My Wood Drying Experiment

[oldspark]

BK I am sure you have seen this link, he does not say 15% is too dry he just states the best fire wood is between 15 to 20%.
(broken link removed to http://www.woodheat.org/tips/drywood.htm)

 

[Battenkiller]

The King is fine with a full load of relatively small split pine. 10% isn't possible here naturally anyway is it?

No, but you can get down to about 15% in December. That's lower than some places like Michigan (where it's 16-17% EMC in most of the state this time of year), but far from too dry according to most experts.

Anyway, I don't want to keep hijacking Skyline's fine thread (although he fired off the first query regarding low moisture content ;-) ), so let's discuss this more (or not) on one of the many "Can my wood be too dry?" threads.

 

[skyline]

BK,

Thanks for all your updates no hijacking complaints from me. I had started to reply to Oldspark but didn't get back til 10 posts later.

I guess I am a bit confused on the burning of my oven dry pieces. I thought it was great since I got a nice secondary burn of the smoke with the damper all the way closed. Plus my glass stayed clear!
I was reading that as complete combustion with a minimum amount of air i.e. more efficient burn. Granted I was only burning one piece at a time, so I don't think I was overwhelming the system.
I'm not questioning you at all about EPA's standard of design etc. just that since I weem to get a lot more smoke that isn't burning from one of my 16-18%MC pieces with the damper all the way closed,
perhaps my damper closes more than most or more than it should?

I'm assuming the additional air for the secondary burn doesn't change with the damper in the closed position regardless of how much smoke there is.

Let me know what you think.

 

[Danno77]

I LOVE this data. Now, the next step (from my standpoint) is proof that you can dry a stack by fan in a short time. A split with all sides open is one thing, but how about a bunch of splits stacked?

 

[skyline]

I LOVE this data. Now, the next step (from my standpoint) is proof that you can dry a stack by fan in a short time. A split with all sides open is one thing, but how about a bunch of splits stacked?

Thanks Danno, No doubt a big stack will add a lot more moisture and block some air flow but I always had my regular stack in the garage while the experiment was going on plus
I was pretty encouraged by the fact that the splits 12' off to the side of the fan dried out so quickly as well. What I really want is a data logger and a method to weigh half a cord continuously at that same time
recording weather conditions. I'll let you know when I have that all figured out ;-P

 

[RoseRedHoofbeats]

Very cool! I appreciate you working up the graphs and stuff. My inner eighth grade science fair geek approves. =P

What would be really cool is if you got a solar panel on your wood shed and converted that into energy to run some fans and maybe a heater? I mean heck, how much would that even cost? And then you use the sun to dry your wood to heat your home! If that's not green I dunno what is. =P

~Rose

 

[SolarAndWood]

What would be really cool is if you got a solar panel on your wood shed and converted that into energy to run some fans and maybe a heater?

Now we're talking

http://www.yoursolarhome.com/solarsheat.com/solarsheat/2pak.html

 

[oldspark]

Use it for a green house and you could grow what ever in it, sounds like a fun project for when I retire (if ever).

 

[skyline]

Very cool! I appreciate you working up the graphs and stuff. My inner eighth grade science fair geek approves. =P

What would be really cool is if you got a solar panel on your wood shed and converted that into energy to run some fans and maybe a heater? I mean heck, how much would that even cost? And then you use the sun to dry your wood to heat your home! If that's not green I dunno what is. =P

~Rose

I actually bought one of those PV solar attic fans to try out on the wood pile. It was on special at Costco for $209 but our solar resource here in the PNW is so poor this time of year that the fan barely worked and this was still in October.
I ended up taking it back since $209 will buy almost 7 years of 24 hour (not just 8) electricity with good air flow (35w * 24 *365 *6.8 yrs /1000 *$.10 kwh = $208.48).
I will keep my eye out for a small efficient fan that could run off a PV panel or battery. I don't think it will take much airflow to be pretty effective.

SolarandWood's got the right idea using passive solar energy. It's way more efficient and cheaper to add heat this way to the shed verses using PV.
I figured to try and make my own air heater using aluminum roofing painted black under some left over sliding glass doors. It doesn't take much additional heat into the wood shed to lower the RH and the EMC.
That and a greenhouse style woodshed with a bit of air movement and I have a solar kiln.