drying logs

[renewablejohn]

polytunnel works all year round. 3 months to season in summer and 6 months to season in winter.

[gensetsteve]

polytunnel works all year round. 3 months to season in summer and 6 months to season in winter.

 

Useful info I did wonder. I put a bag of green poplar kindling in the tunnel during the heat wave and it was dry in 10 days. I wondered if we could dry pallets of kindling through the winter thinking may have to fit a fan to move some air.

[openspaceman]

Useful info I did wonder. I put a bag of green poplar kindling in the tunnel during the heat wave and it was dry in 10 days. I wondered if we could dry pallets of kindling through the winter thinking may have to fit a fan to move some air.

 

This depends on the relative humidity of the air and the temperature, genrally when it's cold and damp there's not much capacity for more water vapour in the air, so unless you have a cheap way of blowing a howling gale through the pile you need to add some heat. The polytunnel will still have solar gain in the winter but in a battle of fan power verses cheap heat the heat wins in this climate.

[renewablejohn]

Only thing with kindling straight into net bags for drying is the possibility of the plastic bags becoming brittle and discolouring. I get around the problem by processing into 600 x 400 stacking plastic crates which I then bag up on demand. One crate holds slightly more than 1 bag so I have a good idea how much stock I have in hand and the crates stack 5 to a layer on standard pallets so easy to move by forklift.