The Forestry Forum

I have been reading about solar kilns but cannot build one where I am currently living. I am right on the seashore so it is quite humid no matter what the temp.I would like to get my wood dryer. Would it work to wrap, say, a pallet worth of firewood in black plastic so that it would heat up. Then allow some sort of chimney on top so the moist hot air would draft and draw in air from the bottom.At first I was considering a box of rigid insulation and a clear top like the kilns I've seen, but started to think why not just make the sides themselves black.Any thoughts?

It's just a supposition,but, I would bet that you wouldn't get enough air flow to vacate the wet air.  Drying is as much, or more, airflow as it is heat.   Stacked wood has voids where it takes an act of God to get the air to move.

jnsn, what you just described, is a basic Solar Kiln. Even with high MC's near the shoreline, you CAN get the wood pretty dry, by using a Solar Kiln set-up. Where are you located???

  As long as the wood remains in the kiln, after drying, it should NOT absorb moisture from the air.

I would place bets on the wood rotting before it dried in your intended setup.  Drying wood requires lots of airflow and I doubt you could get enough with the method you described.