*2o— Lancaster Farming, Friday, July 3,1981
Md. farmer takes shine to solar h-.chouse
DELMAR, Md. - Ralph E.
Timmons and his son Ralph, Jr.,
hosted an open house Tuesday to
show off what is probably the first
solar-heated “maternity hospital”
for swine in the Mid-Atlantic area
and the entire Northeast.
The Timmons farm is located on
Mayland’s lower Eastern Shore,
seven miles east of Delmar
(Wicomico county), on Line Road.
The Timmons’ new confinement
farrowing house and misery is 102
feet long and 27 feet wide. The
building has 16 farrowing crates
and a 45-foot by 27-foot hot and cold
nursery area for newly weaned
pigs. A double ventilation system
which divides the building into
quadrants is reputed to be unlike
anything of its kind now in use.
Timmons designed it himself.
The solar collection system
covers 1,000 square feet of roof
space. A 36-cubic-yard rock
system in the center of the building
will be used for storing heat.
Timmons estimates bis total
farm and home fuel bill will be
reduced by at least 50 percent from
what it would have been if the new
hoghouse had been equipped with a
conventional heating system.
The Timmons family did most of
the construction work themselves
on the new building. They hired
some skilled help for masonry
work and installing the solar
panels on the roof.
And they received advice zn
technical matters from two
professional agricultural
engineers associated with the
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lancaster automobile spring co„ ine.
310 RICHARDSON DR.
LANCASTER-HEMPFIELD
INDUSTRIAL PARK
P.O. BOX 4626
LANCASTER, PA. 17604
University of Maryland’s
Cooperative Extension Service.
The Extension consultin'* ■ •'.
Lewis E. Carr, headquartered at
the university’s poultry research
substation near Salisbury, and
Herbert L. Brodie, who operates
out of the Queen Annes county
Extension office in Centreville.
Carr utilized his experience with
solar-heated broiler houses at the
Salisbury research farm to give
technical advice on heating and
ventilation, while Brodie dealt
with water and waste disposal. The
waste disposal system features a
two-stage manure lagoon about 50-
feet from the building.
Both of tne Extension
agricultural engineers helped
Timmons qualify for a $17,000
grant from the U.S. Department of
Energy’s Small Grants Program
for Appropriate Technology.
Under terms of the grant,
University of Maryland personnel
will record and analyze data
relating to the performance of the
solar-heating system in the
Timmons hoghouse. This in
formation will be compared with
similar data from a conventionally
heated confinement farrowing
house on a neighboring farm.
If the system works as expected,
Timmons feels that owners of
swine confinement systems and
poultry houses, both new and
existing, will want to use his solar
design or a modification of it.
Five years ago, Timmons
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Ralph Timmons, Jr., left, goes over solar The solar-heated confinement farrowing house
hoghouse plans with Wayne V. Shaff, and nursery building in background is believed
agricultural Extension agent in Wicomico to be the first of its kind in the entire Nor-
County on Maryland’s lower Eastern Shore, theast.
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330 Fonderwhite Road, Lebanon, PA 17042
PH: 717-274-1483
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