Finian O’Harte

Project Name: F O’Harte Poultry Ltd, Clones, Co. Monaghan

Finian was born and bred in the Clones area of Co. Monaghan in the heartland of traditional Irish chicken farming country where he lives with his wife and three young sons.

As a second generation poultry farmer, who is carrying on the family tradition, he is proud of the quality of his farm and the chickens he produces for Manor Farm.

Finian was determined to address his business’s reliance on fossil fuel gas as the main fuel source on his farm and add environmental benefit for his three young sons’ futures on the farm.

In each of the poultry units the old direct-fired gas heating system was replaced with a finned tube heating system positioned on the perimeter walls to provide the maximum amount of heat dispersion. This heating method has many welfare benefits for the birds and the farmer, lowering ammonia levels due to drier litter and removing CO from the poultry unit.

Providing the heat is a 500kW Smart Heating Technology Biomass Boiler, with a built in Siemens Climatix IC Controller allowing our company to remotely monitor the efficiency of the biomass boiler and in turn adjust the boiler’s settings to achieve best performance.

A Smart Heating Cyclone System was also connected to the biomass boiler to reduce emissions. We also installed a BMS Control Panel to allow for weather compensation in each of the three poultry units, this will conserve energy through introducing lower temperatures to the heating system in the summer months.

Our company was contracted to carry out a complete heating system upgrade consisting of following system elements:

  • Installation of Fin Tube Pipework to 3no Poultry Units 
  • Installation of 3no Remote Pump Stations (Gable End of poultry units) 
  • 500kW Smart Heating Technology Biomass Boiler 
  • Installation of 10,000Ltr Accumulation Tanks 
  • Hydraulic Connection to above system 
  • Energy Saving Pumps 
  • Thermal Insulation of the Heating Pipework System- insulated pumps & valve covers 
  • BMS Automated Controls

“I initially started this project by instructing CHP Mechanical to install a fin tube pipework system in my three poultry units, backed up by a 500kW gas boiler. Then once I received my SSRH Letter of Offer in November 2019 I got them then to install a 500kW multi-fuel biomass boiler on our farm prior to Christmas 2019.

I have replaced the LPG direct fired heating system with a new highly efficient hot water heating system and are now heating these three poultry sheds by burning wood chip. The environment within the sheds has improved dramatically and is a lot more enjoyable to work in and in turn I have been able to reduce my heating bill substantially by moving from LPG Gas to Wood Chip.

CHP Mechanical installed, tested and commissioned the biomass boiler and the complete heating system for us with little if any interruptions to my daily production schedules. The workmanship was first class with the finished job completed to an extremely high standard.

Their bespoke BMS control panel, along with the Siemens Climatix controller on the boiler, allowed me to remotely monitor both the performance of my biomass boiler and that of my three poultry units at any time of the day. The overall system has performed extremely well over the last six months.

–Finian O’Harte