snowleopard said:
The second realization hit me because a piece of bark dropped off and I looked at the squishy mess underneath, and realized that I'm bringing in a ton of mold spores with this wetish wood, and that's not a great idea either, particularly since the drying-off place is the sunroom, where most of my cherished greenery lives.
Yeah, never bring in really punky wood to do this with. I've done it before and it's not a bright idea. Given enough time, that punk can get so dry and light that it just blows all over the room every time you touch it, creating a major fungus hazard. Also, the dessicated punk layer is extremely flammable. One spark could set the whole stack ablaze. The wood I move in
en masse like this has been cut and split in late fall or winter. Bugs, peeling bark... any questionable wood stays outside where it belongs. If it's really bad, it goes into the fire pit in the summer.
JeffT said:
I always like dry time info but how many kw-hr.are you using that proper planing and mother nature would take care of.Wood-fired kiln,yea lets burn wood to dry wood.
Ain'tcha reading? It
is a wood-fired kiln, powered by my VC Vigilant while it heats my home. ;-) Cost of running the fan is negligible. Anyway, it helps to move the air near the stove, so it actually is nothing everyone here hasn't been advised to do for improved heat circulation.
woodchip said:
I would be a bit cautious of bringing a load of wet wood into the house because all that moisture is going to go somewhere, either on the windows, behind some cupboards, or somewhere where you will end up with mould.
Doesn't happen if you do it in the dead of winter. The moisture-hungry wood in your home sucks up that moisture like a sponge, with no chance for it to condense anywhere. Two-three days of some minor condensation (frost) on the windows, then it's off to the races. No time for mold to develop, and the windows will be too cold anyway. In 20 years, I've never seen a trace of mold on anything but a spot or two of mildew on the occasional split. Both air-dried firewood and that "kiln-dried" stuff at the supermarket is usually a lot more of a mold risk in the home. The relative humidity in my basement was only 40% at the highest (the day after I moved the wood in). Next day 35%, then 34%, then 30%, etc. All too low for mold to grow.
SolarAndWood said:
So how does the rest of your process work? Have a bunch of trees outside a basement window that you cut, split and toss in a few days before you need them? Or split them in the spring and finish them up in the kiln in the days before they become fuel for the kiln? I would love to be able to go from heap to kiln to stove. Would save a lot of time and energy.
Like I mentioned above, the wood is cut and split by a commercial wood vendor just before I begin to dry it. Ain't ever gonna be wetter that that, but it really doesn't make much of a difference. The slow part is always getting it from the FSP (~30% MC) down to burnable wood. The first part goes quickly at any starting moisture content.
By putting all that wood into a gigantic heapen-hausen, you are doing what most large commercial kiln-drying operations do by pre-drying the wood. You will save about a week or so over my method, but you will run a slightly greater risk of bringing unwanted strangers into your home (bugs, mold, hobos, etc.). In general, though, you should be fine. BTW the process won't work well until the outside air gets very cold and has very little water in it. When you draw this dry air into the home (by burning your stove, or just natural air infiltration) and heat it up to living temps, the relative humidity of the air plummets.
By putting it in the same room as the stove, you are elevating the temperature to a much higher 24-hour average than at any time during the course of the year. In the height of summer, the RH will rise to near 100% most nights, effectively halting your wood drying, even setting it back for a few hours every morning until the dew evaporates. This process beats that all to hell. In fact, the daily average RH for out area is something like 75% RH. Give 20% RH, steady temps in the 80s, and constant breeze a try and see what happens. :coolsmile: