Firewood Kiln

[Moss Man]

Anyone have any information on drying firewood in a kiln? I met a guy today that was doing it in an old railroad car on a small scale, but he wasn't real excited about showing me the set up. I need to contact the state forestry department, I believe they are working with a man on kilns in the southern region of the state. In the article, they said he is getting over $300. a cord for the dry wood. The gentleman today said he gets his down to 18% moisture content.

 

[STLfirewood]

I think the main reason for a kiln is to become USDA certified. Then you can ship in and out of EAB areas. I talked to a person that said o become certified the center pieces of wood in the kiln had to hold a core temp of 140 degrees for 70 minutes. After that it was good to ship. He said it still wasn't seasoned dry but was safe for shipping. I have been told it takes around 3 days in the kiln for wood to be dry. If I get the contracts I'm going after that will be my next big purchase. The man I talked to said he built his own and it was around 15k without the heat source.



Scott

 

[makomakoman]

Check out the website on the state of maine. The older gentleman talks about using an old school bus for a kiln/drying station.

http://www.maine.gov/doc/initiatives/wood_to_energy/firewood_heat.html

 

[Circle B MN]

I looked into it before and came up with insulated shipping containers heated by an OWB (of course). Gimme a bit to dig up some links.

 

[Moss Man]

Check out the website on the state of maine. The older gentleman talks about using an old school bus for a kiln/drying station.

http://www.maine.gov/doc/initiatives/wood_to_energy/firewood_heat.html

I watched the video, that bus idea is excellent. Buses should be a dime a dozen with the economy what it is right now.

 

[zopi]

Air drying in most places will get you down to 19% or so...a kiln should be able to get you down to 6-10%

check this out...no reason you can't add aux heat to it...

http://www.woodscience.vt.edu/about/extension/vtsolar_kiln/

 

[wdchuck]

Biomass powered kiln might qualify for some kind of carbon credit, maybe.

Think of the spin a marketing dept could put on it.

 

[MotorSeven]

Why not just build a solar kiln? Seems a waste to heat a kiln to dry firewood to make heat.

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_base/Homebuilt_solar_kiln.html

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/WoodDrying/wood_kiln.htm

I plan on building one this winter to start drying my hardwoods for the house. I want solar fans, so that will be the only big expense. Once the house is done I could chuck firewood in it.

RD

 

[wdchuck]

$1100.00 to do 11 cords, the wood needs to be on pallets, since the kiln is a sea container, 96" wide, 45 feet deep.

12 hours during mild weather to comply with 160* for 75 minutes.

longer during the winter.

 

[Steve NW WI]

Here's the WI regulations I found regarding kiln drying, I beleive mostly for EAB purposes:

Heat treatment to an internal temperature of at least 160° F (71.1° C.) at maintained at the temperature for at least 75 minutes

From this page: Firewood dealer page

 

[qweesdraw]

Why not just build a solar kiln? Seems a waste to heat a kiln to dry firewood to make heat.

http://www.woodweb.com/knowledge_bas...olar_kiln.html

http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects.../wood_kiln.htm

I plan on building one this winter to start drying my hardwoods for the house. I want solar fans, so that will be the only big expense. Once the house is done I could chuck firewood in it.

RD
I built a small solar kiln 8x8x8,average dry time from green to dry is about 28 days in the summer.Max temp has been about 145 degrees/with fans going. 160 F without fans.
On the first few days A.M. moisture will be on the roof.
For fans a 10 watt solar panel and 4 puter fans,2 on each side top and bottom,wired in series cost for the fans and solar panel was about $100.
I used 3 sliding glass doors leftover from a remodel on the bottom horizontally,Suntek corrugated for top and some of the sides.
Total cost was about $500 in supply's.(WISH IT WAS BIGGER NOW).
If i had a sawmill and the room a semi trailer painted black top and south side,Suntek on the south side,holes top and bottom AC fans in the back venting this one.
I would think $3k easily would do this one.(including the trailer)
Mark
P.S. I will try to post pic's if anyone cares.

 

[pilot-werx]

Anyone have any information on drying firewood in a kiln? I met a guy today that was doing it in an old railroad car on a small scale, but he wasn't real excited about showing me the set up. I need to contact the state forestry department, I believe they are working with a man on kilns in the southern region of the state. In the article, they said he is getting over $300. a cord for the dry wood. The gentleman today said he gets his down to 18% moisture content.

Was the gentleman located in Bryant Pond. If so, I got some wood from him last year and all I can say is WOW.

 

[Moss Man]

Was the gentleman located in Bryant Pond. If so, I got some wood from him last year and all I can say is WOW.

Yes.

Said $180. a cord for dry, but you pick it up yourself. A good deal by any standards.

Wood at the proper moisture content is a pleasure to burn.

 

[Dalmatian90]

Air drying in most places will get you down to 19% or so...a kiln should be able to get you down to 6-10%

There may not be any advantage, other then lower shipping weight, to getting firewood down to those low levels.

Wood is hygroscopic -- it will, over time, assume the humidity level of the air it is stored in.

For New England (a little less humid climate then Virginia), that'll be about 17%.

Takes a few months. The formulas used for calculating fire danger consider seasoned wood 3" to 8" in diameter as "1,000 hour" fuels. That's kind of a wide range, but figure something about 5" in diameter will be pretty close to 1000 hours (40 days) to get to the average humidity level.

Take it out of the kiln in September at 6%, store it outside, it'll be at 17-19% when you start burning it in November.

As for solar v. fueled kiln, that's a business decision...if it is 3x the cost in capital and fuel to have a wood burning kiln but it produces 4x the amount of cured wood and you have a market for that wood you make more money.

 

[Ductape]

I watched the video, that bus idea is excellent. Buses should be a dime a dozen with the economy what it is right now.

My wife would love an old school bus in the back yard ! :monkey:

 

[MotorSeven]

Quees, do post 'em. 8x8x8 is pretty small. I am thinking something in the 10x10x20 range. I have too many other projects going, but....the kiln is "on the list".

RD

 

[coyotencuttin]

i think kiln direct sells a kiln that can dry 5 cord of wood in 36 hours or less using green wood.http://www.kiln-direct.com/content/fire woodkiln/index.html
dad and i saw this at sawlex in morgantown wv this year. it was very interesting.

 

[pilot-werx]

Yes.

Said $180. a cord for dry, but you pick it up yourself. A good deal by any standards.

Wood at the proper moisture content is a pleasure to burn.

I picked up a load from him last year and I can say it was the best stuff I have ever burned. He indeed has converted an old box car to a kiln.

Do you happen to have his contact info? I lost it when I move last year.....

 

[blackdiesel]

we just bought a 700 lbs incinerator just like the on in the middle in the pic below:

We use it to burn our dead turkeys out of our houses daily. its set up to burn diesel @ a rate of 2 gallons per hour. however we only burn it ~15 minutes a day on diesel.

There is a bunch of slivers and small pieces of wood that comes out of my processor, so i throw it in the incinerator daily and that dramatically cuts down on the fuel consumption.

The end of this unit unbolts..... so all you'd have to do is set up a semi trailer box @ the end of it, run a little bit of duct work from the incinerator to the trailer, and you could put around 16 cords in it fairly easily on pallets. maybe even 20.

since we have to burn it every day reguardless, seems like a very cost effective way to kiln dry firewood.... however i can sell all the green wood i can cut to my contracted business. besides, i never had much luck selling to individuals, they are too picky and only want a rick or two at a time

 

[Dalmatian90]

I'd be afraid the wood would pick up an odor from a turkey incinerator.

I can just imagine folks bringing in some wood from the rain when it's damp and have eau de turkey in their house...not good.

You'd also be pumping in a decent amount of moisture from the turkey bodies.

If there was some sort of heat exchanger I could see it being a very good idea.