So i was talking to a farmer friend of mine about firewood and such the other day, and he mentioned years ago he had been at a yard where the owner heated with wood. What that guy had done was take a fairly large flat bottom grain bin, cut a large door into it and stacked it full with wood Apparently got incredibly hot in there in the summer and dried out his supply very well My friend says i should do the same, he knows of a few free bins available, just have to haul home Was thinking it should work, has a vent up top, aeration fan on the bottom, i have plenty of space What do you guys think? Know of anyone who does similar?
I can't pull up a pic in my mind of a grain bin you can haul home. Unless you're talking about dismantling one. They do get hot in there but they have reflective silver color, so, painting it black would help with temp.
I've seen a few bins made from some type of fence or grate material with the same type of lid, I think they dried out whole corn cobs in them. Anyway...I think they stopped using them for that and started using them for firewood sounds like a great plan I can't imagine how many cord one will hold Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
Sounds ok until you get to the fan. Aeration fans are rather noisy do to the high speed needed to develop the static pressure needed to penetrate grain. This should not be needed with firewood as a thermosiphon should be easy to develop.
If you have ever shoveled grain in one at high summer temps, you are very thankful for the grain vac !!!!!!
I used an empty grain bin to start the drying process on some boards I milled. April - October. Yes, it gets very hot inside those oversized steel cans in the summer. I am not sure I would want to run the fan just to dry firewood. Depending on the type & size of the fan you will most likely be paying $5 - $25 a day to run it. I have often pondered the same thought but vacant unused grain bins are pretty rare around here. An 18’ dia. bin would be about right. I would want to remove a few rings to get to a 6’-7’ interior eve height.
I'm going to find out some more details from my buddy, would most likely be a spring project Definitely take some pictures if it does happen and keep you guys posted!
A large old fashioned rooftop wind turbine would be beneficial. Then there's plenty of solar powered attic fans to choose from. As fans are more efficient pushing air putting them in place of bin fans on the bottom could help.
I know where on is coming up for sale on an online auction. 14’ diameter I believe. The bottom ring is buckled some and would probably need removed which would probably lead to having to modify/adjust the door height if the bottom ring was deleted. Not sure if that would be necessary or not for storing wood. It’s located in south east South Dakota. Near Sioux Falls, that’s about 5 hours from me. needs removed by September I think. If someone else is interested, send me a PM and I’ll try and send you the link. about 70 miles away in north Platte there’s is one of those drive up coffee shops made out of two bins joined together. Called the Coffee Bin I think.
That would be right by me. There’re using retired grain bins for a lot of things around here. Most interesting are the two story cabins .
