Opening The Solar Kiln
- February 27, 2011
- Category: Farm Style
- (11) Comments
We’ve had very little sunshine since Mountain Man set up the solar wood drying kiln but today, he decided it was time to open it and see what was happening. First step, roll up the tarp.
Next, put the forks on the tractor and remove a crate.
Each crate holds 3/8ths of a cord of wood. One of the reasons for building crates that size was safety. Mountain Man wanted the 75 h.p. tractor to lift them without tipping over from excess weight.
Mountain Man examines the wood.
The side of the logs closest to the solar panel shows evidence of drying. You can tell by the cracks in the logs.
The reverse side of the logs, closest to the tarp, have no cracks in them.
Mountain Man examines the other crates and decides he is going to tweak his kiln design and add more depth to it so more air can circulate around the side of the logs closest to the tarp.
But he decides the logs are dry enough for burning and they head off to our wood shed.
At our wood shed, he puts supports under the crate to keep it off the floor of the shed and allow air to circulate.
Into our wood shed it goes.
He sets it in place.
All done, he heads back to the kiln to close the tarp and allow the other crates to keep on drying.
We used the logs from the wood kiln in our wood stove last night. They caught fire quickly and burned with intensity and produced a lot of heat and Mountain Man is happy with the results. If he decides to make other modifications to the kiln, I’ll let you know. If you have questions, he’s always happy to try to help.
Thanks for visiting us!
Wooo. That is such a clever idea, a solar-powered wood dryer. And good to see that it mostly works too. Hmmm. I never would have thought of such a thing.
Date: February 27, 2011
That is a great idea. Glad it worked so well
Date: February 27, 2011
Your woodshed has a “wooddoctor” in it also??
Date: February 27, 2011
Glad you got a good fire going to keep you warm! Stay toasty,
Date: February 27, 2011
Hi Farmer C,
If a wood doctor is an outdoor boiler, then yes, we have a large one in our wood shed. It heats our house and the shop building as well. Thanks for visiting us!
Mountain Woman
Date: February 27, 2011
That is pretty fancy work! When they started getting on the band wagon about outdoor woodstoves not being good for the environment and that anything outside wood have to be replaced we were going to do the same thing and put a shed around the stove! Kiln, came out good!
Date: February 27, 2011
That’s such a great idea. I’m glad it worked. I would have never known to look for visual signs that the wood had dried…i.e. cracked wood. So I learned something new
That’s fabulous it worked and now you have a wonderful heat source to keep you warm during the winter 
Was that Lily coming to help and inspect the work? She’s such a cutey pie dog 
Love and hugs from Oregon, Heather 
Date: February 27, 2011
That is for sure quite the setup and must save a lot of time when you need seasoned wood.
Whitetail Woods™
Whitetail Woods Blog / Deer Hunting and Blackpowder Shooting at it’s best.
Date: February 27, 2011
Your Mountain Man must be about the most clever man in the country
Date: February 28, 2011
Ooh that’s so neat! I could just imagine the crackling fire and the smell of delicious wood. Oh how I miss having a fireplace.
Very clever of Mountain Man! I’m so glad it worked out for you guys
~Jen
Date: March 01, 2011
Mountain Man is brilliant, isnt he? Everything is so professionally done. You two really compliment each other.
Date: March 03, 2011