Dehumidification kiln sensor and controller

[Stonewoodiron]

Greetings! I am building a small the dehumidification kiln In my basement. It will be around 90 ft.³ looks like there’s a few choices for sensors and controllers regarding temperature and humidity. I’d like to get some thing that can be controlled from my phone so I can chart and monitor the drying process. At this point, I believe the best thing would be A Wi-Fi enabled, two outlet controller, with temperature capability up to 175°, And relative humidity down to 5% or less. Any ideas or suggestions?

 

[Floodguy]

Would love to hear more about building a kiln. Just put together a chainsaw mill and new to the game

 

[Stonewoodiron]

Welcome Floodguy! I myself am new to this. This site is great for getting experienced answers. Many caring members here who are will to help. There’s a lot to learn but I found it to be an enjoyable process. Your outlook will change as you’re driving down the street and seeing fallen trees! This kiln should be up and running in the next few weeks. It’s really just adapted from a shelving unit that I built five years ago. I have attached some photos of the progress. I plan on using a household dehumidifier and heat lamps/bulbs common to reptile enclosures. Airflow will be produces from fans I’ve scavenged. Both controllers totaled $100.00. Currently, this may be the blind leading the blind! I’ll definitely post photos once completed and any relative data. What are you looking to do with your wood?

 

[Floodguy]

I’m going to mill the lumber for some out buildings on my property, and I have a buddy who is a cabinet maker who’s interested in some slabs. It’s funny I want to slab up every big tree I come across. I’m sure that will pass after I get some hours under my belt lol

 

[Stonewoodiron]

I’m going to mill the lumber for some out buildings on my property, and I have a buddy who is a cabinet maker who’s interested in some slabs. It’s funny I want to slab up every big tree I come across. I’m sure that will pass after I get some hours under my belt lol

 

[Stonewoodiron]

Sounds like fun! Nice diversity. I hope hours logged will lessen the addiction too!

 

[BobL]

Greetings! I am building a small the dehumidification kiln In my basement. It will be around 90 ft.³ looks like there’s a few choices for sensors and controllers regarding temperature and humidity. I’d like to get some thing that can be controlled from my phone so I can chart and monitor the drying process. At this point, I believe the best thing would be A Wi-Fi enabled, two outlet controller, with temperature capability up to 175°, And relative humidity down to 5% or less. Any ideas or suggestions?

I've built a number of Arduino based systems using the standard Arduino temp/hum sensors but also other temperature sensors.

I built a 5 sensor, compressed air, temp/hum monitor.
It measures temp, relative humidity and absolute humidity,
- inside the compressor enclosure located outside my shop (Comp Encl on display below)
- inside my shop (Shed Air on display)
- in the compre compressed air line (Comp Air on display)
It also measure pressure either side of a dehumidifier unit/filter.
The label "knob" in the photo switches the display between a) Temp b) Relative Humidity c) Saturated water pressure, d) Absolute Humidity and e) Pressures.


It would be possibly easier to control temperature with a small PID unit but integrating it with Humidity might be tricky.

 

[Stonewoodiron]

Wow! Bob, you are the Albert Einstein of lumber!! How we’re enriched by having you on this site. You also gave me great advice on the milling side of things. Not brown nosing- just grateful. Feeling a little ignorant, what is the air compressor for? Is it like the older pneumatic controls before low voltage systems?

 

[kimosawboy]

Stonewoodiron
If you have the space , toss your heatlamps in some old toilet tanks (ceramic) diffuses and retains the heat nicely . Also if you use the lids , they prevent crap from falling on your bulbs..
G. Vavra

 

[BobL]

Wow! Bob, you are the Albert Einstein of lumber!! How we’re enriched by having you on this site. You also gave me great advice on the milling side of things. Not brown nosing- just grateful. Feeling a little ignorant, what is the air compressor for? Is it like the older pneumatic controls before low voltage systems?

Definitely nowhere near AE class - besides he was a theory man.
RE: Compressor; It's just a 4HP shop compressor. I have it located outside my shop and have the air reticulated to about 8 points inside my shop via 1/2" galve pipe. I use the air for the usual shop stuff but also for metal lathe and metal mill cutter mister/cooling. I also use it with my plasma cutter.

Problem is in Feb-March we have lots of 95F days with very high humidity, so the relic pipe condenses a lot of water and that messes up the plasma cutter. I've added a set of finned copper coils, and a quart size sigel dehumidifier. There's also an Arduino controlled 3 point automated water venting system that vents the tank, the coil and a low point just inside the shed before the dehumidifier - it auto vents for 50 milliseconds every 50 minutes - these two times are also manually adjustable. There's also an manual vent valve that I can hold down a button on to get rid of that final nit of water before I run the plasma.

I had no way of knowing how much all of this reduced the humidity so I built the Arduino humidity sensor system. It certainly drops the water levels in the air to less than 2% of the starting humidity.

I have made many Arduino based systems in my Shop,
- CO sensor
- Dust Collector pressure and temperature sensor.
- Several dust/particle counters for when I do wood work.
- Several mains power supply controlled gismos eg turn on a power tool and the shop vac starts up automatically
I also made a small Arduino controlled DOP (Dispersed Oil Particulate) machine - this makes a very fine oil mist for testing dust filters/masks/fans etc I'm really into fine dust measurement and control and consult to various Mens sheds (Shared Community based shops) all over the state.
I could show heaps of photos but I'll just show the DOP machine.

 

[Stonewoodiron]

Stonewoodiron
If you have the space , toss your heatlamps in some old toilet tanks (ceramic) diffuses and retains the heat nicely . Also if you use the lids , they prevent crap from falling on your bulbs..
G. Vavra

Awesome idea! As a service plumber I have access to used tanks/lids always. That kinda touched on an idea of using soapstone in some way (as stickers, slabs around the bulbs, slabs on bottom of kiln) for its heat retention and radiation capacity. I love this stone (built my kitchen sink out of it) and will definitely use it in the future solar kiln build.

 

[Stonewoodiron]

Definitely nowhere near AE class - besides he was a theory man.
RE: Compressor; It's just a 4HP shop compressor. I have it located outside my shop and have the air reticulated to about 8 points inside my shop via 1/2" galve pipe. I use the air for the usual shop stuff but also for metal lathe and metal mill cutter mister/cooling. I also use it with my plasma cutter.

Problem is in Feb-March we have lots of 95F days with very high humidity, so the relic pipe condenses a lot of water and that messes up the plasma cutter. I've added a set of finned copper coils, and a quart size sigel dehumidifier. There's also an Arduino controlled 3 point automated water venting system that vents the tank, the coil and a low point just inside the shed before the dehumidifier - it auto vents for 50 milliseconds every 50 minutes - these two times are also manually adjustable. There's also an manual vent valve that I can hold down a button on to get rid of that final nit of water before I run the plasma.

I had no way of knowing how much all of this reduced the humidity so I built the Arduino humidity sensor system. It certainly drops the water levels in the air to less than 2% of the starting humidity.

I have made many Arduino based systems in my Shop,
- CO sensor
- Dust Collector pressure and temperature sensor.
- Several dust/particle counters for when I do wood work.
- Several mains power supply controlled gismos eg turn on a power tool and the shop vac starts up automatically
I also made a small Arduino controlled DOP (Dispersed Oil Particulate) machine - this makes a very fine oil mist for testing dust filters/masks/fans etc I'm really into fine dust measurement and control and consult to various Mens sheds (Shared Community based shops) all over the state.
I could show heaps of photos but I'll just show the DOP machine.
View attachment 895156

Thanks for turning me on to Arduino. I never knew such controls existed “off the shelf” The applications seem endless and very cost effective. The machine is impressive and a very worthwhile endeavor - I feel guilty for not wearing a respirator when cutting ANYTHING. I wear it while cutting soapstone but usually dust masks when milling, metal cutting, and heavy radial arm cutting. I’m sure there’s more debris in my garage than I know! Do you run and type of air scrubber in your shop?

 

[BobL]

Thanks for turning me on to Arduino. I never knew such controls existed “off the shelf” The applications seem endless and very cost effective. The machine is impressive and a very worthwhile endeavor - I feel guilty for not wearing a respirator when cutting ANYTHING. I wear it while cutting soapstone but usually dust masks when milling, metal cutting, and heavy radial arm cutting. I’m sure there’s more debris in my garage than I know! Do you run and type of air scrubber in your shop?

Where I live (except for when there are bushfires!) even though were about 1 mile from city centre the outside air is usually very clean. Also the average (year) high is 77F and the average low is 55F so our dust extractors can be located or vented outside so there is no need for scrubbers. I do have a serious hospital grade scrubber but I rarely used. Summer days can get warm to hot (even though its mid-fall today it reached 86F) so I have a air conditioner in my shop but if I run the dust extractor within minutes it sucks the wool air out of my shop so I make wood dust in the mornings and switch teh AC on and do metal work or electronics in the afternoons.

I have a portable battery powered respirator but I rarely use it when milling - only when the log is dry and maybe in a confined location.
I don't like wearing masks while wood working so set up my dust extractor to fair rip any freshly made dust away from me. I can stand up to my wood lathe and turn and am exposed to effectively the same as the outside air without using a mask. My Shop is about 500 sqft and I use a 4HP dust collector with 6" ducting to most machinery.