The Bovine Bugle

Light bulbs go on: Ways to save electricity in the dairy barn

We've been using some new products, and reusing an old piece of equipment to cut down on electricity use in the barn. With electricity rates slated to rise as much as 14% this year, anything we can do to lower the amount we use will help the total on the electric bill.

The newer fluorecent light bulbs are better in price, come on very quickly, and provide a very bright light. Besides the bulbs for use inside the barn, they are also making floodlights to use in outdoor applications such as our barnyard. These floodlights are great, and I can replace a bulb that would normally use 120 watts with an Ecobulb that will use only 23 watts. Another bonus is that a state agency, Efficiency Vermont, is offering a in-store refund of $2 per bulb when you buy these energy saving bulbs.Each time I visit the store at the St. Albans Cooperative Creamery, I pick up a couple more bulbs to replace more of the incandescent bulbs in the barn.

The old piece of equipment we are reusing is a timer (above)that was installed on the electric hot water in the barn. When we switched to an oil-fired hot water heater, the timer just stayed attached to the wall the past 8 years until I took it down while cleaning the office. I was looking for a way to control the lights behind the feed bunk and in the barnyard, since the wire supplying electricity to those lights is only controlled by the breaker in the breaker panel. When I took down the timer, I guess you could say a "light bulb" went on in my brain, and I knew how I could cut down on electricity used for lighting those areas of the barn. In about an hour I had the lights hooked up to the timer, and it has been working like a charm ever since.

--Jonathan (left), Howmars Farm
Franklin, Vermont

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Posted by Blogger Chris at March 3, 2006 10:03 PM