Chore-Time's Tunnel Doors Provide Better In-House Air Mixing and Promote Energy Savings

MILFORD, Indiana, USA - Chore-Time’s new Tunnel Doors offer poultry producers improved in-house air mixing and potential energy savings for tunnel ventilation systems. The innovative tunnel doors produce a cyclonic air movement that shoots air upwards and then swirls it down and around from the center of the house to generate a desirable airflow at bird level throughout the house.

The air patterns formed by Chore-Time’s Tunnel Doors help to eliminate the dead air zones typically found at side- and end-walls in curtain sidewall or double door houses. During tunnel-assist mode, producers will also like how the doors direct cold incoming air away from the birds until it has mixed with the warmer house air.

Chore-Time’s unique doors are made using 1.5-inch (38-mm) thick extruded foam insulation sandwiched between thick pebbled fiberglass-reinforced plastic for greater rigidity and dent resistance. The modular panel design permits maximum flexibility in door size to match house sidewall openings. Doors are available in four- or five-foot (1.2- or 1.5-m) door heights to match common tunnel house openings for retrofit or new construction.

When completely closed, the doors insulate at least eight times better than a curtain during winter thanks to the Chore-Time Tunnel Door’s R-value of 10-plus. This helps reduce both the heating costs and cold weather condensation on the door itself.

Because of the higher R-value, Chore-Time’s Tunnel Door Inlet makes a good fuel-saving alternative to curtains. As an example, with an inside target temperature of 80° F (27° C) and an outside temperature of 30° F (-1° C), the Chore-Time Tunnel Door can save about 6 gallons of propane per day by reducing the direct surface heat lost through the curtain. (Potential savings calculated assuming the building has a five-foot tall (1.5 m) traditional tunnel curtain 80 feet (24 m) long on two sides of the building.)

The company’s tunnel doors are a part of Chore-Time's complete line of integrated poultry and livestock products including feeders, drinkers, feed conveying, feed storage, ventilation, heating, cooling and controls.

About Chore-Time

Chore-Time (www.choretime.com) has been a leading designer, manufacturer and marketer of poultry and egg production systems since 1952. With a complete line of solutions for feeding, feed handling, drinking, egg handling, climate control and management systems, Chore-Time is known for its revolutionary new concepts, innovative features and extensive independent distribution network. Part of the CTB, Inc. family of companies, Chore-Time operates globally from facilities in Indiana, Alabama, the Netherlands and Poland.