whats better for wood storage, air flow or sunlight?

going to be getting a ton of wood the next couple of weeks and am trying to figure out whats the best for wood seasoning, airflow or sunlight, or both? the two places I have in my yard are covered heavily by trees so there isn't a direct sunlight to it most of the day, but plenty of airflow. The spot I had stored my wood the last couple years that hasn't worked well was under tree cover and little airflow...

so if only one is available, which is better and why?

 

When in doubt, go with the flow!

 

I prefer both, but I'd say air.
I had a couple cords under some trees for a while a few years ago that weren't drying worth a crap. Now that I stack the wood in the field with sun and wind, I get MUCH gooder results.

 

This sounds like the old chicken or egg first conundrum. I'm not sure where you could store wood that would get a lot of sun, but no airflow.

 

Your first question has the option of both. That option is best.

Your last question has one or the other.
Air flow is best.

 

that's the pickle I'm in now. I gave a cord to a buddy because he was laid off and hurting for wood and I was planning on using mostly oak this year that was 2 1/2 years old. between trees under a top only cover... well once I pulled it up to the house and split a few rounds its still reading 25% MC... bark still on most of it... just in a few months its dropped to 22-21% being out in the open for better airflow. i'll burn it if I have to, but this lopi doesn't like ANYTHING above 16%.

yeah my bad, I know sun and air are bestest, but if you could only have one.....

i could place it along a solid fence that would get decent sunlight but little flow.. the area that is open slat fence is currently used for this years cut wood and don't want to move it again.

 

Sounds like you could be having fun cutting down some trees to open up the sunlight to the area that gets air flow.

 

if they were my trees, or on my property I would have already.....

 

Ugh. Any chance your neighbor would allow you take a few of them down to provide some sunlight? This is why I want 5, 10, 20, 50 acres with my house built dead center.

 

fat chance... neighbor calls the sherif every time I shoot anything on my range, called the county when I graded my property to provide runoff to the ditch and tried filing a lawsuit against me for one of his trees that fell on his fence that landed on my property that I cleaned up.. he flipped me off when I moved in and cleaned up 15' of overgrown fence line that was his mess... that was the whole reason I moved out in the middle of BFE.....

 

There was one year that I had a stack of wood under a catalpa tree and got hardly any sun and had another stack in full sun. When it came time to bring it down to the house and restack it, some of the shaded wood had rot on it and the wood in the sun had no rot at all. If I had to stack in the shade again, I'd keep it up off the ground as much as possible and keep it top covered, year round.

 

Ask yourself this: What will evaporate quicker, water in a pot on a stove (burner on) or water in a pot next to the stove with a fan blowing across it? It takes a lot of energy to evaporate water. When it comes to drying wood I think you will find that direct delivery of that energy from the sun is going to be more effective.

 

Usually, a stack in the sun is in an open area which tends to herald air flow
extra sun will also drive off moisture from rain faster

so maybe the answer should really be in the open when and if you can

 

Without a doubt, BOTH.........................

 

A lot of people seem to have problems stacking under trees - you're not the first one to post on here about this. I'd avoid it if possible.

I think you'll find a lot of the 'airflow' guys, are also keeping the wood really dry by stacking in sheds, or under good cover, and have couple years to sit on it. For me, in my own limited, nonscientific testing, it seems like the more sun it gets, the better. The stacks that got the most sun dried the fastest. But I don't have a wood shed or other extremely dry storage to compare against either.

 

My first thought is that whatever condition can bring it up to a temperature where it can give up more moisture to the air than it takes in. I think this has been well proven by the (mostly) sealed Solar Kiln technique where temperature rules over air flow. The argument for one or the other might be moot though with enough elapsed time.

 

Air flow circulates all, 3D.
Sun just hits some of the wood surfaces .
I vote "Air"

 

so if I boil every piece of wood before burning it, I'm good?