Happy Cows are Solar Cows

They say that happy cows produce the best milk. Well, if the milk-making bovines at an organic dairy farm near Greenville, South Carolina knew anything about energy production, they’d be the happiest cows ever. While that possibility is a bit of a stretch, the Happy Cow Creamery, being the first dairy in the nation to utilize a solar hot water system to heat their water, is not.

Tom Trantham owns the farm, which has already won awards for green organic farming. The super efficient thermosiphon solar water heater he installed on the roof of his dairy heats 50-degree well water up to at least 160 degrees — the temperature he must achieve for his operation to work smoothly.

The system passively channels a fluid (water or an anti-freeze solution) between glass tubes and an integrated storage tank at the top of the system. Gravity and thermal convection does all the work in a thermosiphon system.

Water is contained at the top in a long, insulated tank. Because hot water has a tendency to rise and cool water to fall, the cooler water is drawn down into the glazed tubing to be solar-heated, at which point it rises back into the tank. This creates a sort of natural pumping system that efficiently heats water without the need for any electrical devices. Cold water can be naturally pulled up from the Happy Cow’s well to one end of the system and pushed out the other as hot water for the dairy’s operations.

Because solar thermal systems can utilize infrared rays of solar energy, they work even when it’s cloudy. And Tom Trantham’s system is incredibly efficient. According to Larry Jordan, owner of American Micro Solar and installer of Happy Cow’s system, “This unit will actually boil water, which is just unheard of. It’s just that efficient.”

Trantham speculates that nearly all of his hot water needs could be supplied by the new system.

As mentioned, the Happy Cow Creamery is an organic dairy farm, using chemical-free pasturing and harvesting milk from only grass-fed cows.