How Cooling Pads Improve Airflow in Saudi Poultry Houses

Leading paragraph:
Saudi summers are brutal. Your chickens can stop eating or even die when the air feels like an oven.

Snippet paragraph:
Cooling pads pull hot outside air through water-soaked cardboard. The water absorbs heat and drops the air temperature by 10–15°C. This cooler air then pushes out the old, hot air through exhaust fans. The result is fresh, cool air moving through the whole house.

Transition paragraph:
I’m Zora Guo from Yichen, a factory that makes cooling pads and exhaust fans in China. We ship to Saudi Arabia and other hot countries. I’ve seen how a good cooling pad setup changes a poultry house. But let me first explain the simple science behind it. Then I’ll show you how to use it for your farm.

The Science Behind Evaporative Cooling Pads and Airflow Dynamics

Leading paragraph:
Many buyers think cooling pads just add moisture. But that’s not true. The real magic is in how they move heat.

Snippet paragraph:
When hot, dry air passes through a wet cooling pad, water evaporates. Evaporation pulls heat out of the air. The air becomes cooler and heavier. That cooler air sinks and flows naturally through the house. Exhaust fans then pull it out, creating a steady stream of fresh air.

Dive deeper paragraph:

Let me break this down into smaller pieces. You don’t need a physics degree to get it.

First, think about how sweating cools your body. When sweat turns into vapor, it takes heat away from your skin. A cooling pad does the same thing. Water sits inside the pad’s paper or cellulose material. Hot air from outside blows through the pad. The water turns into vapor. That vapor needs heat to become gas. It takes that heat from the air. So the air leaving the pad is cooler.

How much cooler? That depends on two things:

I’ve run tests with our customers. In Riyadh, on a 45°C day with 15% humidity, a good 150mm cooling pad can bring the air down to 32°C. That’s a 13°C drop.

Now here is the part many people miss. The cooler air is heavier than hot air. It sinks to the floor. That is where your chickens live. So the cool air goes exactly where it is needed. The exhaust fans at the other end pull the hot air out. This creates a continuous flow.

But what if the pad is too small? Or the fans are too weak? Then the cool air stays near the pads. The back of the house stays hot. That is why you need to match the pad area to the fan capacity. A common rule is 1 square meter of pad for every 1,000 cubic meters per hour of fan airflow.

Also, the pad material matters. Cheap pads use paper that falls apart in a few months. Our Yichen pads use high-grade cellulose¹. They last 4–5 years in Saudi’s dry climate. I can tell you from experience – saving money on pads costs you more in dead birds and frequent replacements.

Combating Extreme Heat: How Optimized Airflow Reduces Poultry Heat Stress in Saudi Summers

Leading paragraph:
A Saudi client once called me in panic. His chickens were panting, refusing to eat, and 200 had died that morning.

Snippet paragraph:
Optimized airflow² from cooling pads¹ lowers the bird’s body temperature. Chickens do not sweat. They rely on moving air to lose heat. When you combine cooled incoming air with good air speed³, the heat stress index⁴ drops by 15–20 points. That means more feed intake and fewer deaths.

Dive deeper paragraph:

Let me explain heat stress in a way that makes sense. A chicken’s normal body temperature is about 41°C. When the air around it gets too hot, the bird cannot cool down. It starts panting. Panting uses energy. That energy should go into growing meat or laying eggs. Instead, it goes into staying alive.

The heat stress index combines temperature and humidity. In Saudi, you often get 45°C and 20% humidity. That gives an index around 85. At 85, birds eat less. At 95, they start dying.

Cooling pads change the game. They lower the incoming air temperature. But that is only half the story. The other half is air speed.

When air moves over a bird, it carries away the heat that builds up around its feathers. A bird in still air at 35°C can be hotter than a bird in moving air at 38°C. That is why you need both: cool air from the pads + good air movement from exhaust fans.

Here is a simple table from our field tests in a Saudi broiler house:

You see the difference. The combination brings the bird back to normal.

One mistake I see often: farmers use cooling pads but keep the air speed too low. They think “cool air is enough.” It is not. You need at least 1.5 to 2.0 m/s air speed at bird level. That means you must size your exhaust fans correctly.

For a typical Saudi house that is 12m wide and 120m long, you need about 800,000 m³/h of fan capacity. That is roughly eight 50-inch fans. Each fan needs about 0.8 square meters of pad area. Do the math.

I remember a customer from Al Qassim. He had six fans for a 150m long house. The air at the far end was stale. After I showed him the numbers, he added two more fans and increased the pad area. His summer mortality dropped from 8% to 2%. That is real money saved.

Strategic Placement of Cooling Pads for Uniform Air Distribution in Closed Poultry Houses

Leading paragraph:
You can buy the best cooling pads in the world. But if you put them in the wrong place, you waste your money.

Snippet paragraph:
Place cooling pads on one end wall and exhaust fans on the opposite end. This creates tunnel ventilation². The air travels the full length of the house. Every bird gets the same fresh, cool air. For wider houses, put pads on both side walls and fans on the end.

Dive deeper paragraph:

Where you put the pads changes everything. Let me walk you through the two main layouts.

Layout 1: End-wall system (tunnel ventilation)
This is the most common design for Saudi poultry houses. You cover the entire end wall with cooling pads. The exhaust fans go on the opposite end wall. When the fans run, air enters through the pads. It travels straight down the house. Then it leaves through the fans.

The good part: air speed is high and even from one end to the other. The bad part: the first few meters are colder than the last few meters. You might see a 3–5°C difference. But that is okay because birds at the far end still get fresh air.

Layout 2: Side-wall system (cross ventilation¹)
Use this for houses wider than 15 meters. Put pads along both side walls. Put exhaust fans on one end wall or on the roof. Air comes in from the sides and moves toward the center. Then it flows out through the end fans.

This works well for large, open houses. But you need more fans and more pad area. Cost goes up.

So which one is better for you? Here is a quick comparison:

I personally recommend end-wall for most Saudi growers. It is simpler and cheaper. But you must seal the house tightly. No gaps around the pads. Any crack will let hot air bypass the pads. That ruins the whole system.

Also, think about the direction of the sun. In Saudi, the afternoon sun hits the west wall hard. If you put pads on the west wall, the incoming air will be pre-heated by the sun. Better to put pads on the north or east wall. That keeps the pad water from heating up.

One more tip from my experience: leave a 2-meter empty space in front of the pads. Do not stack anything there. This gives the air room to slow down and enter the pad evenly. Uneven airflow means some parts of the pad dry out. Then hot air goes through those dry spots.

Maintenance Best Practices to Sustain Airflow Efficiency of Cooling Pads in Dusty Environments

Leading paragraph:
Saudi air is full of dust. That dust sticks to your cooling pads². Then the pads stop cooling. Then your birds suffer.

Snippet paragraph:
Clean your cooling pads every two weeks. Use a low-pressure water spray from the inside out. Change the water in the sump tank¹ daily. Replace pad material³ every 3–5 years. These simple steps keep airflow high and cooling effective.

Dive deeper paragraph:

Dust is the silent killer of cooling pads. I have seen pads that looked like mud walls after one summer. The owner kept wondering why his house temperature was rising.

Here is what happens. Dust particles in the air stick to the wet pad surface. They build up layer by layer. After a few weeks, the pad’s holes get blocked. Air cannot pass through easily. Your fans have to work harder. They pull less air. The cooling effect drops.

Let me give you a maintenance schedule⁴ that works for Saudi farms.

Daily tasks (5 minutes):

• Check water level in the sump tank. Add water if low.
• Look at the pad surface from inside the house. Do you see dry spots? Dry spots mean water distribution is uneven.
• Listen to the fans. Any strange noise means a belt or bearing problem.

Weekly tasks (30 minutes):

• Drain the sump tank completely. Scrub off algae and dirt. Refill with fresh water.
• Run the water pump for 5 minutes without fans. This flushes out loose dust.
• Inspect the water distribution pipe. Make sure every small hole is open. Use a needle to clean blocked holes.

Bi-weekly tasks (1 hour):

• Turn off the water pump. Let the pads dry for 30 minutes.
• Use a garden hose with a spray nozzle. Spray from the inside of the house outward. This pushes dust back out the way it came in.
• Do not use high pressure. High pressure damages the paper fibers.
• After spraying, turn the pump back on. Check that water flows evenly across the whole pad.

Seasonal tasks:

• Before summer, replace any pad sections that have collapsed or have large holes.
• After summer, clean the pads one last time. Cover them with shade cloth to reduce algae growth.

I learned this the hard way. A dealer in Dammam bought 500 square meters of pads from me. He installed them but did not train the farm workers. Three months later, the pads were clogged solid. The farm blamed my product. I flew there, took photos, and showed them the dust layer. After I explained the maintenance routine, they followed it. The same pads worked well for four more years.

Here is a simple checklist you can print and put on the wall:

Remember, a clean pad gives you full airflow. A dirty pad gives you nothing. In a dusty place like Saudi, you cannot skip maintenance.

Conclusion

Cooling pads work by evaporation, cut heat stress, need smart placement, and demand regular cleaning to keep air moving in Saudi poultry houses.