This study aims to evaluate a solar chimney-based natural ventilation evaporative cooling (NVEC) system in pig housing environments as a low-cost and sustainable solar energy solution for cooling pig housing environments across growth stages. The system was tested in four pig growth stages: weaning, nursery, growing, and finishing. The results showed that solar energy-driven chimney ventilation can maintain a desirable thermal environment for pigs at weaning, nursery, and growing stages, but cannot for pigs at the finishing stage, as they require a much cooler environment. There is a significantly strong positive correlation (r = 0.96, p < 0.05) between solar chimney temperature and ventilation rate, highlighting the significance of solar thermal energy in the solar chimney to initiate and facilitate airflow, and passively remove heat from the pig house environment. Solar chimney ventilation had a 37% energy-saving efficiency compared to traditional ventilation, which could improve pig farmers’ economic viability. The solar chimney ventilation system is limited to pig barns and applies to different livestock facilities. This study not only promotes the integration of solar thermal energy into regulating thermal environment in livestock facilities, but also promotes efficient energy use, environmentally friendly initiatives and sustainability in livestock farming.
Zakwe et al. (Mon,) studied this question.
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