초록 ▼

Tiers of cages for animals to be raised or tended are disposed in opposing orientation at opposite sides of an elongated room. The tiers are spaced above the floor of the room and inward from the opposite sidewalls. The ceiling of the room has a multiplicity of separate vent apertures spaced apart l

Tiers of cages for animals to be raised or tended are disposed in opposing orientation at opposite sides of an elongated room. The tiers are spaced above the floor of the room and inward from the opposite sidewalls. The ceiling of the room has a multiplicity of separate vent apertures spaced apart lengthwise of the room with sliding doors for adjusting the effective open area of the apertures. Exhaust fans are recessed in the ceiling of the room and are effective to expel air from the room to the exterior of the building. Expelling air from the room reduces the pressure and outside fresh air is drawn into the room through the vent apertures. Opening and closing of the vent apertures is coordinated with operation of the exhaust fans so at to maintain a desired negative pressure in the room, which results in fresh air being injected into the room as downward extending jets.

대표청구항 ▼

1. An animal husbandry housing including a substantially closed building having an elongated room with solid, substantially air-impervious upright sidewalls, a generally horizontal ceiling and a floor, perforate cages for the animals mounted adjacent to at least one of the sidewalls but spaced outwa

1. An animal husbandry housing including a substantially closed building having an elongated room with solid, substantially air-impervious upright sidewalls, a generally horizontal ceiling and a floor, perforate cages for the animals mounted adjacent to at least one of the sidewalls but spaced outward therefrom and above the floor so as to leave a substantially unobstructed airflow passage between such at least one adjacent sidewall and the cages and below the cages above the floor, the ceiling having a multiplicity of separate vent apertures spaced apart lengthwise of the room, the room normally being in communicating with the exterior of the building by means of the ceiling vent apertures, an exhaust opening in the upper portion of the room, and fan means for expelling air from the room through the exhaust opening so as to draw undiluted fresh air from the exterior of the building into the room through the ceiling vent apertures, the improvement comprising the cages being positioned between the ceiling vent apertures and such at least one adjacent sidewall such that there is an unobstructed airflow passage from the vent apertures downward to the floor at the side of the cages remote from such at least one adjacent sidewall and in open communication with the passage below the cages, vent door means for closing and opening the ceiling vent apertures, and means for coordinating opening and closing of said vent door means with operation of the fan means so as to maintain the room at a negative pressure sufficient that undiluted fresh air is injected into the room as jets through the ceiling vent apertures which jets are out of registration with the cages. 2. In the housing defined in claim 1, the coordinating means maintaining the room at a negative pressure sufficient that the jets of undiluted fresh air injected into the room through the ceiling vent apertures flow substantially straight down at the side of the cages remote from the at least one adjacent sidewall until the jets are turned abruptly at the floor for mixing of the injected air with room air adjacent to the floor prior to flow into the airflow passage between such at least one adjacent sidewall and the cages. 3. In the housing defined in claim 1, the cages being arranged in tiers, each tier of cages below the top tier being spaced outward from the at least one adjacent sidewall a distance greater than the tier above it such that the width of the passage behind the cages tapers upward to meter the volume of airflow to be approximately uniform through the different tiers of cages. 4. An animal husbandry housing including a substantially closed building having an elongated room with solid, substantially air-impervious upright sidewalls, a generally horizontal ceiling and a floor, perforate cages for the animals mounted adjacent to at least one of the sidewalls but spaced outward therefrom and above the floor so as to leave a substantially unobstructed airflow passage between such at least one adjacent sidewall and the cages and below the cages above the floor, the ceiling having a multiplicity of separate vent apertures spaced apart lengthwise of the room, the room normally being in communication with the exterior of the building by means of the ceiling vent apertures, an exhaust opening in the upper portion of the room, and fan means for expelling air from the room through the exhaust opening so as to draw air from the exterior of the building into the room through the ceiling vent apertures, the improvement comprising the cages being positioned between the ceiling vent apertures and such at least one adjacent sidewall such that there is an unobstructed airflow passage from the vent apertures downward to the floor at the side of the cages remote from such at least one adjacent sidewall and in open communication with the passage below the cages, vent door means for closing and opening the ceiling vent apertures, means for coordinating opening and closing of said vent door means with operation of the fan means so as to maintain the room at a negative pressure sufficient that air is injected into the room as jets through the ceiling vent apertures which jets are out of registration with the cages, an exhaust plenum above the ceiling and communicable with the room through said exhaust opening, and an inlet plenum separate from said exhaust plenum, above the ceiling and communicable with the room through the vent apertures, said exhaust plenum being open to ambient air at one side of the building and said inlet plenum being open to ambient air at the opposite side of the building to deter recirculation of air from said exhaust plenum to said inlet plenum. 5. An animal husbandry housing including a substantially closed building having an elongated room with solid, substantially air-impervious upright sidewalls, a generally horizontal ceiling and a floor, perforate cages for the animals mounted adjacent to at least one of the sidewalls but spaced outward therefrom and above the floor so as to leave a substantially unobstructed passage between such at least one adjacent sidewall and the cages and below the cages above the floor, the ceiling having a multiplicity of separate vent apertures spaced apart lengthwise of the room, the room normally being in communication with the exterior of the building by means of the ceiling vent apertures, an exhaust opening in the upper portion of the room, and fan means for expelling air from the room through the exhaust opening so as to draw air from the exterior of the building into the room through the ceiling vent apertures, the improvement comprising the cages being positioned between the ceiling vent apertures and such at least one adjacent sidewall such that there is an unobstructed airflow passage from the vent apertures downward to the floor at the side o the cages remote from such at least one adjacent sidewall and in open communication with the passage below the cages, vent door means for closing and opening the ceiling vent apertures, and means for coordinating opening and closing of said vent door means with operation of the fan means so as to maintain the room at a negative pressure sufficient that air is injected into the room as jets through the ceiling vent apertures which jets are out of registration with the cages, the vent apertures being elongated lengthwise of the room, each of said apertures being at least several times longer than it is wide, said vent door means including an elongated door for each aperture having opposite ends adjacent to the opposite ends of the corresponding aperture, respectively, said coordinating means including means for sliding said doors lengthwise of the vent apertures to alter the distance between corresponding ends of said doors and apertures and thereby adjust the unobstructed areas of the apertures opening downward toward the floor. 6. In the housing defined in claim 5, the coordinating means including means for adjusting the effective open areas of all of the vent apertures simultaneously and to the same extent by simultaneous and equal movement of the vent doors. 7. A method of introducing undiluted outside fresh air into animal husbandry housing having an elongated room with substantially air-impervious upright sidewalls, a generally horizontal ceiling, a floor and perforate cages for the animals adjacent to at least one of the sidewalls but spaced outward therefrom and upward from the floor forming an unobstructed upright airflow passage between such at least one sidewall and such cages and a lower unobstructed airflow passage in communication with such upright passage, which method comprises expelling air from the room through an exhaust opening so as to draw undiluted outside fresh air through vent apertures out of registration with the cages, and coordinating opening and closing of the vent apertures with the expelling of air from the room so as to maintain the room at a negative pressure sufficient that undiluted outside fresh air is injected into the room as jets through the ceiling vent apertures which jets are out of registration with the cages. 8. The method defined in claim 7, including coordinating opening and closing of the vent apertures with the expelling of air from the room so as to maintain the room at a negative pressure sufficient that the jets pass down at the side of the cages remote from the adjacent sidewall until the jets are turned abruptly at the floor for mixing of the outside fresh air with room air adjacent to the floor prior to flow into the upright passage between the adjacent sidewall and the cages. 9. An animal husbandry housing, the improvement comprising the combination of a substantially closed building having an elongated room with solid, substantially air-impervious upright sidewalls, a generally horizontal ceiling and a floor, two animal rearing areas arranged in opposing orientation adjacent to said sidewalls at opposite sides of said room, respectively, and spaced apart transversely of said room leaving an unobstructed central service walkway therebetween, each of said animal rearing areas having a plurality of vertically spaced tiers of perforate cages for the animals, which cages have back sides adjacent to, but spaced outward from, the adjacent sidewall so as to leave a substantially unobstructed upright cage-cooling airflow control channel between such adjacent sidewall and the back sides of the cages and front sides remote from such adjacent sidewall and facing the front sides of the cages in the animal rearing area at the opposite side of the room, said cages being spaced above said floor so as to leave a substantially unobstructed bottom airflow passage below said cages in each animal rearing area, which bottom airflow passage is in open communication with the corresponding upright cage-cooling airflow control channel, said ceiling having a multiplicity of separate vent apertures spaced apart lengthwise of said room, said room normally being in communication with the exterior of said building by means of said ceiling vent apertures, each of said animal rearing areas and the corresponding tiers of cages being positioned between said ceiling vent apertures and the adjacent sidewall such that there is an unobstructed airflow passage through said central service walkway from said vent apertures downward to said floor out of registration with said cages between said animal rearing areas and in open communication with said bottom airflow passages below said cages, an exhaust opening in the upper portion of said room, fan means for expelling air from said room through said exhaust opening so as to draw undiluted fresh air from the exterior of said building into said room through said ceiling vent apertures, vent door means for closing and opening said ceiling vent apertures, and means for coordinating opening and closing of said vent door means with operation of said fan means so as to maintain the room at a negative pressure sufficient that undiluted fresh air is injected downward into the room as jets through said ceiling vent apertures, which jets are out of registration with said tiers of cages, with sufficient momentum that said jets flow through said walkway and are turned abruptly at said floor of mixing with air inside said room in the area of said floor, whereby a mixture of fresh air and room air is forced outward toward said sidewalls through said bottom airflow passages, then upward through the control channels and inward away from said sidewalls through said perforate cages for ventilating said cages. 10. In the housing defined in claim 9, each tier of cages below the top tier of each animal rearing area being spaced outward from the adjacent sidewall a distance greater than the tier above it such that the width of the cagecooling airflow control channel behind the cages tapers upward to meter the volume of airflow to be approximately uniform through the different tiers of cages.