I imagine on a cost per btu basis, kiln dried logs would not be cost effective. A lot of energy goes into this process right? I have never seen kiln dried firewood. Also, once out of the kiln, it will absorb moisture comparable to the surroundings right?
The only kiln dried wood ive ever seen for sale Matt UK Logger are the plastic shrink wrapped bundles sold in front of stores around these parts. Dont know if wood is dried in log form or split form.
One summer of drying = 60% MC CSS and 3+ years of drying = 20% MC = Kiln dried wood. I think the gang here at FHC is onto something
So "kiln dried" to below 20% is a much quicker way to get green wood to the market place....below 20% increases BTUs because you are not burning off water.....and I read somewhere that below 10% actually reduces BTUs again...something to do with with degrading the molecular structure. The most prevalent reason for "kiln drying" is to kill invasive species and that allows firewood to be transported to and from areas with restrictions. However, "kiln dried" is not a legal term.... it is kind of like "all natural" in the food industry. You can run wood through a kiln for 5 minutes and call it kiln dried. The real standard is set by the USDA and the wood must be dried so that the center most stick in the kiln reaches 160 degrees F for 60 minutes (higher core temp lower time)....once certified by the USDA then you can call it "heat treated" and transport and sell it as such. All the States are moving to regulations that require either locally sourced (most common is 25 to 50 miles from birth to death by fire) or heat treated. The good part about the kilns for this is that you can use a "wetter" heat source than that used to dry lumber (to a much lower moister level)....so if you get the kiln humidity level down to below 20% you kill the bugs...get the wood drier quicker and charge more for your USDA, heat treated, gluten free, all natural, dolphin safe (unless you beat them with the wood) firewood.
There's someone in NH supplying a lot of garden centers. The bulk price at the processing place is actually fairly reasonable, but as soon as you start adding in trucking costs to move it any distance the price goes up a LOT. Plus the garden center's margin of course. I doubt kiln dried gets down to 0% MC but yeah it will stabilize.
Non GMO could add a few more cents to the price.... I forgot Vegan and Organic as well. Spring is our busiest season and we have gone crazy trying to keep enough seasoned hard wood on hand. For March we did $40K and for Easter weekend we did 11K....I was even restocking Easter morning....not complaining and thankful that Campers are pyromaniacs at heart. Finally got into McKinney Falls State Park which it 5 miles from the State Park HQ ......that woke up all the pencil pushers and park planners and they had all sorts of great Ideas (to them) on how I can make my machines more aesthetically pleasing ..... this got them back in their cubicles and trying to change someone else's world
Thats great!How many of those vending machines do you have? I cant remember, do you have to split logs yourself or do you get the wood presplit?
I have 26 of them in Texas State Parks with another going out next week to a City Camp ground. I just service the 13 in the DFW area.... I have guys in East, West and South Texas that service the rest. I just buy split and seasoned from the local landscape and tree trimming guys.....The plan it to get a bigger place and have all just dump their Log length trees instead of chipping or dumping...and then get the processing equipment to get my cost of wood down where it should be....Also starting a Kiln build to service the parks that are farther than 50 miles from where the wood is sourced, as Texas Parks are about to institute that regulation.....just means that more parks will not be able to source wood on their own and will have to sign up for our service.
being from a small state (Connecticut) i forget how big Texas is. Smart move to get your cost down. I imagine wood seasons rather quickly down there as well. Old friend of mine moved to the DFW area and did HVAC on the side. Good business to be in down there.
Here, to Sellwood to someone using State assistance, LIHEAT program, the firewood must be certified below 15% moisture content. Or kiln-dried there's about three operations in the state that do it. Of course the price is about $400 cord
