Anything I can do to speed up wood drying?

[stacked]

I have some wood that is wet (not green, just wet). It's stacked up out of the weather completely - not outside. It's burnable, but not really quite "there" yet. It should be dryer & I'm curious of there's anything that I can do to speed up the drying process so that I can use it sooner & get better performance out of it, or is it just one of those things that I just have to wait on? Right now I'm burning a lighter weight wood (poplar I think) mixed in with some hardwoods & I want to use the other wood we have - the sooner the better - since it's a harder wood too & it's getting colder here by the day.

TIA!

 

[burnham]

I stand up pieces of wood around the stove while it's burning, it pulls the moisture out nicely. Not too close.

 

[begreen]

If you can stack it in a covered single row, oriented so that the prevailing wind can blow through it, that will hasten drying, but it will still take a month or two. Of course, if the snow is 6 ft deep, that's not going to work. Back to plan A, bring it inside, maybe put it in the clothes dryer (J/K )

 

[Hogwildz]

Well, umm you could hang it through that hole in the glass
OH, thats right, all better LOL
OH man, I really couldn't help it. *grins*

 

[RedRanger]

Maybe transport it to Berwick and let the pre-vailing winds from the Nuke Plant irradiate it.

Then you can go heh,heh go Hogwild and really get a good burn going.!! :lol:

 

[Hogwildz]

That would work.

 

[crazy_dan]

Maybe transport it to Berwick and let the pre-vailing winds from the Nuke Plant irradiate it.

Then you can go heh,heh go Hogwild and really get a good burn going.!! :lol:

you don't know that nuke plat irradiation adds like a couple thousand BTUs to a 6" split. hmm maybe thats why hog and I live near nuke plants. :coolsmile:

 

[woodconvert]

I stand up pieces of wood around the stove while it's burning, it pulls the moisture out nicely. Not too close.

This is the best way. I've been doing it a lot lately. The bottom two courses of my wood stacks need a bit more cure time so this is what I do and it works very well. You can get the wood closer than you think...worst case if you get it too close is you'll smell it if it starts to smolder. Three hours ish in front and around the stove (depending how hot you run it) and you'll have some nice kiln dried wood. Just make sure you don't forget about it and run some errands or something.

 

[Cearbhaill]

Putting a fan on your indoor woodpile might help- keep that air moving.

 

[eernest4]

Just my 2 cents worth.

I have 2 outdoor wood sheds & 1 indoor wood storage area. All 3 are unheated, but the indoor area absorbs enough heat from the rest of the house to remain above freezing.

The 2 outdoor sheds do a good job of keeping dry wood dry, buy don't do much, quickly, for drying wet wood. They probably help dry wet wood over an extended time. The indoor wood storage area will dry wood after 2 or 3 months & would probably do a better job of it with some heat & a fan.

What works the best, is to place the wood about 3 ft from the stove & point a 24 inch box fan so that it blows across the stove and onto the wood. The wood is getting hit with high speed hot air blowed from right off the stove. This also makes the stove heat up the room real quick.
Its like your getting more heat out of the stove & into the room air, instead of letting most of the heat go up the smoke stack.

Anywheres from 3 hr to 12 hr ,depending on the moisture content of the wood & the running temp of the stove.

sometimes, a little wet wood mixed into the load is a good thing because if you have ultra dry wood in your stove, the stove temps can run away from you if your not watching the stove like a hawk. You could dial in a primary air setting, watch it for 5 minutes & it looks stable, like the stove will just sit there & cruse at that temp & you come back 15 minutes later to see the stack temp at 700* or 800*, then you have to close the primary air & set the 24 inch box fan on the stack to cool it off, then reset the stove controls again & watch it all over again, for another 15 minutes.

With a little wet wood in the mix , this may not happen or if it does, you see lower temps, like 500 to 700*.

So i try to mix a little, but not much, wet wood into every load, because it tends to make my stove more temp stable & I don't have to watch it so hard.

 

[stacked]

Well, I have a lot of the wood inside for easy getting to while DH is away. I picked up a box fan, so I'll try out that idea as well as putting a few pieces near the burner here and there to dry out.

Thanks for the tips everyone! And I never knew that a little wet wood could be good either. So I guess tossing in a piece here and there isn't all bad.

 

[jeepin in maine]

i think some may disagree about the wet wood.but to each there own.

as far as other ideas........if your wood storage is in the basement,i've been told that covering the wood with a tarp and running a dehumidifer under the tarp works well,but i haven't tried it yet. i do as the others and just stack my next load near the stove for a few hours if its still a tad moist.

 

[stacked]

i think some may disagree about the wet wood.but to each there own.

as far as other ideas........if your wood storage is in the basement,i've been told that covering the wood with a tarp and running a dehumidifer under the tarp works well,but i haven't tried it yet. i do as the others and just stack my next load near the stove for a few hours if its still a tad moist.

I had thought about a dehumidifier, but wasn't sure if I was just imagining stuff in my head that wouldn't work IRL.

The only thing I worry about w/the wet wood is wasting the energy or maybe buildup in the chimney... but again, I'm not expert on any of this. This is DH's department, I just generally follow his lead, but he's not here ATM to ask.

 

[Hogwildz]

i think some may disagree about the wet wood.but to each there own.

as far as other ideas........if your wood storage is in the basement,i've been told that covering the wood with a tarp and running a dehumidifer under the tarp works well,but i haven't tried it yet. i do as the others and just stack my next load near the stove for a few hours if its still a tad moist.

I had thought about a dehumidifier, but wasn't sure if I was just imagining stuff in my head that wouldn't work IRL.

The only thing I worry about w/the wet wood is wasting the energy or maybe buildup in the chimney... but again, I'm not expert on any of this. This is DH's department, I just generally follow his lead, but he's not here ATM to ask.

Man, I have got to find your clone

 

[Woodrat]

[quote author="eernest4" date="1201111429"]

What works the best, is to place the wood about 3 ft from the stove & point a 24 inch box fan so that it blows across the stove and onto the wood. The wood is getting hit with high speed hot air blowed from right off the stove. This also makes the stove heat up the room real quick.
Its like your getting more heat out of the stove & into the room air, instead of letting most of the heat go up the smoke stack.

Anywheres from 3 hr to 12 hr
******************************************************************************************
I do pretty much the same thing as eernest4-- have taken down trees this time of year-cut, spli,t and brought them in the cellar with the fan--- within the week, we're burning them. The dehumidifier idea would probably work too- but why pay the additional cost of running a piece of refrigeration equipment and also wasting the water that is coming out of the wood? Better (IMHO) to just let it be evaporated into the air where it is needed anyway

Best wishes- Woodrat

 

[ansehnlich1]

My driest wood seems to be the stuff I have stacked out back with top of the row covered with 2x4 sheets of OSB (pressed plywood). After it rains and/or snows, wait a day or so and it's completely dry again.

If I have a tarp over it, and a little rain gets in there, or a small hole in it and water leaks in, that wood stays wet seems like forever, but that stuff that sits out in the open coverd with just that plywood on top dries out in no time after it gets rained on.....funny how that is.

 

[sgcsalsero]

I aim a recycling bin full of wood (maybe 40lbs worth) at the insert, sometimes fully on its side, sometimes at a near 45 degree angle propped up. With the blower on it'll dry out in 2-3 hours. This is tricky though, I did end melting one bin last year. I figure it also add a 'little' bit of humidity to the air, not t'all a bad idea this time of year.