The Forestry Forum

General Forestry => Firewood and Wood Heating => Topic started by: John Vander on February 11, 2013, 07:22:51 PM

Title: Drying firewood
Post by: John Vander on February 11, 2013, 07:22:51 PM
Can someone give me some advice on getting firewood dried faster? Thinking about building a drying kiln. Almost ran out of wood this winter!
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: tyb525 on February 11, 2013, 07:25:45 PM
There are webpages about solar kilns that can be used for firewood. Also some companies make firewood kilns
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: JuniperBoss on February 11, 2013, 08:34:14 PM
Well, I suppose it depends on exactly how fast you need it to dry. If you need it to dry quickly, like in days or weeks, get a kiln or build a "greenhouse". The greenhouses are basically a big shelter with sides and roofing that both let lots of light in and heat the wood up to a temp of, if I heard it right, 150 degrees F. I think that's summer temps but still, it will dry in the winter too, depending on if you get a lot of snow. I would imagine the roof would get buried with snow! The ends of the shelter are open to allow the evaporated water to escape and the wood dry faster. You might check that out. Get back to me with the amount of time you need it to dry.
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: r.man on February 11, 2013, 10:11:50 PM
John, is winter over where you are? What duration and magnitude of cold do you get for winter and how and what are you heating.
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: John Vander on February 12, 2013, 06:26:40 PM
Time wise, if I could get the wood dried within a month it would be o.k. It's winter here, but this year amazingly little snow. Temp. is about minus 2-3 degrees celsius at night. Daytime goes up to about 7-10 (way too warm). I'm trying to warm my old Japanese house. I'm using a combination of sawtooth and hinoki.
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: r.man on February 12, 2013, 07:08:26 PM
If you have the room to stack your wood in the heated house with air space around it and maybe a fan or a de-humidifier nearby it will be burnable in a month. Technically it's burnable now but I mean it will be a more reasonable moisture content in a month.
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: JuniperBoss on February 12, 2013, 11:12:15 PM
I guess the greenhouse won't work then, if you want it to dry in the winter. One good snowstorm will bury your greenhouse.
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: leonz on February 14, 2013, 10:43:43 AM
Quote from: John Vander on February 11, 2013, 07:22:51 PM
Can someone give me some advice on getting firewood dried faster? Thinking about building a drying kiln. Almost ran out of wood this winter!


The quickest way is to have either the firewood stored near your heating appliance or doing it this way by building a dehumidifier box that will let you dry cord or two with a standard household dehumidifier or simply buy the best tarpaulin you can afford and throw it over the wood with the dehumidifier under it and let it go to work.

It is best to seal the edges of the tarpaulin with 2 by 4's if it is large enough in size to keep any extra moisture out of the wood pile.

Short wood under 14 inches dries the fastest for you too.

The other option is a wood drying box which is made out of pressure treated plywood and pressure treated dimensional lumber, creating an opening for a dehumidifier in the lower left or right corner and making one end open so that you can fill it and then throw a good quality tarpaulin over it will work. Just remember not to cover the end of the dehumidifier as the air has to circulate to work.

Ideally you want to operate the unit at night during the off peak hours to save money on electricity so you could have timer connected to your panel box to operate it from 11:00 to 6:00 AM every day.

Its better to throw the wood in the box or
above the ground on a platform above the ground rather than stacking it unless you are building a holzhuazen to dry your wood where you have an open center to let the air move through the circular pile.

  8)

Timberwolf or not at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: JuniperBoss on February 16, 2013, 08:30:50 PM
Wood does dry out fairly fast if left right next to the stove.
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: John Vander on February 18, 2013, 06:19:06 PM
Thanx for the good advice. in an act of desperation I stacked some of the firewood around my stove. This has really been helping to dry it faster. I will look into more effective methods.
Title: Re: Drying firewood
Post by: drobertson on February 18, 2013, 07:39:16 PM
I guess stating the obvious, make smaller pieces, I have done this with less than dry wood from time to time, it burns faster, but it burns hot,