Hoop shed with clear cover how much faster would firewood dry vs outside

[woodman6666]

Hey guys I am replacing an old pole shed with a hoop shed and found out that I can get a clear cover instead of a color. Just wondering how much faster wood will dry under that cover vs a colored cover or just outside. I found a farmer who put a clear cover on his hoopshed and he said it gets so hot in the summer that he cant put calves in it until fall and winter, on average he guessed at least 20-30 degrees hotter than oustide. So just looking for opinions
I would guess with no rain on it and the additional heat maybe take a few months off the drying process maybe even more.
Thanks

 

[avalancher]

Its not just heat that will dry out firewood, but air flow is just as important if not more. Depending on the humidity level of where you are at, a covered stack with good air flow across it can dry out almost twice as fast as a stack left out to catch all the rain that may land on it.

Get you a nice big fan and stick in the end pointing out, and let it draw air through the stacks and you should have some nice drying action going.I stuck two cords of fresh white oak under the carport a couple of years ago and left a fan drawing air through the stacks, and it dried out enough to burn very nicely three months later.

 

[ponyexpress976]

Avalancher is 100% correct. Air flow is the key.

 

[zogger]

It gets hot

Our greenhouse without the big exhaust fan running will get past tropical level heat, no idea really how hot. Last week when the fan broke the two inside thermometers almost immediately went up and pegged at 120 F. Replacing that fan motor that day was *the nastiest* job I have had to do all year, thought I was gonna keel over. Greenhouse sits at 90% or higher humidity all the time. I sweated buckets, actually got woozy once and had to retreat to the shade.

Air flow is key, but hot and airflow..can't be beat in combination. Just need the ends open and the sides open at the bottom a little for some air to get in there. It'll bake it out. You should easily get 20-30 degrees higher temp in there than whatever it is outside during the day. Now the greenhouse stays tight and has screens to keep the bugs out, etc and is designed to retain the heat and humicity. to make it a wood dryer, just need to open your unit up so it gets a lot more air.

They use long open ended small hoophouses in market gardening all the time, and I've built dozens of them. They extend your growing season by a month or better both ends, spring and fall. So, I see no reason why wood stacked in there wouldn't dry out faster, you won't be adding any new moisture inside like you do with watering plants. It will start out with the green wood as high humidity, but I bet that drops off fast daily.

 

[Hedgerow]

Think of wood as a sponge... Water in, water out... Covering a wood pile gives you an advantage of only water out. Air flow will aid in carrying evaporated water away. The added heat will aid in evaporation. You can't control air humidity. You got a sound theory there. Try it and let us know how it goes!

 

[Blazer]

I am using one end of a 20 x 80 hoop building for my wood stack and I love it. It has a 16 ft long concrete pad at one end that I split and stack on, the building was originally put up to raise hogs. The building runs north- south, I keep the wood in the south end where it gets some sun, and we have a closure on the north end that we keep open in the summer and closed in the winter. I do have a solid cover, so can't really say about the clear, but I am sure it would raise the temp inside. Wonder if it as durable ?? My cover is now around 14 years old, is getting thin in places and has some pin holes, but its still in very usable shape and should be for at least a couple more years.
I cut mainly ash and hackberry, so I don't have extremely long drying wood to begin with, but my normal cycle is to cut up rounds in the fall, pile them inside under the cover, and then split in early spring when the weather starts to warm up. Trust me, you won't need a fan. There is almost always a breeze blowing thru the building. The wood always comes out dry and just as bright as when it was split ( I know, I know, wood does not need to be pretty, but I still like it that way) My wood dries in there from April thru October and always comes out good and dry- no matter what the weather is like. I highly recommend it !

 

[woodman6666]

I am using one end of a 20 x 80 hoop building for my wood stack and I love it. It has a 16 ft long concrete pad at one end that I split and stack on, the building was originally put up to raise hogs. The building runs north- south, I keep the wood in the south end where it gets some sun, and we have a closure on the north end that we keep open in the summer and closed in the winter. I do have a solid cover, so can't really say about the clear, but I am sure it would raise the temp inside. Wonder if it as durable ?? My cover is now around 14 years old, is getting thin in places and has some pin holes, but its still in very usable shape and should be for at least a couple more years.
I cut mainly ash and hackberry, so I don't have extremely long drying wood to begin with, but my normal cycle is to cut up rounds in the fall, pile them inside under the cover, and then split in early spring when the weather starts to warm up. Trust me, you won't need a fan. There is almost always a breeze blowing thru the building. The wood always comes out dry and just as bright as when it was split ( I know, I know, wood does not need to be pretty, but I still like it that way) My wood dries in there from April thru October and always comes out good and dry- no matter what the weather is like. I highly recommend it !

They give the same warranty on the clear cover as the others so I would guess that it should last as long (15 years) I was thinking of leaving the ends open in the summer also and closing in winter and leaving a foot or so gap on the sides for air as well. Anyway thanks alot for the replies