Co-Mo Electric Cooperative News Service 9/10/2010 10:03:27 PM us=en newslist.aspx?itemID=64
The project involves installing light-emitting diode lights — or LEDs —in two chicken barns at the farm of Danny Mazelin in Cole Camp. Ifsuccessful, the project could spark a change in poultry farmingnationally. 

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Facebook users: Check out photos of the project here

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The LED lights being installed in the two barns are engineeredspecifically for the poultry industry to promote healthy growth withless consumption of feed to get the bird into local supermarkets at alower cost.

This emerging LED technology allows the farmer to control the lightspectrum of the bulbs to benefit the chickens at each stage of theirlives. LED lights also use substantially less energy than traditionalincandescent bulbs, lowering the farmer’s electric bill and lesseningthe load on Co-Mo’s system during peak times.

Co-Mo, through its power supplier Association Electric CooperativeInc., is sharing in the cost of installing more than 120 of thesespecially designed bulbs in two of Mazelin’s six chicken barns. Thosebarns will serve as the experiment group, while the other four will bethe control group. Mazelin sells his birds to Arkansas-based Tyson,which purchases birds first from farmers who are able to grow them tothe target weight with the lowest consumption of feed.

“Seventy percent of our expenses is feed,” said Jim Williams, liveproduction manager for Tyson’s Sedalia plant. “If we can grow thesebirds out with less feed, that has a significant effect on our costs.”

The LED lights, called AgriShift Poultry Lighting, are designed by OnceInnovations, a Minnesota-based LED lighting design and manufacturingcompany. The science behind them comes from research that shows poultryhave spectral sensitivity to certain wavelengths of light. TheAgriShift lights mimic the spectrum to which poultry responds best. 

“The technology behind these lights is potentially revolutionary,” saidTom Hulse, energy services advistor for Co-Mo Electric. “It’s not thetypical LED light you’d buy for your house if you wanted to be energyefficient. These are chicken lights.”

It was Hulse who brought the idea for the project to Mazelin and Tysonrepresentatives as part of a larger effort by Mazelin to make moreenergy-efficient poultry barns.

So why all the fuss for chickens?

“We want to give the chicken an environment in which he’s comfortable,where he can kick back in his recliner and gain weight,” said KevinGibbs, broiler manager for Tyson’s Sedalia plant. “If a chicken isn’tcomfortable, he’s not going to gain weight and the entire operationisn’t going to be efficient.”

Beyond the LED project, Mazelin is retrofitting his six barns outsideCole Camp with a new cooling system, similar to a swamp cooler. Itconsists of cooling pads running down the length of the barns’ wallsand fans at one end. When water is run over the cooling pads, the fanscreate a wind-chill effect, making for a more comfortable bird.

“Let’s say it’s 90 degrees outside. This can make it feel like 65 to 68 degrees inside,” Gibbs said.

And a bird that’s not sweating is getting itself ready for market quicker and more efficiently.

In addition to being better for the bird, the new cooling system ismore energy friendly. The conventional system took seven 48-inch fansand twelve 36-inch fans — 19 total fans. The new system drops that toten 48-inch fans.

After the lights are installed — sometime in early September — Co-Mowill be working with Mazelin and Tyson to gather data from theexperiment, including energy use and bird production. The belief isthat electricity consumption will go down compared with incandescentbulbs while efficiency in getting the birds to market will go up. Andif that’s the case, it’s a technique that can be replicated throughoutCo-Mo territory, the Midwest and the country.

“It could be a win-win for the farmer,” said Ken Johnson, Co-MoCEO/general manager. “The farmer can lower his expenses through hiselectric bill and sell more birds to Tyson because the company looks tothe most efficient farmers first. Less expenses and more income is agood way to run a for-profit business.”


ABOUT CO-MO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE - Co-Mo's service area comprisesapproximately 2,300 square miles in Central Missouri. Co-Mo exists tofulfill its members’ needs for superior electric and related servicesat fair and reasonable prices and support its communities througheconomic, civic and educational opportunities.

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Cathy Sinclair, who has been with Co-Mo since November 2004, was honored with the award at the all-employee safety meeting today at the cooperative’s Tipton headquarters.

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Watch the video announcing Sinclair's selection
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Sinclair joins first-quarter winners Bob Fisher and Brian Layman in the running to win the first-ever O.B. Clark Members First Award, to be given at the cooperative’s May 2011 Annual Meeting.

The second-quarter award was given to Sinclair for handling a member’s phone call earlier this year with what the member called “outstanding” skill.

“Cathy was just awesome,” said the member from Sunrise Beach. “She never made me feel rushed or stupid. I believe people should be recognized for doing their job, for doing it well, for acting as though they actually like their job and making me feel my business is important. Cathy represents your company well.”

Sinclair was nominated for the award by Customer Service Supervisor Jennifer Mercer, who received the appreciative phone call from the member.

“I nominated her because the member was very, very happy with how Cathy had treated her and taken care of her needs,” Mercer said. 

Corey ten Bensel, Lake District Manager, praised Sinclair for taking good care of one of the lake area’s residents.

“She is always going out of her way to help the members,” Sinclair said. “I sure appreciate that.”

The annual award is named after longtime Co-Mo Electric board member O.B. Clark, of Versailles, who also served in numerous regional and statewide positions before his retirement in 2009. Staff members are nominated by their colleagues or members of the community during each quarter, and the winners are chosen by a committee of four Co-Mo staff members. The four quarterly award winners will be eligible to win the annual award.

The O.B. Clark Members First Award program was started in January to recognize Co-Mo Employees for performance in line with the cooperative’s six core values. Those values are:
1.    Place the interest of our Members above all others’
2.    Keep our members, the public and ourselves safe
3.    Demonstrate integrity and honesty beyond reproach
4.    Maintain a high level of financial stewardship
5.    Treat everyone with courtesy and respect
6.    Adhere to the 7 Cooperative Principles

To nominate a staff member, pick up a form at either of Co-Mo’s offices or e-mail jagliata@co-mo.coop to be mailed one.

ABOUT CO-MO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE - Co-Mo's service area comprises approximately 2,300 square miles in Central Missouri. Co-Mo exists to fulfill its members’ needs for superior electric and related services at fair and reasonable prices and support its communities through economic, civic and educational opportunities.

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It wasn’t the spacious living room or ultra-modern kitchen. It wasn’t even the first-floor wine closet.

It was the mechanical room.

The lake-area condo owner and 30-year veteran of the HVAC industry, who spent part of his career teaching technicians how to repair heating and air-conditioning units, went right to the unfinished space that houses the state-of-the-art geothermal system. What he said he saw was quality work.

“The ductwork, that job right there, it was fantastic,” said Anderson, who has an Oct. 4 closing scheduled on the first-ever Lake of the Ozarks Dream Green Home project, spearheaded by magazine publisher Dave Leathers and co-sponsored by Co-Mo Electric Cooperative.

The work was done by Tom Hulse, who owned Tom’s Heating and Cooling before being hired as Co-Mo’s Energy Services Advisor in May.

“All the returns were sealed with caulk, all the little stuff was done perfectly. It didn’t take me long to figure out this was a well-built home,” Anderson said.

And so, even before the open houses were scheduled to begin, a home that began as a long-shot dream in a difficult-to-impossible housing market was on its way to being sold.


A dream fulfilled
The dream began in the wake of the housing bust that followed the incredible boom in Lake of the Ozarks home construction. Leathers, publisher and president of Showcase Publishing Inc., had seen similar environmentally and energy-friendly homes constructed in other parts of the state, and in early 2009, he decided he wanted to bring the concept here.

Along with Tom Biggs, the developer of The Villages, and Doug Ross of Ross Custom Homes, Leathers set out to find the perfect lot for the project. After scouring The Villages property, they selected a second-tier lot with a great southern exposure.

The goal wasn’t to line his own pockets, either. Profits from the sale of the home and from open houses and parties would go to the Osage Beach YMCA.

From there, Leathers approached Co-Mo to see if the cooperative would like to partner on the project. Co-Mo CEO/General Manager Ken Johnson was more than eager to participate.

And so in November 2009, ground was broken on this highly speculative project with a dream that a buyer would come to the forefront to snap up an energy-conscious home.


Geothermal selling point
What made the Dream Green Home stand out was its attention to saving the homeowner — whomever that might eventually be — money on his electric bill. The first thing Co-Mo insisted upon was that Leathers and Ross contact cooperative-world energy-efficiency guru Doug Rye, whose Arkansas-based radio program Co-Mo co-sponsors on the local Jefferson City 950 AM radio station.

Rye reviewed Ross’s plans and made numerous recommendations to take the already energy-friendly plans and make them even more efficient. One of his ideas was to install a top-notch geothermal heating and cooling system.

About eight feet underneath the Earth’s surface, the temperature remains fairly constant. By running liquid through pipes installed underground, a ground-source geothermal heating and cooling unit can either warm up or cool down the air inside a home, depending on the season.

The result is an extremely efficient way to heat or cool a home, something that attracted Anderson.

“I would say the geothermal system was probably 75 percent of my decision,” said Anderson, who, if all goes well, will live in the home with his wife, Kim, and occasionally their two college-aged sons. “The bills are so low it’s just ridiculous.”

The early January cold snap — and its resulting $385 electric heating bill on a 1,800-square-foot condo — reinforced Anderson’s love of geothermal.

“If there were geothermal in that condo, it would have been a quarter of that,” he said.

Other “green” features of the home include the use of recycled material for insulation and carpeting, a special way of constructing the corners connecting exterior walls that allow for greater insulation and a permeable concrete for the driveway that allows water to soak back into the aquifer instead of becoming runoff that causes erosion. 


What’s next?
Anderson remains cautious on whether his dream of owning the Green Home will become a reality. As he said in late August, there’s a long time before the Oct. 4 closing date and, “anything can happen.”

But for Leathers, the interest in the home has led to an even greater dream, one in which the entire street that houses the initial project is built out with the same concept. That idea suits Co-Mo’s Ken Johnson just fine.

“If there is, indeed, going to be another housing boom at the lake, it’s in everyone’s best interest — ours, the homeowners’ — to have those homes be energy efficient,” Johnson said. “It decreases the load on our electrical grid, and it saves the homeowners some potentially significant money. That’s a win-win.”

Or as Leathers put it: “This is the wave of the future. We want to see everyone get on board.”


ABOUT CO-MO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE - Co-Mo's service area comprises approximately 2,300 square miles in Central Missouri. Co-Mo exists to fulfill its members’ needs for superior electric and related services at fair and reasonable prices and support its communities through economic, civic and educational opportunities.


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Cooperative linemen are currently working along a two-mile stretch just north of Excelsior, bringing a higher-powered service to NurtaAg. The business produces feed for area farmers and pet owners.

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Facebook users: Click here for a photo gallery of the project.

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The work involves fulfilling NutraAg’s request to change single-phase service to three-phase service.

“With the service we had, we were completely maxed out,” said NutraAg owner Leonard Martin. “We weren’t able to add on additional equipment. The new three-phase service will allow us to run bigger motors and continue to expand as we need to.”

Planning for the project began in early July, and the heaviest work began last week. Beyond highlighting Co-Mo’s commitment to the local business community, the project underscores cooperation among cooperatives.

“To complete this project, we’ve borrowed equipment from other co-ops,” said Chuck Tuttle, operations manager for Co-Mo Electric. “It’s kind of been a hand-in-hand, sharing type deal. Callaway Electric (Cooperative) has loaned us some of their equipment, as has Boone (Electric Cooperative). On top of that, they’ve shared with us some knowledge on how to best use the equipment.”

Cooperation among cooperatives is one of the seven principles of the cooperative form of business.

On top of the benefits to NutraAg, the project is giving Co-Mo linemen some valuable experience.

“In the past, we’ve done projects maybe a third of this size,” Tuttle said. “So this is something that’s fairly new to our staff. It’s good for the guys to gain the experience on something like this. Co-Mo crews have done a wonderful job of taking the responsibility of doing this.”

The project is expected to be complete in early September.

ABOUT CO-MO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE - Co-Mo's service area comprises approximately 2,300 square miles in Central Missouri. Co-Mo exists to fulfill its members’ needs for superior electric and related services at fair and reasonable prices and support its communities through economic, civic and educational opportunities.


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The cooperative has called a Peak Alert for 5 to 9 p.m. Friday as heat indexes approach and exceed 110 degrees.

A peak alert doesn’t mean the cooperative is running out of electricity but rather is a way to help lessen usage during a high-demand time. This electricity conservation helps Co-Mo avoid demand charges that make the price of power more expensive.

Co-Mo asks its members to limit their use of major electrical appliances during the Peak Alert and turn off any lights, televisions or small appliances when not in use. Appliances that are major electricity hogs include dishwashers, washing machines, clothes dryers, water heaters and stoves.

In addition, Co-Mo Energy Services Advisor Tom Hulse recommends members turn up their thermostat three degrees during this time and close blinds on windows facing south or west to keep the sun’s heat out.

For more information about ways to keep your electric bill lower during the summer, visit togetherwesave.com

ABOUT CO-MO ELECTRIC COOPERATIVE - Co-Mo's service area comprises approximately 2,300 square miles in Central Missouri. Co-Mo exists to fulfill its members’ needs for superior electric and related services at fair and reasonable prices and support its communities through economic, civic and educational opportunities.

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