Light and Lighting For Poultry (inner frame)

September 1st, 2010 |

Incandescent, Fluorescent, Metal Halide and High-Pressure Sodium lamps are currently being used in poultry production facilities for laying hens, breeder flocks and growing meat birds. The incandescent bulb is the current standard by which others are compared, relative to poultry production.

Incandescent bulbs produce light by passing an electric current through a tungsten filament, heating it to incandescence. These lamps provide light energy over the entire visible spectrum, however much of the electrical energy is converted to heat energy as infrared. They have a light efficiency of about 8 – 24 lumens per watt and a rated life of about 750-2000 hours. A tungsten-halogen incandescent lamp will last about 3000 hours with an efficiency of about 20 lumens per watt.

Fluorescent lamps produce light by the passage of an electric current through a low-pressure vapor or gas contained within a glass tube. The ultraviolet radiation given off by the mercury-vapor arc stream produced along the length of the tube is absorbed by the phosphor material coating the inside of the glass tube, causing it to fluoresce at wavelengths that are seen as visible light. The wavelengths emitted depend upon the phosphors used in coating the tube. The new CF lamps all use a special triphosphor coating, resulting in light emitted in discrete wavelengths from each of the primary colors, red-orange, green and blue, giving an appearance of balanced white light. There are several styles of the CF lamps, including twin, quad and spiral tubes. They come in 5, 7, 9, 13, 16, 22, and 28 watt sizes with efficiencies of 50 to 69 lumens per watt and rated lifetimes of greater than 10,000 hours. Recent research has demonstrated that some may last more than 20,000 hours under poultry house conditions. However, these lamps will decrease their light output by about 20 – 30% over their lifetime, (Darre and Rock, 1995) and this must be considered upon initial installation. All fluorescent lamps require a ballast. The CF lamps have been used successfully in all types of poultry operations, including caged layers, (Darre, 1986) breeder flocks, growing broilers (Andrews and Zimmerman, 1990; Scheideler, 1990), growing pullets and turkeys. Research by Widowski, et al., (1992) indicated a preference for CF lamps over incandescent lamps by Leghorn layers.

High Pressure Sodium (HPS) lamps discharge an electric arc through a concentrated sodium vapor producing energy across the entire visible spectrum, but with the highest intensity in the yellow, orange and red regions. These are considered warm lights at about 2100K color temperature. They run at about 51-132 lumens per watt and come in wattages ranging from 35 to 1000. They have the longest rated life of all the lamps discussed, at about 24,000 hours. All HPS lamps require a ballast. These lamps require a warm up time to full illumination of between 5 and 15 minutes, which means that after a power outage, backup lighting may be necessary until full illumination has been achieved again. These lamps have been used successfully in poultry facilities, mostly in breeder houses and turkey facilities, with peaked roofs so that light distribution is more easily controlled (Andrews and Zimmerman, 1990).

Metal Halide (MH) lamps have ratings from 32 to 1500 watts and come in three different outer bulb finishes, clear, phosphor coated and diffuse. The MH lamps emit light across the entire visible spectrum, but are considered a cool light, having a lot of blue. They have efficiencies of about 80 to 100 lumens per watt and are rated at about 10,000 to 20,000 hours of life. MH lamps require a ballast also. Because these lamps must be mounted in a specific orientation (vertical or horizontal) they are not used much in the chicken house, but have been used in warehouse areas and egg handling rooms, where ceilings are high and efficient, bright lighting is required. These lamps also have a warm up period of between 5 and 15 minutes to achieve full illumination.

The following table lists lamp types and some cost factors.