If money is no object, add a dehumidifier with a drain tube to outside. I kinda like the Virginia Tech solar kiln design for lumber quite a few people are building.
Welcome to the FHC I hope you have enough dry wood for winter good luck! I am curious to see the results
I have read a lot on this over the years and I don't recall seeing that article until your post. I note that their results were not good! (I don't know why... the wood was not split, it was rounds, and it was Alaska.) Their poor results are contradictory to good results others have reported with cheap solar kilns wrapping stacks with plastic wrap, with some venting. As I said in an earlier post, I am going to try this el-cheapo method. We are going to split the red oak over this next week and build the stacks and do the wrap. Others have reported good results in two or three months. In my locale, I will have three months of intense heat (it's dang hot here Jun 15 - Sep 15) and, if needed, it should still cook it through end of October. I sure hope it works because I have the wood pre-sold, lol. I anticipate that it will.
Relative humidity control system. Measure inside RH and outside RH. Anytime inside RH exceeds outside RH by some significant amount turn on the fan.
Thanks for all the welcome messages, everyone! Yawner: the theory with this type of kiln (fully enclosed with only weep holes) is you are focused on getting the wood up to high temperatures as much as possible as this will drive out the internal moisture. As long as the moisture is given a path to escape (weep holes) it doesn’t matter if the moisture condenses and drips out as the wood will not reabsorb it as fast as it is leaving. Sirchopsalot: That is a crazy amount of moisture that leaves as wood dries! I saw someone post about using a Quonset style setup for a kiln and looked like it functioned well. I went with the build I did because I had a lot of the materials on hand already. This wood won’t be used until mid to late October. I have a couple of face cords of silver maple, pine, and cottonwood seating outside for the shoulder season. M2theB: I would like some moisture meters that recorded data 24/7, but the extraneous funds are limited for the foreseeable future. Inflation has been really cutting into my budget. Yooperdave: I am hoping it lasts 3-4 years for the fabric. I am on the lookout for a bunch of old windows to use once the plastic falls apart. Showrguy: I have read most of the threads I could find on kilns both here and hearth.com. It is a balance between heat and moisture removal. I am not saying a hard no to vents if I feel like it becomes necessary, but I am trying this method first. fox9988: I definitely plan on updating this thread with results periodically. I won’t get overly defensive about it, in the end, it is just a kiln. I mainly posted it because I haven’t seen one like it mentioned before. buzzsaw Brad: In the kiln will be primarily red oak but also one face cord of honey locust and one face cord of Osage orange which I scrounged. Red oak is my bread and butter as my property has a lot of it. brenndatomu: But at what temperature do the vents open, what size vents, for how long do they stay open, passive or active ventilation, etc. I am sure my kiln could be optimized to work better than it currently is, but I don’t have the time/energy/money to try and perfect it. As long as it works well enough to dry wood in one summer, I will be happy with it. turbodiesel: That is a neat setup, thanks for the picture! I am not nearly that talented with electronics . Backwoods: Total cost is a bit tricky as I had a lot of the materials lying around already (door, non pt-lumber, gravel, cinder blocks, 4x4 posts). The main expense I had was for the fabric $120, pt lumber $200, pt plywood $150, brackets $50, and screws/nails $150. It was around $700 all in, but if I had to buy everything from the store, at least double that. I didn’t originally plan on using the plywood but found I needed it to keep the kiln stable. The wall studs had to much play in them without the plywood locking them into place. PatrickNY: I had read that study before, but thanks. As Yawner points out, their result does not match numerous first hand accounts on this forum and hearth.com so I don’t know why theirs was so ineffective. Something in their design or sight layout must have contributed to their poor results.
I'll apologize up front for this comment as it will definitely step on some toes... Uncle Augie's thread on solar kilns was EXCELLENT, and well thought out. He did all the needed "experiments" that everyone said wouldn't work, before he made the thread. INCLUDING, specifically, NO VENTS. He proved over and over that it worked. And everyone ragged on him saying it wouldn't/didn't work.....that he needed to do [more] experiments...that he already did....until he finally got mad and eventually got banned. (He seemed a little ornery right from the start though) Spitfire0905 do not be discouraged by all the solar kiln naysayers here!!! They don't have solar kilns, they're just spewing their opinions as facts. You obviously see the advantage of more heat and less (no) air. And the proof is in that pic with the water condensing on the cold plastic and running down. Please post more pics as you go.
I remember one of the first threads I studied on this site, probably before I even signed up, was a thread on a "solar kiln" where they guy used plastic to "wrap" the wood, but had it where the condensate would drain down and out through holes. It may be the one TurboDiesel referenced above, don't remember names. I do however remember what TD says about it getting quite heated with people saying it wouldn't work. I also believe that he had the proof to show that it did work for him, hence a lot of the "debate". I understand that everyone has their experiences, and their opinions. But I'm not sure why everyone has to go to such lengths to try to show error in someone's thinking, i guess its human nature. If it's a safety issue, I can see trying to help and educate someone, and sometimes that needs to be done quick and passionately. I also realize that tone and sometimes meaning can be difficult to decipher from typed text.... Use this as an experiment and see how it works (I know thats what you're doing, just making the statement there). Take notes, report findings. Many of us are interested to see how it goes. I have long thought about making a "hot box" wood dryer out of old windows, doors or metal siding...something that would hold about 2 pallet boxes worth of wood. But life and other more important projects have been a higher priority. I hope it works well and is something we can all learn from.
Yep, without going all the way through it, that looks like it. I still remember being a bit shocked and surprised at the bickering....
It seems like regional (even your individual property sometimes) weather differences make a big difference on what one can get away with on drying firewood too...drying times and methods tends to be controversial on that other site too...
I guess it also "interests" me (or saddens, sometimes) as to what kind of stuff ends up being so controversial.....
I always approach things with this in my head: "What's the worse that could happen?". In this case it either works a lot, a little, or it wasted your time. Good luck.
Welcome to the club. Lots of great folks here sharing knowledge and humor. Glad you shared your idea. We really need something to dry wood in. Wish I had the to build something big enough to drive tractor in with totes of wood, wrap it with black metal roofing. I know our saw shed has a black roof and red sides, a small passive vent in each end...it is WAY hotter inside than outside.
He said weep holes in the bottom plastic like the Uncle Auggie kiln. Moisture condenses on the walls then runs down to the bottom and forever out of the kiln via the weep holes.
