Kiln Talk

[Tree Dan]

How about this idea, Build 3 VT Solar kilns and have them set up side by side 8)
This way you can cook a lot of boards at the same time.

I would like to compare the 3 solar kiln bank to a
Single solar kiln.
solar kiln and a L53
solar kiln and a L200

[scsmith42]

Dan, I currently operate an L200 and a 2K bd ft solar kiln, and have an additional L200 unit awaiting the building.

Next week we start building two more 2K bd ft solar kilns and an 800 bd ft solar kiln.

Around me, solar works fantastic in the spring, summer and fall.  My plan is to take a hybrid approach by having both DH and solar available.

By fall I should have my new DH kiln building built and both L200's operating in it.

[YellowHammer]

I've got one of each of the three, and I wouldn't be without any of them, as each has their sweet spot that can be matched to a need and species of wood. 

If you are trying to get predictable production, a solar kiln is anything but that, however if you add auxiliary heat, or otherwise do something to get it through the cloudy days, it works fine.  I've cranked out a lot of wood through mine.  From my standpoint, the solar kiln excels at slow and difficult to dry wood such as white oak and thicker slabs.  Its slow but almost foolproof. Since the solar kiln is slower, its a better match for slower drying wood.  When I got my other kilns up and running, I thought I would never use it again, but I still always have it loaded with something slow, and right now its got a full load of 8/4 walnut slabs and they are drying fine.  No way would I tie up one of my higher production kilns with this load, or burn the electricity during the time it would take to dry, so the solar is perfect for this. 

However, depending on the wood you are planning to dry, it's not remotely comparable to the speed of a DH kiln, at least at my latitude.  For example, I just put in a load of air dried poplar into my Nyle 200 on Friday and it is done and ready today, Wednesday, as poplar can be sucked flat, and the Nyle 200 has the horsepower to do it.  I wouldn't consider putting poplar in the solar kiln as the drying rate and species are a mismatch.

I use my smaller L53 for high value short loads, in the 1000 bdft quantities, or for non standard species like my Kentucky Coffee.  I can run this kiln blindfolded and its great for this kind of load, or a load that I have to feel my way through.  I especially like running walnut in it.  Its fast and reliable (mostly) and I get a load out of it every 7 to 10 days.

You didn't mention as an alternative that I think is the best complement to a kiln and also the easiest way to greatly increase production at a fraction of the cost.  I'm talking about an air drying yard or fan shed.  The correct velocity airflow correctly matched to different species of wood will dry them very fast, about as fast as they can tolerate, until they get down to where the kiln needs to take over.  So what I mean is that if I put a high velocity fan on fresh sawn red oak or white oak, it will crack it, so what that really means is that the fan is drying the wood too fast.  So why would I want to expend the electricity and kiln time if a simple fan will dry the wood faster than it can handle? So the solution is to match the air velocity to a specific species of wood group, or remove it altogether until the wood is drying near its maximum safe rate.  Oak gets no fans, while maple, poplar and buckeye get all the wind I can throw at them.  A characteristic of airflow drying is that its effectiveness decreases the dryer the wood gets, so at some point it is ineffective, and that's when I put the wood into the kiln for the rest of the process.  Adopting this type of pre air drying strategy really speeds up the kiln throughput and effectively doubles or triples the output of a kiln with a fraction of the cost.  For example, fresh sawn, green red oak takes 28 days in my Nyle L53 kiln.  If I air dry it first, with no fans, I can have it done in 9.  So I get 3X the production out of the same kiln as long as I have the real estate to air or fan dry and saw far enough ahead.  I also do this with my Nyle 200, so I am doubling or tripling the output of both my DH kilns, and that's about all a guy like me can handle, every week.   

Anyway, something to consider.           

 

[Tree Dan]

Thanks guys, sounds like a good idea for me to upgrade from just the one solar kiln, I could start with another solar kiln, then think if the L53 will be big enough or just go big and get the L200.

I should try some fan drying...good idea, will it dry walnut or Ash too fast?

We still have snow up here and the poor solar kiln hasent seen 40 degrees F in a long long time.
I have so much wood air drying I will need to stop bringing more in.