So if you have enough sun cooler temps outside the plastic cause more condensation on the inside pulling more water from the wood at a faster rate. Lol
UPDATE: 10-3-14 So I took some moisture readings from the wood in the Solar Kiln. 30 days later it is reading 26%. I do have a top covered pile, single wide, in a windy, sunny spot, from the same load, CSS the same days, that I checked as well, that was still at 30%. Both started at 30%. We are right on track for the timeline of 20% MC by Thanksgiving, or another 60 days away So in 30 days, of which 16 were sunny according to the records, the pile lost 4% MC. Not too shabby considering the top cover only pile saw no measurable MC drop. I am betting if I kept as accurate of records in July and or June I would see twice the MC drop in the same time. I sat down and ran the numbers, 30% MC to 26% MC is a loss of roughly 200lbs of water or 20ish gallons. 20 Gallons of water requires 182,929 BTUs to reach boiling point and then 196,198 btu to turn it into steam. Or I have removed roughly half a million BTU's of energy that the wood would have lost if I had burned it as is. There is roughly another 20 gallons to remove to get to 20% MC. The above is for those who needed a scientific study to accept that it works....
A covered vent at the top of the stack likely would aid in dispersal of moisture laden air, or if opposed to that then a spacer of some sort to form a peak/ridgeline that condensation could the run down the sides.
Which would also let the heat escape. The heat is more important than getting the moisture out to reduce the overall MC of the wood. If you start at the beginning this was covered as to why it is not advisable to add a vent.
Not sure if I'm following your math? 20gal x8.3 lbm/gal = 166lbm 1Btu/lbm/degF If your wood started near 70F that's 212-70= 142F 142Fx 166lbm = 23,572Btu The latent heat of vaporization @ atmospheric is ~970 Btu/lbm 166lbm x 970Btu/lbm = 161, 020 Btu Not trying to start a pizzin contest Augie just curious?
UPDATE: 11/5/14 30% MC down to 21% MC in 60 Days!!!!!! This was a 8 inch split that I slit in half again and measured immediately. Another 30ish days, and according to accuweather we had another 15 sunny days. The wood has dropped to 21% MC from the 26% MC. The Control Pile that was top covered in a single row, windy, sunny location is sitting at 28% MC I don't need to burn this Cord, so Ill let it go for another month and see where it ends up, but this should end the silly debate about if it works or not. This is a boon for those of us without the room, or desire, to keep 3+ years of wood on the property or new burners. With one summer and a sunny location you can have fully seasoned wood under 20% MC Edit to add: control info forgot earlier
Interesting data, thanks for documenting and sharing. I had a similar experience with cherry - I CSS a live tree in August and by October I was right around 20% MC on a fresh split. That was single stacked - no top cover. Seems that your control didn't dry as fast, with the control pile still reading 30%. Wonder if top cover had anything to do with it - well let's not open that can of worms. We know geographic location plays a big part as well. Will be interesting to see how low it gets by Thanksgiving. Should be primo by then!
No not at all, I'm just pointing out that I had an experience where I witnessed cherry with MC in the high 30's come down to 20% in about 2 months, stacked single row, with no top cover, during a very dry time of year with low humidity. I was simply illustrating that I was able to accomplish that without a kiln due to stacking method and weather conditions. If I would have used a kiln, it may have dried even faster, but 2 months is not a long time to begin with You have shown that your wood in the kiln is drying much faster than your wood that was left out in the open. Heat is definitely trumping wind exposure in this instance. I would love to try this myself sometime and you have shown that it is pretty simple. I not have thought to just plastic over the wood, I always looked at kilns as being a lot of work to construct similar to a greenhouse. You have shown that it is actually pretty approachable.
I think he means that the pure heat in your kiln makes up for the lack of wind that an open stack would receive. Wind greatly increases drying times, but the kiln uses heat as the sole source of drying, and effectively so
I think you mean decreases Can you prove your assertion either mathematically, or with data? Or are you just guessing, maybe reiterating what you heard someone else say? Kind of like if you knock to splits together and they sound hollow they are dry.... Wind is not the driver of seasoning, it is vapor pressure, and that depends on temp. As a control I have an open stack single stacked in a windy location, and it did not even come close to drying in the same time under identical conditions. or did you ignore that part...
I didn't ignore it, what I and razo were both saying is that the heat in your kiln proved to be more effective than having a stack out in the sun and wind (like your control). No one said that your control seasoned as quickly as the kiln wood. No one even said that wind is the "driver", just that it helps And no, wind does not decrease drying time, that is wrong pure and simple. Wind increases evaporation (for any object) by sweeping away water molecules as they evaporate, thus accelerating the drying time for something, including wood. Wood will dry regardless of if there is heat or wind, but the time will vary. It will lose water to the environment even if it is cold and still; but a hot, dry, and windy environment will accelerate the rate of water loss EDIT: I mistakenly took decrease to mean longer times, so my first sentence is kind of confusing
Your confusing what is a contributing factor and what is the driving or main factor. If we were to gage the effectiveness of wind vs temp you might get the idea.. What a great idea, lets plan an experiment where we can show the difference of wind vs temp, you can even run the experiment and report the results and you will learn the wind is a non factor.
It's not a non factor though. Scientifically, a stack of wood in a hot, dry, and windy environment will dry faster than one without wind. The wind carries away evaporated water molecules, decreasing the chance that they can return to the surface that they came from You said wind decreases drying time, and that is undeniably incorrectEDIT: misunderstood what you said and mixed up my words, wind does decrease drying time
Lets find out? lets do an experiment, I have a great idea on how we can conduct this experiment, each of us doing it and reporting back with the results. When the results come back with I will admit that you are right and wind does indeed play an important factor, or we will determine that wind is a non factor and you can admit that you didnt understand the process of drying wood from a scientific point of view? You game? I am I am off to have dinner but I already have a protocol in mind, Ill write it up this evening and we can start this in a couple of days.
