Solar kilnified wood shed is up and running

I need the wood to loose about 6 to 10 percent of moisture by burning season based on the moisture readings of the interior of a few splits. Yesterday I just had the front and back on and it was pretty warm in there at 5pm so with the sides on it should be even warmer. There is ventilation at the top and gaps between the greenhouse plastic.



The stack on the left is ready to burn and the stack on the right will be the start for next year.

The bottom is solid with whatever scraps of plywood or OSB I had lying around. There are gaps in the plastic sheets around the bottoms and corners where hopefully the right amount of air can get in. Too much airflow and the temps wont be high enough, too little and the humidity can't escape. The pic is really of the only semi air tight corner. I still haven't seen how warm it is in the heat of the middle of the day but its at least 10 degrees warmer than outside at 5-6PM and smells great, like warm wood.

From the other solar kiln threads you can go from green to ready to burn in a few months so I've got my fingers crossed. This wood was from a tree cutting company and might have been sitting in their wood lot for most of the summer if I'm lucky. Its probably a "Northwest Blend" which I think is mostly Doug Fir. There is probably some maple and definitely some birch mixed in though.

I didn't take the best data of the wood pile before I stacked it so the tested splits were on the front or top for a few weeks and may have dried more than the middle of the stack because thats what gets the most sun. They all tested well above 20% though so If I can get them down to the mid to high teens I think the whole stack will be good. Maybe I'll snake a thermometer into the middle of the stack this weekend to see how warm it is in there.

I split 3 splits yesterday, checked the interior in a few places each, and the they read 15, 16, and 18%. These splits were from the top and front of the pile as I can't reach anything else but its definitely a good sign. The exterior readings were in the low to mid teens. Looks like at least the warmest part of the stock has dropped 10% in about 2 months.

It never felt super warm inside the plastic, probably about 20 degrees above ambient, but we haven't had any hot weather since I put the plastic on either. We really start loosing sun in September as well.

Thats good to hear.

Probably a little under 2.5 cords. If it were filled to the brim that's how much it would hold but maybe a tenth of a cord that I had delivered was splits that were too big to fit in my stove, and that i couldn't split by hand, so I stacked them elsewhere. They'll probably end up in the outdoor fire pit.

I think mine has more gaps in the plastic at the corners and tops so it feels more like a nice warm greenhouse. I never actually measured the temp.