Experience based solar kiln operation.

[Woodsplitter67]

So i haven started a thread on my kiln or experience because i felt that it was a waist of time. That people really werent intrested. @Poindexter... i will start one. I did a little posting in one of your threads. The response was anything but great.. i will do it.. i have my kids sports tonight and tomorrow but will put somthing together..

 

[showrguy]

So i haven started a thread on my kiln or experience because i felt that it was a waist of time. That people really werent intrested. @Poindexter... i will start one. I did a little posting in one of your threads. The response was anything but great.. i will do it.. i have my kids sports tonight and tomorrow but will put somthing together..

I'm already interested !!

 

[chemie]

I'm already interested !!

Me too! I hope it would be suitable for not so much handy person without much space only four 4X8 Landman racks

 

[Poindexter]

So i haven started a thread on my kiln or experience because i felt that it was a waist of time. That people really werent intrested. @Poindexter... i will start one. I did a little posting in one of your threads. The response was anything but great.. i will do it.. i have my kids sports tonight and tomorrow but will put somthing together..

I am looking forward to your thread whenever is convenient for you to post it.

Your results are either as good as mine, or better, and you spent a lot less money on kiln materials then I did. Yours is the better design.

I think folks who are curious about maybe trying to kiln dry part of the stash are a lot more likely to drop, what 40 bucks or so per cord like you did. I think one reason folks aren't duplicating my build, even though my results are good, is I spent close to $300 on materials for each cord of kiln capacity, and did all the labor.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

The hardwoods solar kiln thread is started.. i hope this helps someone

 

[Chas0218]

My stove runs best with fuel at 12-16% MC.

At 11% and under the (spruce) fuel off gasses really fast (burns hot) and doesn't have much left gravitas left for a long burn.

It might be possible to design a wood stove to run on fuel at say 8-12% MC and burn clean and have low emissions and low creosote formation and etc, etc. That stove would probably not sell very well as few stove buyers have got cords and cords of the stuff.

6-10% is another possibility, then the contractors building houses during construction booms could collect all the dimensional off cuts from building sites....

I suspect most of the cord wood stoves currently on the market are designed to run best at 16-22% MC because that is a pretty good national average for how dry wood can be gotten in a reasonable amount of time, and it is mandated for the EPA certification test cycle.

You're correct about the 6-10% off gassing fast. I built my 2nd story addition (added 2nd floor) and 2 story addition and burned all my shorts the kiln dried lumber didn't last long but did produce a good amount of heat. The secondary burn lasted 2 hours and from start to coals it was 5 hours. This was in my big stove and outdoor temps were in the mid 40s. Either way it burned fast compared to my poplar that is 20%-25%. I can get a nice 8 hour burn out of the stove loaded with poplar.

 

[Easy Livin’ 3000]

The hardwoods solar kiln thread is started.. i hope this helps someone

Am I missing the pics? Poindexter had loads of pics.

 

[Ashful]

Am I missing the pics?

Here you go, Ed. Woodsplitter ain't as verbose as Poindexter, but he knows how to build a kiln!

https://www.hearth.com/talk/threads/solar-kiln-for-hardwoods.170518/

 

[Poindexter]

New problem the last two years. I found out (by accident) that I could load a cord of wood with a wheel barrow in about two hours, compared to about a week of free time with a sled. But the wood I loaded with a wheel barrow came out of the kilns moldy, and my wife is significantly allergic to mold. This was 2019 seaonsing

The second time I loaded my kins with a wheelbarrow (spring 2020) I left the plastic end caps off my kilns to promote airflow, sprayed all my framing down with concrobium, replaced all the plastic membrane, and it didn't help, still pounds of black mold.

So this year I have all my wood for Sep 2021 stacked and in the kilns before Saint Patrick's Day 2021, with end caps on.

Your climate is probably different than mine, and you and your spouse may or may not have mold allergies. This is just another variable. I won't "know" until September, but my hypothesis is splits I bring in after 'the melt' have been warm and wet for a while, allowing atmospheric/ endemic mold to take hold, where the splits I previously brought in and kilned before 'the melt' were too dry to support mold growth once it was warm enough in the kilns for mold to take hold.

FWIW my daytime high today was about +10 dF, but I have enough solar gain that the green wood I have in my kilns is giving up water, as evidenced by the condensation on the insides of the membranes on the kilns.

I will post again in Sep 2021 with my results, but I am well accustomed to producing splits that could grace the cover of many magazines

 

[Woodsplitter67]

New problem the last two years. I found out (by accident) that I could load a cord of wood with a wheel barrow in about two hours, compared to about a week of free time with a sled. But the wood I loaded with a wheel barrow came out of the kilns moldy, and my wife is significantly allergic to mold. This was 2019 seaonsing

The second time I loaded my kins with a wheelbarrow (spring 2020) I left the plastic end caps off my kilns to promote airflow, sprayed all my framing down with concrobium, replaced all the plastic membrane, and it didn't help, still pounds of black mold.

So this year I have all my wood for Sep 2021 stacked and in the kilns before Saint Patrick's Day 2021, with end caps on.

Your climate is probably different than mine, and you and your spouse may or may not have mold allergies. This is just another variable. I won't "know" until September, but my hypothesis is splits I bring in after 'the melt' have been warm and wet for a while, allowing atmospheric/ endemic mold to take hold, where the splits I previously brought in and kilned before 'the melt' were too dry to support mold growth once it was warm enough in the kilns for mold to take hold.

FWIW my daytime high today was about +10 dF, but I have enough solar gain that the green wood I have in my kilns is giving up water, as evidenced by the condensation on the insides of the membranes on the kilns.

I will post again in Sep 2021 with my results, but I am well accustomed to producing splits that could grace the cover of many magazines

something is different.. you did this for a period of time with no issues.. then as of late your having mold.. Your very experienced with this so I'm in no way telling you what to do.. Mold will crep in due to the lack of ventilation if your seeing moisture on the inside then I would personally vent more ... or wait and not wrap your kiln right away. All wood will lose a significant amount of water right after splitting so if you let it dry some I don't think that it will put you behind in the seasoning process...

 

[Poindexter]

something is different.. you did this for a period of time with no issues.. then as of late your having mold.. Your very experienced with this so I'm in no way telling you what to do.. Mold will crep in due to the lack of ventilation if your seeing moisture on the inside then I would personally vent more ... or wait and not wrap your kiln right away. All wood will lose a significant amount of water right after splitting so if you let it dry some I don't think that it will put you behind in the seasoning process...

Thankfully I keep pretty good notes, err, umm, take pictures of my wood piles and keep them in my phone. I had no trouble at all until spring of 2019 when I didn't have my wood up before the melt and kept my kilns closed up pretty tight. I brought a bunch of wood in in May/June 2019 as green splits, and discovered it was much quicker to load the kilns with a wheel barrow. I left the end caps off to promote airflow and got moldy wood out in Sep 2020.

For May 2020 I know I was tied up with 'rona stuff at work but loaded again with a wheelbarrow - after replacing all the plastic membrane and spraying down the kiln skeletons with Concrobium (tm). And I got mold again.

For March 2021 (it was I think -22 dF ambient the morning after I finished loading), I have all my wood stacked in the kilns before the melt and I got my end caps back on. Every seasoning yard is different, just because a thing works at my house doesn't mean it will work at your house.

 

[Poindexter]

Been a while. Just reviewing, in winter 2020/21 I loaded my kilns on hardpacked snow with a sled and had no concerning mold on my finished splits in winter 21/22. I was done loading for 22/23 in March 2022 and currently have no visible mold.

Local to me, if I load up green splits with a wheelbarrow after the snow melts (n=2) I finish with mold. If I load during the winter with a sled n>=4), I have no mold to speak of on the finished splits.

YMMV, blah blah.

 

[Woodsplitter67]

so what do you think the difference is..