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Agricultural Heat Pads

Heat pads consume 70 per cent less power than traditional heat lamps and can save up to $51* per heat pad annually in energy and maintenance costs.

Heat pads are fibreglass mats embedded with heating elements. They form a warm bed midway along one side of the farrowing crate. Compared to heat lamps, heat pads offer an improved environment for piglets and sows. They have a higher initial cost than heat lamps, but heat pads use about one-third the electricity and last up to 15 years, compared with only 5,000 hours for a heat lamp.

In a farrowing barn, each heat pad installed instead of a heat lamp can typically save $51 a year in energy costs, as well as an additional $15 in avoided replacement costs.

Benefits

In comparison with traditional heat lamps, heat pads provide the following benefits:

  • larger comfort area that minimizes piglet piling;
  • piglets tend not to seek warmth from the mother sow, which reduces crushing losses;
  • piglets are protected by blocking drafts rising through the grating floors of the farrowing crates;
  • sows can stay cooler, eat more, and produce more milk;
  • less electrical maintenance is required, they can be washed down with a high-pressure washer, and last up to 15 years;
  • the potential fire hazards of heat lamps and broken lamps is eliminated as well as the waste of natural resources in burned out lamps, and the need to replace heat lamp sockets;
  • each pad saves approximately $51 a year in energy costs and lamp replacement costs;
  • piglets raised on heat pads show no significant difference in weight gain and mortality when compared with those raised on heat lamps;
  • piglets show a preference for the comfort and warmth of heat pads;
  • quick evaporation of birth fluid on newborns.
Typical annual savings: heat pads vs. heat lamps for a 900-sow farrowing operation
per crate heat pads
(double: 132 watts / 2 = 66 watts per crate)		 heat lamps
(1 crate = 175 watts)
electricity cost
 $18 $54
heat lamp replacement
 $0 $15
annual operating cost
 $18 $69
average cost for a 150-crate facility
 $2,700 $10,350

Assumptions:

  • general service small/medium billed customers billed $0.0286 per kWh + demand charge of $8.34 per KVA;
  • annual crate hours = 7,500 hours;
  • lifespan of a heat lamp: 5,000 hours;
  • heat lamp replacement costs = $10 (sockets, etc.);
  • annual occurrence of maintenance = 7,500 hours / 5,000 hours = 1.5 times annually*

*excluding labour costs

Read more about Heat Pad technology.

Read about The Puratone Corporation's six-month trial comparing heat pads to traditional heat lamps.