Innovation fund project - ecogise

Dairy Farm, Picton and Havelock

According to ecogise (Eco Power Systems New Zealand Ltd.), dairy cow numbers have increased from 1981 from 2.9 million to 5.2 million in 2006 and 176 sheep and beef farms have been converted to dairy.

Cleaning a milking shed can require between 400L and 1800L per day of water heated to 80 degrees Celsius. The solar water heating systems installed in these dairy farms are intended to preheat the cleaning water to 55-60 degrees which will then be boosted to 80 degrees from electricity.

As dairy farms use a significant amount of hot water every day for equipment cleaning, it is expected that payback may be shorter than for a residential solar water heating system.

ecogise will undertake 6 months of monitoring with electricity and water flow meters to assess the performance of these system.

Results will be made available when the monitoring of this project is complete.

Following a positive installation audit, ecogise may install additional systems into other dairy farms in this area under this project