Using Cow Thermal Energy to Heat Homes in Winter

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ILLUSTRATION: MOTHER EARTH NEWS STAFF
Bryan's invention can be described as operating like a refrigerator in reverse.

Using cow thermal energy to heat homesteads, the heating system is set up similarly to a forced-air heating system.

Using Cow Thermal Energy to Heat Homes in Winter

Farmers have known for years that, early on a biting-cold January morning (before the woodstove has been stoked up to house-heating pitch), about the warmest place to be on a homestead is down in the old cow barn. Of course, it’s one thing to work in a barn, but it would be quite another to live there . . . so few people ever consider using Bossy’s excess BTU to heat their homes!

FROM COMPUTERS TO COWS
Recently, however, Bryan Ramlow (a former IBM engineer from Poynette, Wisconsin) has developed a new heating layout that’s able to successfully harness bovine heat and use it–sans humidity, mess, or odor–to warm a whole house! Bryan, who had always been interested in new energy-efficient ways to transfer heat, first got the inspiration for what he eventually titled “Cowpower” about five years ago . . . when, on a bitterly cold day, he tromped out to fix a farmer’s broken-down milk cooler. While laboring in the cow-filled building, Ramlow couldn’t help noticing that–even with some of the windows open–the barn was one heck of a lot warmer than the wintry outdoors.

  • Published on Nov 1, 1982
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