black drainage pipe in the wood pile

I know of a firewood supplier around here that snakes black flexible drainage pipe throughout his giant wood piles. He has fans hooked up to the ends in various spots. The fans are the ones you see in the supermarkets at the entrance when the floor is wet or guys use them to dry floors after waxing. What do you think? I think its a great idea, cant hurt.

 

I have an old one like this, not this brand but i wonder. ( this is not what he uses) I would be afraid to start my wood on fire lol

 

This is what they use

 

Sorry about multiple posts but i keep thinking of stuff. If you could use a solar panel, how could you go wrong????

 

If you want to increase the sun's effect on drying, just use a solar kiln.

 

You are correct, just gotta build it

 

One of the best firewood drying things i saw was a farmer had several old round metal corncribs that they used to put ear corn in they were 20 feet tall and about 12 ft in diameter he would fill them with a elevator and in the center there was a pipe running vertical with holes in it he would run a blower in it seemed to work pretty well for him

 

That sounds cool, i bet it did better than just sitting in a pile or stacked

 

I just stack the wood and let it dry for 3 years, it works good. I learned that from some club I belong to.

 

This ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

 

I once pipe dreamed about building a firewood kiln very similar to that. Thought of using a woodstove underneath it built into the ground. Removable round sections much like you describe.
Just a dream. No idea how long it would take to dry wood that way.

 

Gotta agree with NH mountain man. In the end the easiest and fastest way is just getting ahead of your needs by 2-3 years. Time well spent that will be spent anyway. Money well spent that will be spent anyway

 

Sounds like an OCD about drying wood.

 

Ahh dont we all have some sort of OCD on this forum

 

If I spend time, effort and money on anything related to drying firewood it’s going to be covers for my stacks or a shed.

 

In my wood shed I put an ordinary box fan right on top the stack, aimed it down so air would blow between the stacks, and ran it on hot days most of the summer.
I'm seeing 9-13% moisture in that wood now. It was oak that I cut last Feb 2nd.

 

That's interesting! I wonder how much the electricity cost is to run that fan. Hmmm.... found this link below showing a typical box fan to cost $5/mo if run continuously and the power costs $.10/kwh, which is the average. Looking at my own bill, it appears to me mine is just that. It would be interesting to see how much faster the wood dries by doing that... running it, say, three months straight during summer heat. You could even take two face cords of stacked wood out in the open and aim a box fan down the side of one and blow it continuously for those three months and have another face cord stack reasonably close to it but not affected by the air flow and compare moisture readings at the end.

Gary Foreman: How to calculate the energy cost of appliances - CreditCards.com

 

O

O h i totally agree, but this guy is a business and trying to dry it faster, i was just wondering how much it cost to run those fans and if it dries any faster.