Start the piles on the morning sun side. Move them to the other spot at Noon. Move them back in the evening. You’re welcome.
not a bad idea. I’ll buy some big old hay wagons.LOL. On overcast days I’ll just tow em down the highway for the wind effect.
This half of my Woodyard is 100% white oak. The row to the left is my fresh four month WO that I have positioned to get sun the entire day hoping it will be ready to sell by December. It has been so hot and dry here in TN the last two months that I can hardly tell the difference between 4&16 month aged wood.
If I remember it correctly, one of the old threads where some people did some pretty good testing of all this solar kiln drying stuff, they testing black vs clear, and I think the clear got hotter (surprisingly to me)
Black reflects the heat is what I've read when given the choice for solarizing soil to kill weeds/plant (and animal) life. And yet black cars are known to be hotter than white cars. You can't win.
Black absorbs all wavelengths of light not reflects,,,,like white. Now a clear plastic would allow it through I imagine.
I have stacks that get sun at opposing times of day. I have real no opinion on the matter except the stacks that get the afternoon sun give off a "hot/dry" smell to them during the height of day.
Face it south, get it off the ground at least 12” and allow the prevailing crosswinds to strike it-I dry red oak in 1 yr…6 months bare, 6 months covered and then move to shed, final resting place….15% or less, guaranteed…Good luck!
I can consistently get my firewood into the low teens in 6-9 months by re-stacking it three times. Fresh wood gets wheelbarrowed to the back of the wood yard and I move it forward as I sell it. What was on top six feet goes on the bottom and then back to the top. Crazy amount of work, but IPAs give me lots of stamina.
Heat does help the drying process. The sun and air temperature is hottest in afternoon. That should answer the question. As for me, I stack mostly in the sun yet so far this year all my stacking has been in the shade. Probably because all my firewood spends a goodly amount of time in the stack and top covered, it has no problem drying.
I don’t worry about the sun anymore. Only a small percentage of the stack gets direct sunlight. Most of it is shaded. Air flow, top covered and time is what works for me.
Are you serious? It doesn't seem possible to dry red oak that fast here. Although, I have never stacked "at least 12" off the ground. How do you, literally, do that? You say face it south. What does that mean? Run the stack N-S?
