Ok, not exactly Seattle, about 1.5 hours north on Camano Island, but more on that in a second.
This is my first post on this forum, though I have been lurking for quite some time. I want to thank everyone right off the bat for the wealth of information provided here. That said, I have a few questions about building a solar kiln.
I'm looking for anyone local to the area with experience running a solar kiln in our wonderful pacific NW climate. Camano Island temps average low 70's in the summer to low 40's in the winter ; humidity about 70-90%. My main question is this: With our low temps and high humidity, is it more benificial to run a closed system "pineywoods" type kiln with a dehumidifier, or the more tradional VT style? Also, what affect does having different materials sharing the kiln have on the final product? I'd like to get into some small scale chainsaw milling, but I'd also like to dry some firewood at the same time. Would having the firewood in there negatively affect the quality of the milled product? Any thought, comments or concerns would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
Good Morning KanerNW, and Welcome to the Forestry Forum. 8)
Welcome aboard, living a short distance north from you and knowing the climate I too wonder how well it would work.
How much sun? The more sun, the better it will run...the VT design.
If this is mainly a hobby effort, no problem with the solar kiln. BUT, if you are in this for the business, the a standard DH kiln will be more reasonable as it runs well no matter what the weather, uses a reasonable amount of electricity, drying times are predictable, drying quality is totally under your control and not the cloudiness, etc.
This is definitely a hobby effort. Mainly for firewood drying, and the occasional couple hundred board feet of milled lumber. We don't get too many sunny days around here, mostly partly cloudy, but the kiln's proposed location gets good southern exposure. Mostly I'm just looking to see if there's anyone that lives in a similar environment that could advise if their results were worth the effort, or if I should just build a woodshed and be content with air drying for a year or more. So what say you, fellow northwesterners, to build or not to build?