Homemade Cooler Room

[simmyshower123]

Hi all! I plan on building a cooler room in my new barn this spring. I plan on using a coolbot and a 24000 btu air conditioner unit. How big of a room, and how many calves could this room hold at approx 48 degrees? I have three fall of 15 heifer calves i plan on putting in. TIA

 

[Tallcool1]

Depending upon the weight of the heifers, and the outside temp, you don't have enough horsepower to keep up.

At about 1,000 pounds, those 3 calves are going to put off about 10,000 BTU of heat per hour per calf.  You are cooling with 24,000 BTU.  You are going to go backward.

Generally speaking, you want about double the BTU's than the cattle in the cooler are going to put off.

If you add another 24,000 BTU AC unit, you will pretty easily keep in in the mid 50's.

From my personal experience, 48 degrees is overkill.  We used to keep ours that cool, and it is a waste.  62 degrees is plenty cool to grow hair, and anything more than a 20 degree variation is tough on cattle.  We set our cooler according to the temperature that they are going to be exposed to when we turn them out that night.  If the forecast says it will be 85 degrees tonight at 10:00, then we set the cooler at 65.

 

[HomeRaised]

We ran a 12X15 cool room last year with a 25K AC and Cool Bot. I had the set point at 58 and it maintained well there with two head. I was also running two turbo fans in there. Mine has 2X6 walls, 2X10 ceiling, all bat insulation. It is in an old cattle barn with the hay loft over head, so I dont have a lot of attic heat of sun exposure. If I did it again, I would spray foam.

 

[blackdirt cowboy]

What did it cost per month to run a setup like that, and what were ambient daytime temperatures during the period you were running the cooler?

 

[HomeRaised]

What did it cost per month to run a setup like that, and what were ambient daytime temperatures during the period you were running the cooler?

Its about $100-$150 per month additional. I really believe that the blowers morning and night rinsing eat a lot of that energy cost. That was in central Iowa last summer which was somewhat mild so ~85-90 daily

 

[CAB]

If you are going to put a floor in spend plenty of time, money, & thought on insulating it. You will lose a lot of cold through the floor. Make sure that you have you ventilation worked out or you can run into respiratory issues quickly.

 

[jchandler16]

If you are going to put a floor in spend plenty of time, money, & thought on insulating it. You will lose a lot of cold through the floor. Make sure that you have you ventilation worked out or you can run into respiratory issues quickly.

wouldn't your typical floor be a concrete slab with some form of a bedding built up on top of that? What type of insulation would you do for a concrete slab? Im thinking of how to convert an old room in the barn to a cold room. Its a concrete slab floor with poured cinder block walls. would the walls need added insulation or will leaving them as they stand work.

 

[HomeRaised]

If you are going to put a floor in spend plenty of time, money, & thought on insulating it. You will lose a lot of cold through the floor. Make sure that you have you ventilation worked out or you can run into respiratory issues quickly.

wouldn't your typical floor be a concrete slab with some form of a bedding built up on top of that? What type of insulation would you do for a concrete slab? Im thinking of how to convert an old room in the barn to a cold room. Its a concrete slab floor with poured cinder block walls. would the walls need added insulation or will leaving them as they stand work.

Before I had the cooler, I had a stall with fans. It had a concrete floor and I put mixed recycled wood and cedar over it. I could not control the smell in that, so I ripped it out and dug down 3 feet and back filled with sand. Over that I put mostly cedar mulch. I haven't found a good source for fiber, but would like to try it sometime. I have a small exhaust fan, but I never run it. We religiously pick the chips, and if we get a hint of smell, We pull anything wet out. The cedar mulch will look black when its saturated and we remove those major urine spots and the smell goes with it. We had two heifers in there last year, and they peed in the same spot always. We would rake back anything that wasn't black and only pull out the wet stuff.

The floor stays really cool in my barn, but mine is really protected from the outside sun. While I built with 2X6 studs, the exterior walls have the 2x6 over the existing exterior walls which are 8" concrete 4' tall and 2x8 studs. So my two walls on the exterior of the building are 14" thick.

 

[HomeRaised]

I also made my own cooler door release. I posted the link to my post on here below. let me know if you have any questions.

http://www.steerplanet.com/bb/the-big-show/emergency-door-release-for-cooler/msg426793/#msg426793

 

[Tallcool1]

Ya, no concrete.  Our first year, we had the hocks swelling problems from it.  Overhauled it, and went to dirt/sand covered with cedar mulch.  Never had a problem since.

 

[SimFarmer]

My dad and I built our homemade cooler out of a horse barn stall that is roughly 12 x 12. I definitely recommend spray foam because it has really made a bid different (just be caution of mice). Our 24000 btu ac is set on 50 degrees and does a great job with 2 yearling heifers and a yearling bull during hot and humid summers. Our coolers biggest fault is the floor. Layering chips and straw has been okay but I have to extensively clean urine spots every night after turn out. This winter we have begun to scoop it out to start from the beginning. What is the best flooring to put in? We have access to sand but didn't know how the ammonia smell would be handled with that.

 

[b_kackley]

You might look around and see if you can find where someone has tore out a walk in cooler. Some of those units were panels that you bolted together. They are easy to disassemble and reassemble. I have seen one used this way. They used an ac from a mobile home. These are easy to find and will easily cool the room. The only warning I will give is that the panels are extremely heavy so if it one of those deals where if you tear it down you can have it and it is in a bad place you better have some strong friends to help.

 

[CAB]

I'll just say that cold air falls & hot air rises. If you talk to anyone that has a cooler / freezer involved with their business, they'll all tell you tell spend money insulating the floor.
  As far as the panels being heavy, if that is the case you do not want to use those panels. They are very old and were built with fiberglass insulation and over the years have condensated to the point of saturation and have virtually no R value left in them. The newer panels are insulated with foam and will never get heavy.