So I did an experiment with these clear greenhouse panels and a "wood shed". Really, this is just a frame with some clear panels on top. There is truss wire keeping the whole thing together. The idea is to make a solar kiln of sorts. I need to build it out more but this is fine for now. I am not a patient person and would like to use my wood this winter. I have a lot of wood but it is not particularly old or seasoned wood. Rather than making a particularly good looking wood shed, my goal was to have a very effective wood shed. I had some conifers that a neighbor gave me (pressured me to take) so I split them and tossed them on the pile. I stacked them on 4/27. The moisture content was probably around the 40s if I had to guess. It was still in rounds when I loaded it up. I checked today, less than a month later and already, the moisture content is down to 14% on the inside of a split! Granted, this is a conifer, and it was on the top of the pile nearest the sun/heat but hey, it's working! Inside of conifer drying less than a month. Outside was around 7%. outside of maple split also on the top of the pile. Inside of the same maple split ...still more cooking for the maple but seeing as it isn't even June, I have high hopes.
That pine will go up like matchsticks this upcoming fall. If that's soft maple you have, chances are it could be good (good enough IMO) for this winter too. Nothing wrong with loading up on "junk" wood right now either. That stuff is great for getting you well on your way towards the 3 year plan
If I do this right... I hope to be able to stack in the spring and burn in the fall. I might need some more panels though. The 3 year plan is too long for me.
You're going to loathe oak then There is no magic time machine to air-dry fresh cut oak inside one summer. Although there are certainly plenty of people out there that do just that...
If you have the space, the 3yr plan is the way to go. Its a bit of an effort to get there. But once attained, you just need to replenish what you burned.
I have tried stupider things. Hold my beer. I don't have too much oak. I wish I did. What I have is on the bottom of the pile and I am not sure how it will do. It is dead but still in the 40s+.
This is the most success I've had drying oak in short order. It worked inside 6 months time, but I won't dare claim it's a guaranteed formula for success. The 4-5 year old dead oak I went after was down but off the ground and I kept it top covered once processed. In the end it did burn great though. I'd imagine (possibly) you'd have similar results using a standing dead tree (the top 2/3 of it, as the bottom 1/3 will almost certainly be as wet as a live tree). Sub-Optimal Oak Experiment
I saw a video on YouTube where a guy burned green wood, seasoned wood and then 0%/3% kiln dried firewood. What he found was that the kiln dried did much better than expected, even compared to the seasoned wood. This told me that the goal isn't to stack you logs and wait 3 years, the goal is to get the logs "kiln dried". His logs were in the kiln for 3 days. So the ideal log will be dense, like oak, but almost completely free of moisture. The solar kilns I have seen are specialty items but I know the principals are pretty straight forward. The thing to beat is 12-36 months of drying time and achieve less moisture, for about the same amount of input effort. It looks like we are getting there. I am thinking up some enhancements to the tinderbox so maybe I can post pictures of progress.
Gotcha. If it works out I'll gladly build one to try in my own backyard. It does sound feasible to me. If it wasn't for the wait time, I'd probably have 75% oak in my stacks.
The clear patio panels are great. Last year I built a little covered rack with them out in my dog yard on the side fo the house, which is breezy, sunny, and south-facing. I put green red oak in at the end of March at 40-50%+ moisture, and at the beginning of October it was in the low 20% range or less. I think there's some kiln effect to the panels, even without any sides.
Thanks, although I'll eventually end up rebuilding it to remedy some issues. 1) The floor has to be built and supported to hold serious weight. Mine holds two cords, and that much green red oak weighs nearly 10,000 pounds. I ended up cracking some 2x8s before emptying it, jacking it up, and adding support to the base all over. 2) You may not be able to see it, but the roof is flat. I knew that wasn't a good idea at the time, but when I initially put the rack together I hadn't planned on a roof at all. I ended up throwing the patio panels up there as an afterthought just to see how they'd work. They work well enough that I'll probably pull the roof off this summer and rebuild it with some pitch.
Yeah, I saw the roof was flat. I did the same thing and then went back and shaved off about 7 inches of one side. I was getting pooling water on top, otherwise I probably wouldn't care much.
