A Low-Cost Wireless Sensor Network for Barn Climate and Emission Monitoring—Intermediate Results
David Janke,
Michael Bornwin,
Kobe Coorevits,
Sabrina Hempel,
Philippe van Overbeke,
Peter Demeyer,
Aditya Rawat,
Arnout Declerck,
Thomas Amon,
Barbara Amon
Affiliations
David Janke
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Department Sensors and Modeling, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
Michael Bornwin
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Department Sensors and Modeling, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
Kobe Coorevits
Technology and Food Science Unit, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Burgemeester Van Gansberghelaan 92, 9820 Merelbeke, Flanders, Belgium
Sabrina Hempel
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Department Sensors and Modeling, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
Philippe van Overbeke
VIVES MaakLab, VIVES University of Applied Sciences, Spoorwegstraat 12, 8200 Bruges, Flanders, Belgium
Peter Demeyer
Technology and Food Science Unit, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Burgemeester Van Gansberghelaan 92, 9820 Merelbeke, Flanders, Belgium
Aditya Rawat
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Department Sensors and Modeling, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
Arnout Declerck
Technology and Food Science Unit, Flanders Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (ILVO), Burgemeester Van Gansberghelaan 92, 9820 Merelbeke, Flanders, Belgium
Thomas Amon
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Department Sensors and Modeling, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
Barbara Amon
Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy (ATB), Department Technology Assessment, Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany
A barn’s climate is vital for animal welfare and emissions control, including greenhouse gases like methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2) and environmental gases like ammonia (NH3). The goal of this study was to investigate a developed low-cost online tool for monitoring barn climate and air pollutant emissions (OTICE) in naturally ventilated barns. OTICE employed a wireless sensor network with low-cost sensors for gases and climate variables, allowing scalable use across multiple barns. We evaluated the sensors for CO2, NH3, and CH4 for accuracy, both in controlled lab conditions and in a dairy barn in Germany, where measurements were carried out continuously for a duration of 12 days. For the averaged concentration levels over the measurement period, the low-cost sensors agreed well with the reference system, with relative deviations lower than 7% for all three gases, with maximum peak deviations up to 32% for CO2, 67% for NH3, and 65% for CH4, with strong Spearman correlations for CO2 and NH3 (ρCO2 = 0.8, ρNH3 = 0.68) and a rather weak correlation for CH4 with ρCH4 = 0.24. Further calibration and stability investigations are required, especially for CH4 sensing. However, the overall good results for NH3 and especially CO2 measurements indicate a huge potential of the low-cost system as a valuable tool for monitoring relative NH3 emission levels and the measurement of air exchange rates in naturally ventilated barns.
