Alternative Heating Systems – Heating Cost Analysis

For the past 18 months extension engineers and poultry scientists from the University of Georgia as well as an engineer from the Georgia Forestry Commission have been studying a fairly typical hot-air alternative heating system on a commercial broiler farm in Northeast Georgia. A significant portion of the first year of the study was spent on optimizing the hot air distribution systems, modifying the furnace so that it could burn a wider variety of fuels, improving the control of the fuel combus...tion process, and increasing overall system reliability as well as ease of use. With these issues addressed, the study has entered the second phase; comparing the actual cost of heating a house with wood products to those using a traditional propane heating system.