I'm thinking about building a small wood kiln

[Woody912]

Depending on your species of wood you will need to decrease the total wt by about 1/2 to have dry wood. According to my quick and rough numbers it takes 100 btu's to vaporize 1# of water after you raise the temp to 212 F. There are 91,000 btu's in a gallon of propane and heat loss is inevitable because you will have to have circulation to removed water vapor. Unless you are selling bundles for $20 I do not see a way that this is profitable.

I will second the solar kiln idea. You could easily and cheaply make a greenhouse type shed and fill it with wood. Only expense would be a small fan to move moisture out of the building.

Think it might be doable without a fan by inducing a draft effect. Warm air moves up

 

[motolife313]

I like the solar panel idea! I'm doing it to dry wood to run in my smoker. And I sell smoking wood on CL. Post has been up for about 8 months but only sold to 1 guy lol. Mainley flakes email me that's about it. I'm in pnw so it's not BBQ nation by any means. I've used the oven and it seems to work really good. I'd like to get a moister meter and test how dry I can get a piece of wood in the oven. It will cook out the water at 350 degrees. I run it at 350 for a while then turn it down to 250 then back up and then down. I keep a small fire going in my smoker so helps to have seasoned up would.

 

[Woody912]

I like the solar panel idea! I'm doing it to dry wood to run in my smoker. And I sell smoking wood on CL. Post has been up for about 8 months but only sold to 1 guy lol. Mainley flakes email me that's about it. I'm in pnw so it's not BBQ nation by any means. I've used the oven and it seems to work really good. I'd like to get a moister meter and test how dry I can get a piece of wood in the oven. It will cook out the water at 350 degrees. I run it at 350 for a while then turn it down to 250 then back up and then down. I keep a small fire going in my smoker so helps to have seasoned up would.

I have a pc of hickory that I put behind my wood stove couple yrs after getting initial weight. As I recall weight pretty well stabilized after about 2 months/ Winter humidity here probably runs 10% when it is cold

 

[ChoppyChoppy]

It's completely not practical to run a kiln if you've had 1 customer in 8 months
Cut the wood, stack it and let it dry like normal people do.

 

[motolife313]

I burn wood myself aswell. I'd like it more seasoned up

 

[sb47]

Location, location, location. Not every climate leads to good wood curing by natural means. If you have plenty of scrap wood to use for fuel to power a kiln then it may be cost effective. If your paying for the fuel, then no, I can't see where it would be cost effective. A basic junker shipping container starts at 2K and goes up depending on condition.
The cheapest way is to start curing earlier and let mother nature do the work for you.
Full sun and lots of wind will work best. But again climate is a big factor.

 

[NSMaple1]

Those sea cans can get really warm inside with sun exposure.

 

[motolife313]

I'm in a pretty wet area. Pnw

 

[c5rulz]

Have you considered getting a small, steel shipping container?
Cut in a few air vents, paint it black, place a fan inside and set it in full sun.
Such a set up would dry firewood quite well.

David

I am guessing that would result in a moldy nasty mess. You would have to have a very large fan turning the air over, then the solar heat would be very minimal with that much air turnover.

 

[c5rulz]

Depending on your species of wood you will need to decrease the total wt by about 1/2 to have dry wood. According to my quick and rough numbers it takes 100 btu's to vaporize 1# of water after you raise the temp to 212 F. There are 91,000 btu's in a gallon of propane and heat loss is inevitable because you will have to have circulation to removed water vapor. Unless you are selling bundles for $20 I do not see a way that this is profitable.

I agree it takes a lot of energy. However I believe 1,000 BTU so vaporize 1 # of water. (plus some more fun facts)

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lincoln/sites/default/files/calculate_drying_costs.pdf

 

[Woody912]

I agree it takes a lot of energy. However I believe 1,000 BTU so vaporize 1 # of water. (plus some more fun facts)

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lincoln/sites/default/files/calculate_drying_costs.pdf

one btu raises the temp one degree but the heat of vaporization once it reaches the boiling point is 100 times that if I remember high school physics. I will look for another reference

 

[Woody912]

I agree it takes a lot of energy. However I believe 1,000 BTU so vaporize 1 # of water. (plus some more fun facts)

http://extension.oregonstate.edu/lincoln/sites/default/files/calculate_drying_costs.pdf

Ok, I agree with you. I initially worked it in calories per gram and then converted, obviously I blew a decimal point somewhere. I also think those who feed their OWB with green wood could find a couple lessons in here regarding heat derived

 

[c5rulz]

Ok, I agree with you. I initially worked it in calories per gram and then converted, obviously I blew a decimal point somewhere. I also think those who feed their OWB with green wood could find a couple lessons in here regarding heat derived

Can't agree more with the green wood comment.

Decades ago at work, (State institution) they converted coal fired furnaces over to burn oil, this was during the Arab Oil embargo when the price of oil when crazy high. When they tested the new oil burners for a few days they were congratulating themselves on how efficient the new set was. Until they did some soundings on the tanks and found they mis read the instruments by a factor of 10.