West Wing has suggested a more accurate way of applying humidity through mist spray. By using an electronic 2-way valve on each floor. Each trigger by a hygrostat. The water pump will need to have an automatic flow switch. Once all 3 valve shut the switch will auto power off the pump. Any one of the 3 valve open will auto-on the pump. So far most of the BHs using mist spray still using timer to control which is not so accurate not to mention some still use unreliable digital timer to control.

Under normal circumstances of spraying 3 floor normally people use a 1HP pump starting from ground to top. A 20'x70 use around 12 nozzles per floor. A 1HP need at least 20 nozzles to run simultaneously if not may cause 2 possibilities. 1)Over pressured and leaking at nozzles. 2) Cause flow switch to turn off pump.

I have a suggestion for this situation. Instead of using 1HP change to 0.5HP but spraying from top floor to ground. Mean you'll need a tangki at top floor to supply to the pump at top floor. With the help of gravity a 0.5HP will be able to cover 3 floors. In this case you'll need another 1HP pump with auto flow switch install outside the ground floor to pump water to top floor tangki.

Petrol price up, rice also price up. Taiwan made poultry humifier not the same price like last time lor. Nowadays average need RM390-RM420 per unit. Depend on area some area 1 floor 1 unit enough. Some area need 2 for 1400 sq feet. Assume you need 2 each floor. Total cost for humidifier is RM2400 assuming RM400 per unit. Mist spray system if use those high pressure piping and adjustable copper nozzles may be expensive. For cheaper solution can use normal 1/2" PVC water piping, 1/2" plastic nozzles, China made no warranty water pumps and some plumbing workmanship. Whole system slightly cheaper, humidify the BH more evenly, way quieter than 747 take off poultry humidifiers. One drawback of mist spray is the water bead size is slightly larger than humidifiers.

p/s aeiou229 if you want to find electronic 2-way valve, PVC nozzles, pumps, hygrostat etc There's a shop in Kg. Cina selling.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 12 2008, 02:42 AM

Since only 1 unit of pump the output is 1 pipe "cabang" into 3 pipes to spray each floor. 1 valve shut if the other 2 still open the pump will still be running because the 2 valves still let water flow through. Pump will only auto stop when all 3 valves shut. Whenever any one of the valves open the pump will auto run again. Mist spray will rise the environment humidity faster than poultry humidifier so in short period will reach the require %RH to let hygrostat trigger off the valve.

That device is call pressure switch or flow switch aka automatic flow switch on water pumps. Almost all water pump will built-in the switch. It's main purpose is for water pump to tank when the tank full the internal float will shut the valve causing pressure to rise and pressure switch will off the pump. Problem of this switch when in mist spray system is it will only trigger off the pump when the pressure is high. Pressure become high when the output side is block. Under situation of no water supply it will still run dry. For timer control small problem. Normally the setting is spray 10 minutes ever 1.5-2 hours during the day. 10 minutes of dry running won't do much harm as water pumps are rotary and come with a fan to self-cool when running. If hygrostat control under situation of no water supply then problem. Pump will keep running non-stop until the required %RH is reached to trigger off. People already came out with solution for this problem. The water supply must come from tanky. Inside the tanky the float is wired to a contact switch where it supply power to the pump. When the water level low the contact switch at the float will disconnect power to the pump. Only reconnect when water level rise to a required level.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 13 2008, 12:06 PM


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Yes I know about hygrostat electronic 2-way valve. I was explaining how a pressure switch works not finding solution for a problem. FYI electronic valve can be more expensive than the pump. 3 units around RM9xx.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 13 2008, 02:41 PM

Just my 2 cents, LAL is preferable at least 4mx4m according to Indonesian and most locals with 30x80 size floor use 15ft x 15ft with safety walls of 2-2.5ft. The question you should ask yourself is why would you want to hack the LAL? Is it to enlarge existing LAL or expand the 1 floor BH to become 2 floor?

Safety walls = anti-fall rail/wall around LAL. Of course LAL without any safety wall is technically better for birds but human safety more important. What for got lots of nests no life to spend? LAL size need to be slightly bigger if want to build safety walls for a smooth flow of birds into LAL. Problem with small LAL tends to create hesitations among new birds that come for house inspection to go through LAL to lower floor. From observation through CCTV we saw many birds slowdown, braking, turn back, change course above LAL before go in. Sharper flying angles the birds need to perform to go to next floor. Quite a number go through and immediately turn back. Take extra more time for new birds to adapt to the LAL. Due to hesitation of going through a hole into another dark realm they've never go in before. Especially when the environment is below 1 lux intensity birds' echo location mode birds would want to avoid bumping on the edges of LAL by flying 1-2ft away from the edges. As in case of LAL 12ft they're big enaugh that most birds won't treat it as a "hole" to go through. Hence less hesitation for first timer birds. Under observations most birds literally "flow" in freely through the LAL without hesitation without the need for sharp angle turn. Some may say a 15'x15' LAL is big waste of nesting space. Some more will make another 15'x15' above the LAL into "difficult harvest zone" In case of just 1 LAL literally 450sq ft of nesting space wasted. Some very "sayang" the nesting spaces. Already worry about every square feet being full of birds and nests at very beginning. Well it's depend on individual's decision. Faster result growth? or more blank spaces. Our friend's finding of minimum size applicable for LAL is a smart way of deciding a good size without wasting much space BUT IMHO the "applicable" must include usable and will not slow down growth results. The bro who suggested 4'x4' please don't simply say to gain post ok. Position of LAL do associate with flowing of air/wind from top floor entrance to LAL to lower floor.

BH designs, methods etc. are like different religions. Many have different views, many explanations etc. All based on human observations, experiences and assumptions. Location of LAL also have many different explanations and views. See which each individual "believe" in.

This post has been edited by seeseng: Sep 24 2008, 01:44 PM

Human over-sensitive. There're so many BHs with IR CCTV nowadays. Installed myself and installed 3 sets of customers. All no problem. Birds fly very close to IR cams without fear at all sometimes so close the the bird almost cover up the whole screen. All using 24LED 1/3 inch CCD IR cams. 1/4" also ok just the visible range shorter.

THIS IS VERY DISAPPOINTING AND FRUSTRATING. THEY ARE NO DIFFERENT THAN TERRORISTS! YES TERRORISTS HIRE BY THE GOVERNMENT THEY VOTED TO RULE! EVERYONE WILL REMEMBER THIS MUKAH MASSACRE FOREVER!

This post has been edited by seeseng: Oct 16 2008, 10:44 PM

One of the best entry level book to start with.

Greetings, I've not been posting for quite a while but still actively following every posts here. Giving my opinions and 2 cents through PMs and emails to members. Still active "behind the scenes" lah.

It has been 2 years since I first started the thread. A lot of things happened. Many many people come and go. Many old timers turned behind the scenes. Although one of these days these old time people not so active in posting but they are the people who keep this thread alive in the early days when the post frequency was less than 5 posts a week. Hardly get any feedback in short time. Today our thread gets over 500 viewers daily and even got name in Penang SMI report as one of the most popular swiftlet discussion forum.

How this thread become popular among ranchers maybe because of 1 word. Freedom of speech. Any member can voice out their opinion freely. No need to post own personal photo in order to be a member. I'm still blur of the purpose of some forum need members to use their own photo as avatar.

It been 2 years now the V1 topic almost come to the end of its lifespan here. V2 thread will be started soon and I will personally do the closing ceremony for V1 before it reaches 2500 posts. A closed thread will normally remain for 2-3 months before the admin remove it. Any important point can be brought up at V2 even it's already discussed in V1. Engineer Lee has saved all the important posts in V1 total up to 300mb. My 2 cents - compile into Adobe PDF format will save a lot of size.

Be nice to the birds they will be nice to you too.

Fuh~ just got back from outstation V1 close already eh~ Not yet reach 2500 leh but almost already. I now declare officially close the V1 Swiftlet Farming thread.