Energy Consumption Evaluation in Dark House Aviaries, With and Without Thermal Insulation: A Case Study in the Western Region of the State of Paraná

Broilers production suffered, due to major investments in technology and genetic development in recent decades, to adapt to the conditions and requirements of the national and world market. Studies on the production systems of reraring show the importance of the economy in the sector, which is one of the most competitive in the agribusiness sector. The present work aimed at studying two dark house aviaries construction, with and without thermal insulation, to evaluate the variations in temperature, gas consumption, and effect of the insulation. Both facilities were checked for temperature variation, using J-type thermocouple sensors and recording in datalogger; LPG consumption, and the production performance considering mortality of birds, feed consumption, water intake, and weight gain. It was concluded that the Dark House with Thermal Insulation (DHTI) aviary showed better broiler birds performance indexes, lower mortality, and greater weight gain. But when it comes to performance in the face of temperature conditions, the Conventional Dark House (CDH) aviary showed values better suited to the production, as noted in the bibliographic references.