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Building a log burning kiln to season firewood


WetWood
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I did some research on google and found nothing

I phoned a couple of local charcoal makers up and they did not know

 

The best thing I have seen is while driving up the M74 and just before you come to the Ecclefecen junction, to the left there is a timber yard with a green corrugated steel building inside the yard with chimneiys coming out of it with the smell of burning wood.

I can only presume this budding is a timber kiln and I have been told the company is called North west timbers

I have a phone number for them but I can not get an answer

 

So that is the best I have seen on how a log drying kiln would work powered by burning the waste timber

 

Dose anyone have any better ideas please?

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There's a lot of threads on here about it but basically you need a biomass boiler (chip ones are more efficient but cost more to install), a heat exchanger /radiator with a fan blowing through it (or multiple ones) and an insulated shed or container. You'll also need crates of some sort to the move your firewood around.

 

A lot of people using shipping containers with the boiler and radiator in one end but we use a shed with a few smaller fans and radiators. Where abouts are you based?

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All of the setups I've seen have been high end installations of wood chip or waste incinerators (Dragon) costing 10's of thousands and they still don't produce decent dried wood. Good luck.

 

Sent from my Alba 10" using Tapatalk

Well they seam to manage selling kiln dried logs sent from eastern europe and russia, so someone is doing something right!

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I too have questions.

I've recently acquired an industrial kiln (long story how) which is fully insulated etc.

It worked by blowing hot air from the top down the sides which were made up of vents, so there is still existing 'fins' down each side.

I also have a wood boiler, 1.5cube internal fuel space.

 

I yet DO NOT have any heat exchangers/fittings etc.

I have spoken to multiple people about what system I should go for, and have heard different ideas. Some say use a wet system with radiators in the sides and a slow moving fan.

The other is install a heat exchanger and blow the hot air form the top down.

It's only a small kiln (4mx4mx3m)ish. However, I am unsure if the boiler will be a suitable size of heat source for it.

I'd of thought a heat exchanger would be more efficient than an entire wet system...

If anyone can shed some light (or heat) on the matter.

 

I forgot to add the annoying thing is I have a 200kw biomass chip boiler however because I am getting RHI from it they will not let me heat a kiln from it

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I forgot to add the annoying thing is I have a 200kw biomass chip boiler however because I am getting RHI from it they will not let me heat a kiln from it

 

 

Why will they not let you? Once the boiler is in, you can alter the installation slightly at least, its more a question of timing to make sure you don't miss out on payments.

 

If you send in your application the day after one of your quarterly payments hits the bank, they should process the application within that quarter and at the most you'll be delayed a single payment rather than 6 months worth.

 

It may depend wether that possible augmentation of the system is within the bounds of the original installation. Our heater/kiln upgrade from 7.3kw exchanger to 90kw of exchangers, is. We plan to use it far less anyway as it'll be much more efficient.

 

If you've got an insulated container that will work with recirculation you might be best off with exchangers and fans. Bigger the heat exchanger the quicker you'll get up to temperature.

 

I looked into the wet route for ours but struggled to find any radiators that would get the air temp up to a suitable temperature. You also need a lot of air flow to get the air moving through the logs particularly if they are loose filled rather than stacked.

 

Jim Morgan (Jimmorganengineering) guided us to start with on ours and Jerry from Tomorrows Air Solutions is providing the exchangers and fans in a ready made plenum box -hopefully before Xmas as I've got customers shouting at me for logs!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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