Outdoor Wood Furnace Info
All-Purpose OWF Discussions => Fire Wood => Topic started by: coolidge on October 14, 2014, 06:43:19 PM
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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!
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I've always wondered about this! Hope it works out for you
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Are you running the fan constantly or is it running on temperature coolidge?
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Fan is on constant.
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How did this end up working out for you?
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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.
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I agree with coolidge burning wood to dry wood to be burned just doesn't make a lot of sense to me.
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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
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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.
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U could use a blower off your stack
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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http://thechimneysweep.ca/6seasoningwood.html (http://thechimneysweep.ca/6seasoningwood.html)