Gas water heating system fast and efficient for dairy sheds

Gas water heating system fast and efficient for dairy sheds
A new gas water heating system for New Zealand dairy sheds is designed to reduce costs and improve flexibility for the farmer.
The Bosch dairy hot water system is now available through Longveld On Farm in a collaboration between Longveld and Bosch Hot Water & Heating Division.
The two companies have been developing the system for the past 12 months using the Bosch 32 continuous flow commercial water heater and Longveld On Farm’s engineering and installation capabilities.
It is being demonstrated for the first time at a Waikato dairy farm near Tuhikaramea on Wednesday 12th June with another demonstration the following day at a Pongakawa farm in the Bay of Plenty.
The exclusive New Zealand distributor and installer is Longveld On Farm, a division of Longveld.
Longveld Managing Director, Les Roa, says the new system is a New Zealand first and will enable farmers to improve their overall efficiency.
Two senior representatives of Bosch are visiting New Zealand for the occasion. They are Mr Michael Kopka, Bosch Thermotechnology Regional President – Asia Pacific who has come out from Shanghai and Mr JoaoPaulo Oliveira, Bosch Thermotechnology Global President – Domestic Hot Water Division, from Aveiro, Portugal.
Mr Kopka said he was delighted to be in New Zealand to be part of the launch of the new product.
“We recognise that the New Zealand dairy industry is at the forefront of the international dairy market and a leader in innovation that improves production efficiency on the farm,” he said.
“We believe that our gas hot water system will contribute to further efficiency gains for those farmers who choose to switch from electricity to gas water heating for their milking plant cleaning systems.”
Longveld’s Les Roa says the key benefits of gas water heating in the dairy shed are the lower costs of water heating and the flexibility of having hot water in the shed whenever it is needed for multiple hot wash uses every day.
“With the gas water heating system the water is only being heated when you need it,” he says.
“When we were investigating the benefits of the system we monitored electric water heating and we saw that the electricity meter on the electric hot water systems never stopped – so the electricity was heating the water 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” he said.
“As a water heating system for the big volumes of water needed for dairy sheds it’s just too slow to give farmers hot water when they need it.
“We know that farmers get frustrated if they don’t have enough hot water to do a hot wash or clean the vat. If the tanker pick-up time changes it can mean they miss a hot wash cycle because electric water heating is so slow.
“The Bosch dairy hot water system is capable of delivering 600 litres of hot water within an hour of when the system is programmed to start – so at 5am there’s a full tank of hot water and then another full tank of hot water at 3 or 4pm – in fact at any time the farmer wants it.”
The Bosch system is fully programmable so that the water in the hot water cylinder is up to temperature whenever it is needed for a vat wash or hot wash for the milking system.
The system has been custom-designed for New Zealand dairy farm conditions using a commercial version of the Bosch continuous flow gas water heating systems used in homes around the world.
Mr Roa says the system will cut day to day water heating costs by up to 50 per cent.
“We’ve done a lot of work to calculate the financial benefits as well as the convenience benefits and our estimates are on the conservative side. We think this is going to be an attractive option for dairy farmers who need to upgrade their shed hot water systems and it’s certainly one they should explore.”
Bosch and Longveld have calculated the energy savings to be over $4,000 a year for a farm with a 700 litre water cylinder used for two hot washes a day and based on an average day/night cost of electricity of 22 cents/kWh. This gives a payback period of about two and a half years after the cost of the base installation.
Mr Roa says that figures will vary from farm to farm depending on the existing hot water system, its usage and the actual cost of electricity.
He said farmers are increasingly aware of the need for their milking systems to be fully compliant in all aspects of food production.
“Our dairy farmers are the first link in a global food supply chain where food safety is number one,” he said, “and that means effective cleaning systems are imperative which require sufficient volumes of hot water at the right time of day.”
The system can be retrofitted to the existing hot water cylinder or installed with a new cylinder depending on the condition of the existing equipment.
 
Source: Scoop