Here is this mornings work. Stacked a load of Cherry and Osage Orange. Built a solar kiln to see if they actually work.
I'm thinking that kiln might work better if you get the ends more open. That would allow for the air to flow through to take the moisture out, which is what we want to happen. Hope this works out well for you.
I found this article about solar kilns on here a couple of months ago: http://www2.dnr.cornell.edu/ext/info/pubs/Harvesting/CC Accelerated Seasoning of Firewood.pdf My understanding is that the moisture will travel down the cool side (back) of the tent. I delivered a cord of green oak to a guy a few weeks ago and he had one of these set up south facing and he swore by how effective it was - he said the green oak I delivered would be ready by this December. I will let you know how it goes...
Love that Osage. It's great firewood but I have found that its like red oak drying it. Good luck with the kiln experiment.
I had a single row stacked up tall between deck posts and initially covered it before a rain storm. it got real warm under it . open on the back and sunshine shining through the front and top. I've see some nice solar kilns used for drying wood that a cabinetmaker would use, and would someday love one.
The wood under plastic heated by the sun burns great. The single row is enough wood to use when other stacks are hit by rain. It's nice having a few days supply of wood you can count on being dry. This season I'm adding another row . It's not a kiln but rather a nice ventilated stack warmed by the sun.very happy with this simple idea.
I'd like you to pop over to this thread I've started: https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/expeditided-wood-drying-solar-kiln.131537/page-2 You have experience and would love to hear your input. My S&G stack is what I believe you're doing (or close).
It worked great for me! The wood was dry and ready to burn much quicker then if I just has C/S/S outside of a kiln.
So the moisture evaporates onto the tent and then drips down the back? Does none of the water drip back onto the wood at all? I'm thinking of setting something like this up.
Basically, yes. Important not to allow 'any' plastic to touch the wood. My best running units have a vent space at the top on both ends allowing air to move freely.
Even if a little water runs onto the wood it's not that detrimental. The moisture coming out is internal moisture. Once it's out it's out. if it dips onto the wood afterwards it becomes surface moisture. No different than a few drops of rain. Internal moisture is the moisture at a cellular level. I did 2 stacks with shrink wrap mid summer. One maple and one black locust. They are both good to go.
