I attended a Firewood Clinic put on by the Society of American Foresters Yukon River Chapter. It was held at the Cold Climate Housing Research Center in Fairbanks, Alaska. Now that is a "cool" building (no pun intended). They research all sorts of techniques on building in the arctic climes. They do a lot with solar and are now getting ready to install a heat pump (not many of those in Fairbanks at this time). They also do wood testing, drying methods etc. They studied 3 different ways of drying wood. First they put a blue tarp over it, completely covered (in all the tests the wood was off the ground). The second trial was the top covered but the sides open (much like a shed but they just put plywood on top of the pile). And the third trial they made a kiln (it was basically a greenhouse with 2 x 4 construction covered with visqueen). The conclusion was this. The covered wood did as good as the kiln dried and both methods only took 6 weeks to get to under 20%. The tarp took longer. I could not believe it. Six weeks! Now mind you Alaska has sun all summer so that helps and they were in an open area, lots of sun and air flow. Six weeks was for Spruce and Birch and Aspen took 2 months. All wood was cut and split. They said you should split it as soon as possible as that helps in the drying.
Here is the link if you want to check out the Cold Climate Research Center. http://www.cchrc.org
Here are some more links: http://www.aqfairbanks.com http://www.epa.gov/burnwise
It is supposed to get to -40 tonight so this will put the new blaze king ultra to the test! WOO HOO!
Here is the link if you want to check out the Cold Climate Research Center. http://www.cchrc.org
Here are some more links: http://www.aqfairbanks.com http://www.epa.gov/burnwise
It is supposed to get to -40 tonight so this will put the new blaze king ultra to the test! WOO HOO!