kiln drying firewood
On another note, f somebody could come up with a cord dryer
that ran off a wood boiler then thay could sell a bunch of them.
Almost all farmers have a lot of junk wood around.
Can be done with steam and steam radiators and it is being done by
the same supplier of firewood to Vermont Castings.
They (verrmont Castings) wants their firewood down to a very low
percentage moisture totest fire their stoves.
It is even more important now to have dry wood in that the EPA is
getting cranky over wood burners in general.
Setting up a steam cordwood kiln is just like setting up a steam drying
lumber kiln.
The shed is fully insulated with reflective sheeting to contain the heat and
the moisture is driven out of the top of the kiln along the soffits of the kiln.
The fans are located at the ends to force the heated air everwhere before
it is exhausted with the moisture driven out of the cordwood with the steam
radiators.
You can use an outdoor boiler to feed a closed system steam boiler with a
water loop to keep the water hotter in the base of the boiler water tank while
the boiler is burning waste wood to make steam BUT it is counter productive
when you can use a Harman wood/coal boiler rated for steam to make steam
for a small firewood kiln.
The Harman 360 has 42 gallons of water to make steam and thats plenty of
water to make low pressure steam to feed a pair of very long radiators in a
narrow kiln with 2 single pipe steam radiators which makes the installation easy.
The steam making boiler HAS to be below the kiln horizon for the steam to travel
properly and to allow the condensate to fall by gravity back to the boiler water reservoir.
The moisture escaping the kiln is lost to atmosphere and the heat energy along with it is
not reclaimed by the kiln operator typically because of the cost and or corrosion from the
water vapor that would occur.
A steam kiln gives you dry heat from the conventional radiators with the least amount of
water used as the water returns as condensate back to the water chamber.
As long as a kiln box is well insulated properly vented and the rise and run for the radiators
is correct to allow the condensate to drip properly back into the boiler the heat for cordwood
drying will not go to waste and the cordwood will dry faster and to a greater extent.
With Steam your cooking the firewood with the steam to its fullest efficiency and if desired
you can burn anthracite coal also with high efficiency to make kiln dried wood.