kiln or heated wood drying

Air circulation helps the most and the sun is a definite plus, as long as you are under cover from the rain and snow. I think the consensus on additional heat is that it is a waste, unless that heat is free. I wouldn't burn wood just to keep the other wood warm.

Chris

scott, Ed has been to my boiler room, I store 5+ cords inside the boiler room that has radiant heat and a roof fan, also I built a insulated drying closet heated by a cast iron radiator controlled by a honeywell slab controller at 110deg and conditioned by a external piped dehumidifier with wire racks that hold about 2 days wood, all fired by wood. Dry, consistent wood in my opinion is huge, what is the difference if a few btu's are given up to a clean hot burn

TCaldwell said:

scott, Ed has been to my boiler room, I store 5+ cords inside the boiler room that has radiant heat and a roof fan, also I built a insulated drying closet heated by a cast iron radiator controlled by a honeywell slab controller at 110deg and conditioned by a external piped dehumidifier with wire racks that hold about 2 days wood, all fired by wood. Dry, consistent wood in my opinion is huge, what is the difference if a few btu's are given up to a clean hot burn

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Hi Tom,
Have you done any moisture tests to see how much drier your splits are after spending a day vs 2 days, etc in that kiln?
How much energy is the dehumidifier using? Could the same effect be created without that energy sucking dehumidifier by adding a small vent at floor level and another at top of box. You should get a natural convection then. Not trying to re-invent your wheel, just thinking about my future wood kiln.. I hope to avoid wasted electricity.

We dry wood in a polytunnel which is on a gentle slope. cold air circulates through the bottom door and hot moist air out the top door. Timber stacked on danish trolleys so can be moved easily when required

I used to run a Nyle Dehumidification dry klin.

The amount of time and energy to get any amount of moisture reduction without a lot of heat would not be anywhere near cost effective. Take it from someone that has dried thousands of board feet of lumber. The thicker the wood the longer it takes to bring the moisture down and if you don’t have heat of at least 110 deg. forget it.

Better to use the sun and the wind and let it set undercover. If you can figure out how to rig up some sort of solar heat with natural air flow to carry off any moisture you would be way ahead of the game.

Also if you have an area inside, like in your boiler room where it is going to be warm anyway and dry because the fire is taking out any moisture that would be a great place to store some wood too.

Rich

I used to stack about 8 cords of wood in the basement of my old house at the beginning of the heating season so that I didn't have to go outside for any wood all winter and in hopes that even somewhat green or wet wood would dry out in the relatively warm (60 degree) environment heated by my wood-fired boiler. I found that it takes longer than you might think to dry out green wood, even under those conditions. Even wood that was cut in the spring and dried out in the sun all summer, wouldn't be all that dry by the time October rolled around. Typically, I'd get much drier wood on the top third of my stacks than the stuff on the bottom, which basically didn't dry out very much at all. During rare spurts of ambition, sometimes I'd restack some of the wood in an attempt to get the stuff on the bottom to dry out by putting it on the top, but typically, then the stuff on the bottom would suck up moisture and become kind of so-so.

It ain't as easy as you might think. I think infloor radiant would be the way to go. Outside exposed to sun and breeze is probably the most practical and cost effective approach, all things considered. Covered for the last month or so and then stacked inside or under a roof until burned.

I have a lot of standing dead oak and cherry.What is your opinion on how dry or what is the best approach .

The cherry dries out faster, but isn't as good on a btu/lb basis. Great wood for firestarting and warmer weather, however. I'd cut them both, but try to stack them separately, or at least so that you can pick and choose. You will probably find that you usually use a combination of the two to get the kind of fire you want. Cut, split and stack a whole bunch asap. Split, stack and leave uncovered until around mid September. Then cover (or move under a roof or inside if possible).

I thought black cherry was a good hard wood and shoudnt standing dead be resonalby dry to start?

Ed, probably about 70 percent of what i burn is cordwood, the majority of the balance is old dimensional 1x8 oak board fencing, this dries pretty fast in the closet, if the dehumidifier runs a hr a day it would be alot,.

Black cherry is a very valuable commercial hardwood species, but it's in the bottom half for btu value. People like to burn it because it burns hot and clean, but fast. Standing deadwood is a crap shoot. Some standing dead trees contain a lot of dry wood, while others remain waterlogged until cut and split. You might find that the branchwood is dry, while the main stem is moist. That said, standing deadwood usually dries out faster than green wood.