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[coolidge]

I had a insulated box I had built a couple years ago, so I decided to hook up my water to air heat exchanger and pump the heat into the box with a half cord of wood inside, weighed a piece of Ash yesterday at 11 pounds, weighed in today at 9.5 pounds. Temp in the box is 170 degrees running of my 250. So far I have only filled the firebox half full three times for a 24 hour burn.   Just playing!

[AirForcePOL]

I've always wondered about this!  Hope it works out for you

[slimjim]

Are you running the fan constantly or is it running on temperature coolidge?

[coolidge]

Fan is on constant.

[AirForcePOL]

How did this end up working out for you?

[coolidge]

I don't think it would be worth the cost of the wood. It did work, but to go from off the stump to 20%, let mother nature do the work.

[Jwood]

I agree with coolidge burning wood to dry wood to be burned just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[AirForcePOL]

I think if you spent the time and money to build something that would hold the heat it would be worth it.  From what I have read, if you can maintain 160 deg for 4 days you can dry oak from 50% to 20%. It would use a lot of energy but maybe coal would be a good substitute for wood

[coolidge]

I had no problem maintaining 160, just not shure if the "core" is 160.  I had stacked my wood is a pallet rack and put the whole thing in the kiln. Maybe cross stacking instead would work better. Not shure if my ventilation was the best. I used a 8" stove pipe vented out the top to my insulated chimney.

[mikemike]

U could use a blower off your stack

[AirForcePOL]

I don't think it should be stacked.  I would say build a crate with metal woven wire type sides on it and just throw it in there. 

[Homerglide]

Solar kilns are easy and economical. Visqueen or maybe even pallet wrap the bottom, top and all sides with drain holes on the floor. A sunny summer day it will easily reach the 160F temps. If I were to need spring cut oak for the coming season, this is how I would go.

[coolidge]

Agreed on the stacking part, more work. I will see what I can find for a wire rack in the spring and try a loose thrown batch. I did try the solar kiln thing, wrapped a pallet rack with clear plastic, made a pitched roof with clear plastic. I was getting 140 at the top but ambient at the bottom, again stacked wood.

[lindnova]

There is a big wood seller that has a storage unit kind of kiln at his "u-pick up' location.  I saw them loading steel pallet bins and a chimney exhausting at one end.  I haven't seen up close how it works or what he is heating with, but it looks like he is selling a lot of wood.  He was out last year and didn't get many new logs until mid summer, so no time to dry like normal.

[atvalaska]

http://thechimneysweep.ca/6seasoningwood.html