Is this meant to be good drying weather?

[DeanBrown3D]

Bloody hell its so humid here in NJ, how is anything supposed to dry? Thunderstorms at night, fog, due and mist in the morning, hot 'n sticky all day. 101 degrees today, and 100%humidity. I hate it!

 

[SmokinDodge]

At least you have thunderstorms...................

 

[turnkey4099]

Bloody hell its so humid here in NJ, how is anything supposed to dry? Thunderstorms at night, fog, due and mist in the morning, hot 'n sticky all day. 101 degrees today, and 100%humidity. I hate it!

I read a book on firewood way back when. It stated that wood would always dry down to the average humidity of the climate. By that measure your wood should be gaining in moisture

I spent two summers in the DC area back in the 60s. Miserable weather, high temps/hi humidity. Only place I ever saw where you were miserable before a thunderstorm and even more so after it.

Harry K

 

[314epw]

drying wood

I posted this somewhere,but hear we go.Cover pile with black plastic loosely leaving 6" off the ground.Cut a round hole in the plastic on the top of the pile.Take a large coffee can and cut out bottom,save the top.B]Tape can in hole.Put lid on.Hopefully wood is stacked in a sunny area.You will see the plastic balloon out.When this happens take lid off.You won't believe the heat and moisture that comes out.My wood that is done this way is at 7%.At night or when it's going to rain,put the top on.Heat will stay in and moisture will stay out!

I think I'm going to make these and sell them using a black tarp instead of plastic.
Ed

 

[DanMan1]

I posted this somewhere,but hear we go.Cover pile with black plastic loosely leaving 6" off the ground.Cut a round hole in the plastic on the top of the pile.Take a large coffee can and cut out bottom,save the top.B]Tape can in hole.Put lid on.Hopefully wood is stacked in a sunny area.You will see the plastic balloon out.When this happens take lid off.You won't believe the heat and moisture that comes out.My wood that is done this way is at 7%.At night or when it's going to rain,put the top on.Heat will stay in and moisture will stay out!

I think I'm going to make these and sell them using a black tarp instead of plastic.
Ed

Hard to beleive. 7% when your PA air it 50%. Yup hard to beleive.
I love science, can you please explain to me how this happens?

 

[314epw]

Hard to believe?

Since science is your love or hobby,I thought my statement would be easy to understand.So here's another example.I wash my clothes,there done and there wet.I put them in a dryer that creates 185 degrees.Damn if in an hour or so there dry!Now granted the clothes are tumbling,so they dry faster.I haven't figured out away yet to tumble the wood,but the black bears help by knocking the pile over every now and then.

On an 80 to a 100 degree day it gets to 120 to 140 degrees inside.Black absorbs heat.Then you open the top vent and you have circulation.You can dry green oak in 4 monthes that way.A picture is worth a 1000 words
Ed

 

[314epw]

hard to believe

Moister meter has 2 buttons left button left scale.right button right scale You can see my thumb is on the left button.

 

[DeanBrown3D]

Interesting! I can see exactly how it could work. Have you got a pic of the complete system?

Dean

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

On an 80 to a 100 degree day it gets to 120 to 140 degrees inside.Black absorbs heat.Then you open the top vent and you have circulation.You can dry green oak in 4 monthes that way.

Yep. It's a no brainer. You heat it up, the moisture is driven off. EVEN if the incoming air is humid. Just like a kiln. Last I checked, a kiln doesn't need an air dryer on its intake.



Ed, I think you'd get good results even if you leave the lid off. No need to wait for the heat to build up inside - it will be there even if the plastic isn't ballooning. I may try your trick on some wet stuff I have, but I think I'll rig the vent so that it's open to air, but not to rain.

 

[jags]

Wow, it would be pretty cool if you could add a short piece of 8" flex pipe and make a curve at the top, like a candy cane. No need to mess with top on/off.

 

[BlueRidgeMark]

Yeah, that should work. Unless the rain is REALLY going sideways, and that's not going to be often.

 

[LarryTheCableGuy]

...or if it had some sort of umbrella rain cap, similar to some gas vents.

.

 

[RaisedByWolves]

Since science is your love or hobby,I thought my statement would be easy to understand.So here's another example.I wash my clothes,there done and there wet.I put them in a dryer that creates 185 degrees.Damn if in an hour or so there dry!Now granted the clothes are tumbling,so they dry faster.I haven't figured out away yet to tumble the wood,but the black bears help by knocking the pile over every now and then.

On an 80 to a 100 degree day it gets to 120 to 140 degrees inside.Black absorbs heat.Then you open the top vent and you have circulation.You can dry green oak in 4 monthes that way.A picture is worth a 1000 words
Ed

I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but with that type of meter you have to split the wood to get an accurate idea of the moisture content.


There are meters that can measure the moisture% without splitting but they have a slide hammer that drives the probes 1" or more into the wood for a true reading.

The 7% reading probably = 15-20% witch is more in line with what you would want anyway.

7% is just too dry.

 

[v8titan]

Since science is your love or hobby,I thought my statement would be easy to understand.So here's another example.I wash my clothes,there done and there wet.I put them in a dryer that creates 185 degrees.Damn if in an hour or so there dry!Now granted the clothes are tumbling,so they dry faster.I haven't figured out away yet to tumble the wood,but the black bears help by knocking the pile over every now and then.

On an 80 to a 100 degree day it gets to 120 to 140 degrees inside.Black absorbs heat.Then you open the top vent and you have circulation.You can dry green oak in 4 monthes that way.A picture is worth a 1000 words
Ed

Are you probing that meter into the end grain? That's the way it looks in the picture. Wouldn't it be more accurate to take a piece from the pile, split it in half and measure in what was the center of the piece? I check my wood periodically without a meter by just splitting a piece in half and observing the inside. You can almost use your sense of smell to determine moisture content with oak.

Tom

 

[Dr. Hackemoff]

Just my two bits...the percent of water vapor in air does not directly correlate to the percent of water "droplets" in wood (water vapor is even lighter than air - check out some clouds). While we all agree that wood will dry faster semi-arid areas, it is possible to dry wood down to 15-20% in a 70% relative humidity environment. Just takes longer - which is why some of us poor b@stards have to cut a good year ahead of time.

 

[DanMan1]

Just my two bits...the percent of water vapor in air does not directly correlate to the percent of water "droplets" in wood (water vapor is even lighter than air - check out some clouds). While we all agree that wood will dry faster semi-arid areas, it is possible to dry wood down to 15-20% in a 70% relative humidity environment. Just takes longer - which is why some of us poor b@stards have to cut a good year ahead of time.

Yup, I'm one of those poor b@stards.
I'm pretty sure driving moisure from an object, wood or otherwise, is very non-linear. When you start with 70% dropping 5RH TO 65% takes little energy.
Going from 12%-7% ( 5 RH again ), in a 50% RH environment takes an incredible amount of energy. But hey, what do I know?

 

[PA. Woodsman]

Just was wondering if I could make a drying bin like you guys talked about with black tarp and a can but on a smaller scale for chiminea wood? Wonder if it would work; what are your thoughts? I'm talking about a small "box" that I could cover and hopefully speed up drying small splits of wood. Thanks!

 

[314epw]

It doesn't matter what size the pile is.The black absorbs the heat.The space on the bottom gets circulation going.The hole in the top lets the heat and moisture out.Outside humidty does not effect the situation.it's llike a sealed container.
Ed

 

[Brush Hog]

I do it the old fashion way. Cover top and let it sit for a year. I think most people that do firewood on large scale just leave it to the weather in a big pile. Correct me if I'm wrong

 

[DanMan1]

It doesn't matter what size the pile is.The black absorbs the heat.The space on the bottom gets circulation going.The hole in the top lets the heat and moisture out.Outside humidty does not effect the situation.it's llike a sealed container.
Ed

Saying the outside humidity has no effect is just plain WRONG.