Solar kiln in "GRIT" claims a month drying time

https://www.grit.com/animals/solar-...A883BD95D843130868F49F36B70ECDEC762D8248B3927

Link to the article

 

I've been thinking lately that I could experiment with putting clear panels on the roof, and south & west facing walls of the wood shed I'm planning to build. If that works, I'd only need one 10x10 shed. I just wish I got better sunlight in the summer.

 

I have no doubt it works, but I think it's a bit misleading to suggest you can properly dry firewood in a month. Depending on species is all fine and dandy, but a month is really pushing it

 

Yeah, a month is definitely BS.

 

I fully agree. I also think it's a bit optimistic to have wood be fully seasoned in 9 months to a yr without the kiln.

 

Considered building a solar kiln some years back. Reading this article got me thinking again.
On the face of it it would seem beneficial for drying wood in cold temps.
Now I’m wondering just how beneficial. Yes you raise the temps on sunny days when the humidity levels are at the lowest. Sounds great. But will that thaw ever really get to the middle of the split or middle of the pile?
Temps are going to drop right back down on cloudy days or at night.
Might work good on dimensional sticked and stacked lumber but I’m wondering just how much it helps thick and tightly packed firewood.

 

"tightly" packed firewood has the same porosity whether it is the middle of an open field or in a kiln.
Due to that lack of size and shape consistency firewood splits just don't get packed "tight".
Try standing on the lee side of one on a cold windy day to stay "warm" . There just isn't that much shelter behind a stack of firewood. You might feel the effect in change in wind velocity but the wind is still going thru.

Most solar kilns I've read about have results in months not weeks.

A month processing time seems rather ambitious and is probably why there doesn't seem to be a follow-up article with results.

 

I used the term tight in a comparative sense compared to sticked and stacked lumber.
Basically just questioning how much thaw really occurs in the center of the split during these freeze thaw cycles.
Obviously beneficial to the outer wood.

 

I stacked wood on my driveway a couple of years back, it's entirely in the sun.. when it came time to move it for winter most of it was dry... I think that the 2+months over hot concrete accelerated the drying.

 

Oh there is a follow up. But it is very vague, no numbers or figures. It's at the end of the article, a blue link

 

I sincerely doubt a month for properly seasoned.

 

Someone could actually you know, test this in controlled study... 1 month seems a bit sketch ...

 

LOL, which month ? July, maybe. Although with the extra heat usually comes extra humidity. Somebody that frequents this forum tried it and had results. I don't remember what they were or what manner "scientific methods" were employed and reproducible.

Now (actually later) I'm gonna have to go peruse that article again for the follow-up link.

 

There have been a number of solar kilns built/tested here...they work great. Here's one thread...there are at least several more too
Hillbilly solar kiln.

 

Im not questioning the added heat but to get any serious heat you need to enclose tight and then what do you do with the humidity ?

 

Solar Kiln Firewood Drying

Solar drying of fire wood is an old topic around here. The conclusion most of us came to was that it is better to cut ahead 3 years and skip all the extra hassle.

Can it effectively dry firewood in a shorter amount of time? Possibly. But undoubtedly adding more steps in the handling and processing of the firewood adds additional work and use of resources (ie. Tractor, time, etc.).

 

If we burned exclusively at the old home on a quarter acre town lot, we'd have done this eventually rather than sacrifice the whole play area for kids, or the vegetable garden. It's got valid applications in certain circumstances - thinking specifically of our new member whose name escapes me living in NYC.

Not having to resort to solar kilns is one of many reasons I'm glad to be a little further out into the woods nowadays. Even on my little couple acre patch, space constraints for stacking aren't really an issue. If I ever get my stuff together and get organized, it will be even easier.

 

Agreed BigPapi .. Or for the new burner that believed his wood was dry enough then came here and said

 

Just the hassle of extra handling puts you back a lot of time and effort. Now if you have pallets/ racks of wood that can be loaded with a tractor, that would take that part out of the equation. Still, it seems like a lot more work. Now maybe if you have a small yard it might be better, but then small yard probably means no tractor. I guess you could user a cheap pallet jack. IDK.

There's a lot of factors to the equation. But it's hard to argue against simply CSS' ing more wood that will certainly be ready in a year or 2.