Evaporative Cooling

Systems:
How and Why They Work

Many poultry houses today are equipped with cooling Consider this: for every gallon of water that is
systems that consist of an arrangement with cool cell pads evaporated, 8,700 Btu of sensible heat is taken out
at one end of the house and large tunnel exhaust fans at of the air (temperature drop) (Donald, 2000) and
the other end. To master operation of their evaporative converted to latent heat (air humidity). The decrease in
cooling systems, poultry growers must have a working air temperature of the hotter, drier air passing through
understanding of the relationship between temperature the wet pads has to be accompanied by an increase in
and humidity and the effect it has on chickens. The humidity of the now cooler air inside the house. You did
relationship is both simple and complicated. not destroy the 8,700 Btu of heat, you simply changed its
The simple part is that as temperature goes up, form (hot, dry air to cooler, moister air).
humidity goes down and vice versa. That relationship If you are wondering whether the temperature of
is quite linear, and it works well. Consider the weather the water trickling through the pad would make any
in Phoenix, Arizona, on a sunny summer afternoon. It difference in the cooling potential, the answer is not
may be 110 °F, but, as they say, “it’s a dry heat.” There is enough to matter—only about a 3 percent difference. A
almost no moisture in the air when the temperature is that gallon of water at 50 °F has a cooling potential of 8,900 Btu.
hot—often it’s less than 10 percent humidity. As a result, A gallon of water at 90 °F has a cooling potential of 8,700
evaporative cooling works great in the desert. Btu. The change to the air due to a water temperature of
Now consider the weather on your farm on a summer 50 °F versus 90 °F is relatively small (Simmons and Lott,
morning at sunrise. It’s around 70 °F and the humidity is 1996) compared to the overall efficiency of the evaporative
at or near 100 percent. Dew formed overnight, and water cooling system. Basically, the temperature of the water
is dripping off the chicken house roof. Why? The air going through the pad doesn’t matter. The cooling
temperature dropped overnight. Because cold air holds potential is essentially the same.
less moisture, the air became saturated and condensation
formed on surfaces. The 80-80 Rule
Evaporative cooling is practically useless under these Something that does matter is outside air condition.
conditions because the humidity is too high. That’s why Outside temperature and relative humidity are inversely
there’s no value to running cool cells at 6 a.m. However, related: the hotter the temperature, the drier the air. The
something similar to desert evaporative cooling happens drier the air, the better the pads will work. There is a
when cool cell pads run during hot afternoons. “tipping point” that can help determine whether or not
to run cool cells. In most cases, that tipping point is an air
Water Evaporation Alters temperature of 80 °F. If the air temperature is above 80 °F,
Both Temperature and Humidity then running cool cells will likely be beneficial. If the air
Water evaporating from your wet, cool cell pads has temperature is below 80 °F, the cooling effect of running
a cooling effect on the hot air passing through the cool the pads is minimal, gaining maybe a degree or two
cell inlets. This is the complicated part of the relationship difference between inside and outside air temperature. The
between temperature and humidity. To evaporate water, reason for this is the humidity in the air associated with a
heat (energy) is required. The heat comes from whatever particular air temperature.
object the water is in contact with as it evaporates. In our In most cases during the summer, if the air
cool cell situation, that object is the hot outside air as it temperature is 80 °F, the relative humidity in the air is
passes through the wet pads. As heat is removed from roughly 80 percent. That’s just how nature works, and we
the air, the temperature of that air decreases, but the heat deal with it. As air temperature gradually increases above
remains in the air in another form. 80 °F (late morning, afternoon), relative humidity gradually
decreases. As air temperature gradually decreases below cooling helps to increase the cooling produced through
80 °F (late evening, overnight, early morning), relative air movement, but increased humidity reduces the bird’s
humidity gradually increases. Once relative humidity has ability to cool itself through respiratory evaporation.
increased to the 80 percent level, for example, between 10 Evaporative cooling systems are successful only when the
p.m. and 10 a.m., running cool cells offers little benefit. house and ventilation system are adequate (Donald, 2000).
Why? Because it is difficult to evaporate water into air and Part of the difficulty in cooling chickens is that
get much cooling when the air already is 80 percent full of chickens do not sweat. Instead, they have two other ways
moisture (Czarick and Lacy, 2000). to cool themselves: 1) air movement (created by the fans)
There are rare exceptions each summer when extreme and 2) moisture evaporation from the respiratory tract.
heat keeps the temperature above 80 °F until after Respiratory evaporation may be enhanced by an increase
midnight. When these conditions occur, running cool cells in the volume of air breathed per unit of time, which
after 10 p.m. would likely be an advantage. In general, the is usually achieved by rapid, shallow breathing or by
10 p.m. to 10 a.m. scenario is a good rule of thumb. panting. The amount of heat a bird loses through panting
In almost all cases, cool cells should not be operated 24 depends on the relative humidity of the air it breathes. The
hours a day. Pads must be allowed to dry out at least once lower the relative humidity, the more moisture and heat
per day (Campbell et al., 2006). Keeping the pads wet for are removed from the body (Czarick and Fairchild, 2009).
extended periods of time and not allowing them to dry out On the other hand, the bird can’t evaporate much water
at least once per day increases the risk of algae growth and off its respiratory system if the air it breathes in is already
reduces their life expectancy. Life of the pump will also be 85–90 percent saturated; thus, heat stress increases.
shortened by needlessly using it overnight. Also, high in- Why can high air speed alleviate a high humidity
house humidity levels created by running pads overnight issue? Air speed increases the amount of heat loss to the
will make it difficult to keep litter dry. air surrounding a bird which reduces its need to rely on
A common question is, “When should the pads start respiratory evaporation for cooling (Czarick and Fairchild,
running?” Often, growers tend to run pads too soon (at 2009). High humidity inside the house is less of a problem
too low a temperature) in an attempt to do what they when the bird does not rely as much on panting as a
think is best for their birds. If your house has adequate cooling mechanism. Air speed down the house should
air speed (minimum of 500 feet per minute in a 500-foot exchange the air at a minimum rate of once per minute,
house; 600–700 feet per minute is better), there is little even with cool cells. A faster air speed is better. 600–700
benefit to running pads before the temperate reaches feet per minute on a 500-foot house is more advantageous
about 82–85 °F with larger birds. Running the pads at than 500 feet per minute (Dozier et al., 2005).
80 °F or less is counterproductive in terms of house How the fans and pads work together to provide
humidity levels and litter conditions. high wind speeds is extremely important in keeping your
birds alive! There are numerous combinations between
Wind-chill Effect Provides Major Cooling fans and pads depending on your controller set up, but to
Keep in mind that pads are only part of your overall achieve maximum bird cooling for older birds, all tunnel
cooling system. Tunnel fans are the other and more fans should be on before water ever starts to trickle
important part. Understand that evaporative cooling through the cool cell pads. This provides maximum air
systems (cool cells) work to enhance tunnel ventilation. speed down the house and produces the greatest wind-
The first requirement for successful cooling is airflow. chill effect. It is critical that none of the fans shut off when
Sufficient air velocity that provides a good wind-chill water is added to the pads and house temperature begins
effect is more important than any other item in a hot to drop. If some of the fans shut off, air speed down the
weather broiler house (Donald, 2000). Pad cooling is house decreases at the same time humidity is increasing.
complementary to tunnel ventilation. It relies on the This leaves the birds dependent on panting instead of air
large volume of airflow created by the tunnel fans to movement for cooling, which increases the heat stress
improve sensible heat loss from the birds (Donald et al., level. It may take some work with your controller, but
2000; Donald, 2000). make sure you have a wide enough range in the settings
The wind-chill effect produced by the fans serves as between fans and pads so that fans are not shutting off
the primary cooling mechanism. How much wind speed because pads are running.
you have down the house will determine whether you can None of the fans should shut off until house
accept the 80–85 percent humid air from the standpoint of temperature has dropped low enough that heat stress
keeping birds alive and litter reasonably dry. Evaporative is no longer an issue. With older birds in hot weather,

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this may not happen until late at night or in the early nozzle type. For misting systems that produce droplets of
morning hours before sunrise. In some cases, depending approximately 65 micrometers, the fraction evaporated
on nighttime temperatures, it may not happen at all when ranges from 32 percent at 27 °C (82 °F) and 73 percent relative
additional nighttime cooling may be necessary for older humidity to 66 percent at 31 °C (88 °F) and 54 percent relative
birds. Research suggests that running all tunnel fans when humidity (Berman, 2008). That leaves a lot of additional
temperatures are more than 77 °F during the last two moisture in the air for the birds to have to overcome.
weeks before harvest is beneficial to weight gain and feed The effects of temperature and relative humidity
conversion (Dozier et al., 2006). on evaporation are opposite (Singletary et al., 1996). In
Base temperature settings for the pads on the average other words, high temperatures increase evaporation,
of sensors only in the tunnel fan end of the house. Do not but high humidity decreases evaporation. Temperature
include sensors near the pads as this will tend to increase the and relative humidity move together in a numerically
possibility of pads coming on at too high of a temperature similar fashion, but they are always moving in opposite
for birds in the tunnel fan end. Also, litter in the pad area directions. For example, on most days, temperature
tends to be damper than in other areas of the house. The gradually increases from early morning until late
higher the temperature setting for the pads, the drier you afternoon, while at the same time, humidity gradually
can keep litter in front of the pads. decreases. The opposite occurs overnight as temperature
The coolest air in the house (which also contains the gradually decreases from late evening until early
most moisture) is directly in front of the pads. As air morning, while relative humidity gradually increases.
moves down the house, its temperature increases (up to They move in a similar manner and at a similar pace, but
3–5 °F), and the humidity decreases (up to 20 percent). This when one is headed up, the other is headed down.
allows it to pick up more moisture from the litter than was Furthermore, running foggers could decrease air
possible in front of the pads. As a result, the litter down the movement over the birds. When foggers are running,
house is drier than litter near the pads. With older birds, tunnel fans often pull some of the fog outside. As it
if you have the last tunnel fans on by the time the tunnel passes through the fans, fog gradually wets the shutters,
fan end of the house reaches 80 °F and your pads are set fan blades, belts, pulleys, motors, etc. Observations
to operate at 82–85 °F, then you should be able to maintain at a commercial farm in Arkansas indicated that dust
relatively dry litter at a manageable house humidity level collecting on wet shutters formed a heavy coating
while still keeping your birds reasonably comfortable. of mud that weighed the shutter down and reduced
airflow through the fan. In addition, wet fan belts
Foggers in Evaporatively Cooled Houses would sometimes slip on the pulleys and reduce airflow
One area of concern, especially on hot afternoons, is even further. This is equivalent to a lack of proper fan
running foggers in combination with cool cells. Numerous maintenance, which may reduce air speed by 20 percent
times growers have commented, “I didn’t lose birds until I or more. Wet equipment may further reduce air speed on
turned the foggers on.” This is because running the foggers poorly maintained fans to practically nothing.
adds additional humidity to the air. If the air gets too humid, With reduced air speeds, birds will become heat
the birds can no longer cool themselves and will succumb to stressed at lower temperatures. If wind speed goes from
heat prostration even with air movement from the fans. 500 feet per minute to only 300 feet per minute due to
For example, on hot afternoons, the birds are already poor fan maintenance, wet equipment, etc., a significant
in a high heat stress situation. They are surviving, but you amount of wind-chill is lost (Czarick and Fairchild,
can see that many are panting, uncomfortable, and in some 2003). This causes birds to show signs of heat stress at
degree of distress, so you decide to turn on the foggers. temperatures as low as 78 °F. Birds already in a severe
However, turning on foggers at 3 or 4 p.m. often makes heat stress situation will likely not survive the loss of a
things worse, and by 6 or 7 p.m., you are picking up dead significant amount of the wind-chill effect. Heat losses
birds. It might be hard to believe, but running foggers in a are almost certain in this situation! If we lose our wind
cool cell house may actually increase the heat stress load speed, we lose our chickens. It’s that simple.
on birds if humidity levels are already borderline high. Excess moisture from foggers may also wet other
The more humid the air is, the fewer water droplets equipment, including feed line motors and electrical
can be evaporated. Droplet evaporation depends on connections, which can trip circuit breakers, melt
droplet size as well as ambient conditions. When fogging connections, or start electrical fires. Foggers may also
is used, droplets sprayed in the air vary in mean size cause litter conditions to deteriorate rapidly. Wet
and distribution according to the pump pressure and litter can result in poor paw quality and will generate

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additional heat and ammonia, making conditions even and other facts about evaporative cooling. Poultry Housing
more difficult for birds in the days to come. Tips 12(9):1-6.
One other factor important to litter quality is migration Czarick, M., and B. Fairchild. 2003. Minimizing
fences. Use migration fences throughout the house to wet litter problems in houses with evaporative cooling
prevent too many birds from migrating to the cool cell pads. Poultry Housing Tips 15(5):1-5. Univ. of Georgia
area. Without fences, birds will move toward the cool air Cooperative Extension.
(cool cell area). Birds may become so crowded that little or Czarick, M., and B. Fairchild. 2009. Without air
no airflow can make it to the floor, further restricting litter movement evaporative cooling pads can increase bird heat
drying. Crowded conditions will also restrict feed and stress. Poultry Housing Tips 21(10):1-5. Univ. of Georgia
water space and make it extremely difficult for you to walk Cooperative Extension.
the cool cell area. Donald, J. 2000. Getting the most from evaporative
cooling systems in tunnel ventilated broiler houses.
Summary Available at: www.aces.edu/poultryventilation/
Evaporative cooling systems have benefits to the documents/GetMostEC.pdf. Accessed: February 13, 2013.
poultry industry, but they are not without their problems. In Donald, J., M. Eckman, and G. Simpson. 2000. Keys to
combination with tunnel ventilation, they allow production getting good performance from your evaporative cooling
of healthy, profitable flocks during extreme summer system. Alabama Poultry Engineering and Economics
conditions. However, they create high humidity conditions Newsletter. No. 5. 4 pages. May. Alabama Cooperative
in the house, which must be combated with increased air Extension System. Auburn Univ.
movement over the birds. The key to getting the most out Dozier, W.A., B.D. Lott, and S.L. Branton. 2005.
of any evaporative cooling system is to move the maximum Growth responses of male broilers subjected to increasing
amount of air through the house. Wind speed and airflow air velocities at high ambient temperatures and a high dew
keep birds alive. Growers must understand this if they are point. Poultry Sci. 84:962-966.
to properly manage evaporative cooling systems and raise Dozier, W.A., J.L. Purswell, and S.L. Branton. 2006.
birds successfully during hot weather. Growth responses of male broilers subjected to high air
velocity for either twelve or twenty-four hours from
References thirty-seven to fifty-one days of age. J. Appl. Poult. Res.
Berman, A. 2008. Increasing heat stress relief produced 15:362-366.
by coupled coat wetting and forced ventilation. J. Dairy Simmons, J.D. and B.D. Lott. 1996. Evaporative cooling
Sci. 91:4571-4578. performance resulting from changes in water temperature.
Campbell, J., J. Donald, and G. Simpson. 2006. Keys to Appl. Eng. In Ag. 12(4): 497-500.
top evaporative cooling performance. Poultry Engineering, Singletary, I.B., R.W. Bottcher, and G. R. Baughman.
Economics, and Management Newsletter. Issue 41:1-4. May. 1996. Characterizing effects of temperature and humidity on
Alabama Cooperative Extension System. Auburn Univ. misting evaporative efficiency. Trans. ASAE. 39:1801-1809.
Czarick, M., and M.P. Lacy. 2000. The 80-80 Rule….

Publication 2774 (POD-05-19)

By Tom Tabler, PhD, Extension Professor, Poultry Science; Yi Liang, PhD, Assistant Professor, Biological and Agricultural Engineering, University of
Arkansas; Haitham Yakout, PhD, Visiting Research Professor, Poultry Science; Jessica Wells, Extension Instructor, Poultry Science; and Wei Zhai, PhD,
Assistant Research Professor, Poultry Science.

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