Early summer in Fairbanks is usually a wonderful time of year. During the month of June, the outdoor air temperatures followed the usual pattern of rising to the 70sF during the day and settling into the 50s during the night. A common feature of summer days here is that, in the late afternoons, we often have brief thundershowers due to the uplift of moist air that warms on the ground during the day.
Sometimes, the convective uplift has the vigor to bring raindrops to freezing altitudes where they form hailstones. When the convection is strong enough the hailstones can make multiple loops, adding layers of ice until they are too heavy to be lifted again. At that point, they drop to the ground.
Such an event took place a couple of days ago. We had hailstones with widths between 0.25 and 0.5” and they came in such volume that the ground was whitened. In this image, the top of the biomeiler is covered in puddles with floating hailstones.
The biomeiler continues to steadily chill the incoming air, though the effect is diminishing as the summer heat warms the outer layers. The air entering the coop was at 37F at the beginning of the month, but has warmed to approximately 45F. In consequence, the coop temperature has generally been only 5-10 Fahrenheit degrees warmer than the outdoor air temperature. The data are shown in the main image of this post.
Presently, the coop is occupied by two roosters and thirty Big Red Broiler chicks. With their assistance, the remarkable cooling power of the incoming air has been easily demonstrated by accident. The current group of chicks take a unique delight in attempting to perch on the power cords and have unplugged the fans a couple of times. Without the cool incoming air and the exhaust fan in operation, their body heat and respiration rapidly heats the coop to temperatures in the upper 80sF, accompanied by suffocating humidity. Only after I have fully opened the doors and window to effect a complete air change can the fans return the coop to equilibrium.
Ideally, we would have the coop in the 60sF, but this is the result of our method. Indeed, the situation can only be regarded as encouraging, because we are achieving these temperatures at the mere cost of running two 4” duct fans. The cost of an air conditioner, its operation, and its maintenance in such a dusty environment could easily exceed the cost of the entire biomeiler experiment.
Thus, as both an economic component of our business model and as an intellectual engagement for the owners, the biomeiler experiment continues to be a success. The operational cost savings is much appreciated and there is great satisfaction in observing how our application of simple scientific principles accomplishes what would otherwise require a more-costly and more-complex mechanical arrangement.
