kept ice free during worst case conditions.
The piping is all steel, 1-1/2" and 1" and as the pics show, we used two plate type heat exchangers to isolate the heating side (antifreeze protected) from the domestic hot water side. USDA people freak out about antifreeze even though correct boiler antifreeze is considered non toxic. They just don't get it. We don't connect the system directly to the plumbing for the same reason. The blue tanks you see function as expansion and feed tanks and are manually filled to about 30-40psi to allow for some system fill capacity.
In a dairy barn the primary use is for heating wash water. The Garn is keeping 450 gallons at 120* and 240 gallons at 160*+ at all times. The heating side of the system consists of about 1500 sq ft which will be kept at around 55-60. (office, break room, parts room, vet room) About 3600 sq ft which will be kept at 35-45* (milking parlor area) and around 1500 kept at 45-55* (milk tank room and calf feed room) There is also a 60 x 120' area outside (holding area and return alleys) that is tubed so it can be kept ice free during worst case conditions.
The piping is all steel, 1-1/2" and 1" and as the pics show, we used two plate type heat exchangers to isolate the heating side (antifreeze protected) from the domestic hot water side. USDA people freak out about antifreeze even though correct boiler antifreeze is considered non toxic. They just don't get it. We don't connect the system directly to the plumbing for the same reason. The blue tanks you see function as expansion and feed tanks and are manually filled to about 30-40psi to allow for some system fill capacity.
