Looking for shorter firewood drying time

Welcome to Hearth. com! My guess would be yes as long as you have good airflow to remove humidity. A C

ANDRE V said:

Will a well heated wood shed (say, 80 degrees F) shorten the time required to properly dry newly cut firewood? Providing sufficient heat will be cheap and simple for me since I intend to use in-floor heating.

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There are several factors that dry wood. Heat , air circulation, relative humidity, wood type & more.

Try it. Run some fans to pull the moisture out.
Energy efficient, is not going to come into play.

I keep some wood in the greenhouse to dry it quickly, yesterday it was over 90f in there with the door open.
Less dense woods dry out surprisingly quickly in there, it's particularly good for drying deadwood branches that are almost seasoned.



And welcome to the forum

Is there an underlying reason you can't just get a year ahead on your wood supply?

I think venting will be more important than heat for most of the year. In the winter heat should help, but I doubt it will be cost-efective to provide heat for drying firewood. You'll get more heat from the wood if it is dry, but I don't hink it'll pay for the heat used to dry the wood unless you have very cheap or free heat. I could be wrong- haven't tried to calculate the cost or value of the operation. I think a few peopl on here have tried solar kilns to dry firewood, and those threads might tell you something about how fast the wood will season.

Smaller splits dry faster as well. They also burn a lot faster too though.

Just heat your house with the cheap and simple heat

If you have enough heat in a space to speed dry firewood, do you really need firewood?

ANDRE V said:

Thanks, AC. I see that the moisture evac issue would definitely be a major consideration.

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This is why we say that wind is more important than sun for drying wood.

It would be interesting if you had a moisture meter and followed up with post on rate of drying.

ANDRE V said:

Will a well heated wood shed (say, 80 degrees F) shorten the time required to properly dry newly cut firewood? Providing sufficient heat will be cheap and simple for me since I intend to use in-floor heating.

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It can't dry any faster than under similar conditions outside. I suspect outside at 80 degrees it would dry even faster than inside. If it takes a year outside, well...........

I'm thinking the fans and dehumidifiers that would be needed to actually speed up the process would use enough electricity that it wouldn't be worth it.

The wood should dry faster, but you are using MORE energy than if you just dump that heat into your house.

Has anyone tried stacking it near their stove.Close enough to get hot/warm but not close enough to ignite.

One of these years I'll buy a moisture meter and keep some fresh cut stuff in my furnace room near the wood furnace. I don't have any scientific evidence, but some marginally seasoned stuff that sat in my wood furnace room for a few months still sizzled when I threw it in.

Im thinking if it were close enough to the stove and the wood gets hot, say 200 degrees it would cook the moisture out rather quickly. I believe it takes over 600 degrees to ignite.

Just stack outside and it might dry faster.

Save your cash and stack it outside. Like the guys have said, getting ahead on your wood supply is the key. Outside stacking where the sun and wind can get to them. Outside for at least a year. Cover the top only if you cover at all. Do you have some wood now that you need dryer to burn this season? If so, split it a little smaller and if you have room criss cross and stack it and use a box fan to create air movement in the building you have it in. It will dry faster. What kind of wood are you talking about drying and burning?

Seasoned Oak said:

Has anyone tried stacking it near their stove.Close enough to get hot/warm but not close enough to ignite.

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Yes, lots of folks are doing that. I'm not one of them.