Welcome Tas! I'm late as usual, had a long work week…. You'll fit right in. As everyone says, we like pics….. and beer
Sorry guys been busy today cant post pics yet. For anyone interested in how wood is sold in Tassie just follow this link. Its sort of like the craigslist that people use here to get guys to deliver loads. All the guys who place free ads also sell by the side of the road and have their regular customers as well. They usually park their utes loaded with the wood with their number and the price. http://www.gumtree.com.au/s-tas/firewood/k0l3008843
Your containers will get plenty hot. You need air circulation. One whirly bird won't cut it. Open the doors (one day open-one day closed), cut holes along the bottom, add more whirly birds, make another door on opposite end, etc. These are just my opinions. I like your idea. I have access to some of those containers and may give it a try myself.
What about drilling a small hole from the inside and running the cord of a fan which could be placed inside the shut container so it can be powered from the outside? 1 x whirly bird and 1 x upright fan (decent quality 2 foot wide) fanning the wood from the inside with the 1 whirly bird for air extraction? The power I would get for free as I would run it from a powerpoint from my house. Sounds dangerous but would it work?
My idea with containers like those would be to have fans within that will circulate the heat, forcing is all around and to the wood at the bottom. I would also exhaust it from the bottom, pulling the hot air down into the container helping to get the heat down into the wood. I think the whirlygig at the top is wasting your hard earned solar gain. I would also think about pulling the air out of it pretty slowly. 5cu feet/minute would give about 5 complete air exchanges per day if I figure the volume of those a containers as 1280 cu feet. Another thing would be to use a variable speed exhaust. Run it faster if loaded with fresh green wood when there is more easy water to get rid of. As the wood gets drier slow it way down and keep all the heat that you can. At any rate I think that it if you want faster drying throughout the container it will be more important to get the heat mixed up in the container with fans running at high speed. You probably could get it dialed in quickly with a few thermal probes and a RH probe to tell you what is going on.
Thanks for your advice. Its a shame im pushed for time at the moment as work is getting busy. Ill have to put this on the back burner till at least Christmas when ill get the time it do it without having to rush.
