#14 Is the SOLAR KILN a COLOSSAL FAIL, or will it work?
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- Опубліковано 28 сер 2024
- Chuck and I sit down to talk about the process of building the solar lumber kiln, as well as our mistakes and whether or not it will actually dry our logs. We try to answer the question: Is the solar kiln a colossal fail, or will it work?
ES_Honey Take My Hand, Cody Francis
ES_Your Playful Heart, Katharine Appleton
ES_Deep and Abiding, Victor Lundberg
As far as the air gaps from shrinkage, board and batten was created to fix this issue. The battens were affixed to only one side of the board allowing the shrinkage to occur while covering the gaps.
This kiln looks very nice indeed and I cant help thinking that you gave up way too soon.
When you have damp wood in the kiln, the temperature is supposed to be quite low because you are using the energy to forcefully evaporate water from the wood.
Try jump in the river with your clothes on in hot summer, and stand in the sun when you get out of the water. You will not feel warm until all the water has evaporated, and if its windy (like when you have fans in the kiln) you will get very cold untill you get dry. It just means that you very effectively are using the energy to force the evaporation to happen. You can actually cool down a beer in 15 mins by wrapping it in damp cloth and placing it in direct sunlight.
What you could focus on is two things:
- make sure that no warm air is escaping untill it has done its job to evaporate water. At least top half of kiln must be air tight. Only have one opening on top and one at bottom to adjust air humidity.
- dont use the black plastics as it reflects a lot of energy back out of the kiln due to its shiny surface. Matte black captures much more heat.
Thank you so much for your tips! I am hoping we can build a smaller scale kiln in the near future and give it another go.
This is the first video I’m watching of your channel found you on Instagram. I hope to have my family doing this in the near future. As for the kiln I understand it’s not a kiln anymore. I was just curious wouldn’t it be better to apply the black Polly to the outside of the structure to absorb sun. Also a fan under the lumber even in the floor boards under the building to keep evaporation from rising I’m guessing the lower logs took much longer to dry can’t wait to see how the building process went.!!! Happy holidays 🧬
I like your thoughts, mistakes, the effort and willingness to venture away from the norm. I'm building one not quite so tall but with similar capacity and less slope. The doors, I'm thinking half as wide and French cleat mounting held steady with a rachet strap.
The height definitely made heating it a challenge. However, we think that if we did a better job of insulation we could make it work. At this point we are getting great use as a chicken coop and needed storage. One day when we have everything else built on the ranch we may return to this project as it was designed. Thanks for watching!
Enjoying binge watching your channel. God Bless your family as you make these memories together, and don't let the negative commenters get you down.😊🙌
I love it!! Never thought we would be binge watched 😁.
I don't know about logs, but I know a guy that did a similar thing so he could dry more wood at one time. The problem he ran into is that the outer layers dried way too much and got brittle and cracked by time it took the inner wood to reach 13%. Something to think about
Maybe try bifold doors. Still would need sturdy hinges. Good job.
Live and learn. I still enjoy the episodes. Do you have blueprints? I would love to see your own hand drawn plans. First dreams, were they drawn on a napkin or just doodles? I’m not trying to be nosy, just curious.
Just use a converted shipping container for a solar kiln, it won’t need as many modifications as building it from scratch plus the metal will help keep the heat in better
Very good suggestion!
I know this video is old and it's now a chicken coup but it sounds like you were getting an evaporative cooling effect. The wood was still drying but the amount of wood and moisture helped cool the space.
You could be right. The volume of wood was too much and it would add more moisture as it evaporates. Good call! Thanks for watching!
I built my kiln in a basic building style end load. 15/12 pitched roof clear panels navy blue inside with a propane backup for sterilization process if neccessary. I wanted to make sure i got the effect i wanted with or without sun. I catch every inch of sun i can this way not just on one side.
I hope yours works for you. Unfortunately ours is now a chicken coop 😂 We tried!
You *could* make your doors slide up next to your building since you have plenty of room going up. I did this on a gambrel roofed barn I built. Some pulleys and counterweights make the doors nearly weightless and you can lift and lower them by hand. This removes the need for the long rail wings (which always seem to get in the way) or for phenomenally strong posts/hinges needed to swing the doors open to the sides (these will ultimately sag). Swinging them open forward and up also means fighting the leverage the doors develop at 90 degrees when they're open and you'll need a winch or counter weights anyway. Interesting build, lots of challenging bringing the heat down where you need it given the high ceiling.
What a great idea! Unfortunately at this point we have designated the building to be a chicken coop a storage facility :(. We tried, but now don't have a need for such a large kiln since the log home has been almost completed.
Nice build. Have you thought about digging down around the building perimeter instead of jacking it up? Not sure what other issues that might raise though. A thought on the doors, could you convert them into bifold? You might loose a bit of width to get wood in and out but one person could operate them. Another idea would be to just cut the 2 doors into multiple sections that could be handled more easily by one or two people and also not require the tractor. Good luck and keep up the good work
Thank you for your suggestions! All great ideas :). We have now officially converted the kiln into a chicken coop and food storage for the animals. I think our next kiln we build will be on a much smaller scale!
For the baffle that comes from the top below the fans should extend to the top of the wood stack. That ensures that the airflow will only go through the wood stack. I think with insulation that it would work well, it is taller than other solar kilns I have seen. Hope it works well for you.
Thank you for your suggestions! We unfortunately are no longer using it as a kiln, since it was never very successful and all the logs we had in there are now in place in our log home. The kiln has officially become a chicken coop and a storage place 😁 We will possibly build a smaller scale one in the future to kiln dry wood for projects. We appreciate you watching!
The dogs are killing me
They are the best 😂
I’ve only looked at a few plans and have never built one of these kilns. Looking at your structure I wonder if you have placed your set of cold air intake holes low enough to be at the level of your wood stack. Also, a set of hot moisture air exhaust holes should be as high on the building as possible, behind the fans.
Thank you for the suggestions! We also think it was just too large. It is now making a perfect chicken coop 🤪
Battens over the boards to seal up the cracks that form from drying. Nail or screw the battens in between the planks to allow the planks to continue shrinking.
Excellent suggestion! We are actually turning the kiln into a chicken coup and a green house , but will still need to put battens on 👍🏻
How about two barn doors on strong hinge posts, good strap hinges, and a spring-loaded jockey wheel (or castor wheel) fitted to the bottom outer end of each door. A 4" wheel will roll over gravel and dirt, and the spring loading should allow for dips and rises in the ground as the doors sweep open.. Should cost less than $100 each.
Great suggestion! We unfortunately have turned the kiln into a chicken coup, since we don't have a need for it anymore.
One thought is, be careful to keep weight in it since it is not secured down with a high profile that could act as a sail in wind. Great Project though!!
....I guess I didn't wait till end when you mentioned you're going to cable it down.😅
Yep, we saw that it was one huge sail when we built it 😂
Barn door style will be difficult to properly insulate.
Very true!
Beautiful build....thanks for sharing.
Who is the music from...it's Beautiful
I get my music from Epidemic sound. Cody Francis is my favorite musician!
Why would you not place the glazing towards the sun? I can see the sun shinning on the rear of the building.
It is facing the South for the most sun light
@@freedomranchhomestead7961 The sun does not lie! In the picture of you two, the sun is shining on the back of your kiln.
How often do you want to open the doors? If not too often, leave as is.
We really don't open them except for when we come up on the weekends to check on the wood. We added more insulation this last weekend and hope that helps keep the hot air in!
try a roll up garage door type maybe.
Not a bad idea, although we aren't using them anymore because the kiln is now a chicken coop!
Onesolar panel and a fan to blow the warm air down
We tried that and the space was just too large. It is now a chicken coop :)
Is the slope of roof facing the sun? I watched a few minutes of your video and seems like you positioned the building wrong. I could be wrong
Yes, we positioned the slope facing south!
Hi. Im still just in making plans of building solar kiln, so my thoughts are just theorethical for now.. But how can you make any conclusion when you didnt make it as it should be made. You didnt insulate walls and you even didnt sealed the walls, you showed us how big gaps you have there. Would not be better to firstly finish it how it should be a then make a test run?
Anyway, what I know about solar kiln, it looks like you have biiiig roof - massive solar collector. So problem should be more about overheating and not about too low heating...
Thank you, Tomas
hi Tomas, we did insulate the walls and covered the entire area with black plastic. We think we could make it work, but the speed of our project forced us to move ahead without completing it. This is all part of our journey and we have made very good use of it as a chicken coop and storage area. The great thing is that if we ever are in need of a solar kiln, we can quickly re-work this one and I believe it will be fine. Thanks for your reply and we hope that you enjoy the rest of the videos.
I know this is an old video but your problem is no insulation and painting inside black. I have a kiln like yours and i get 160 deg regularly regularly. Just my 2 cents.
We know there was so much more we could have done to make it possibly work, but once they started building the log home we gave up and turned it into our chicken coop. We might try to build a small scale one in the future!
Please don't use click bait st@f in your title
We talk about the kiln being a colossal fail in our video, which it truly could be since we haven’t been able to get it heated up 😬
It's facing in the wrong direction....lmao!
The sloped roof line is facing south for full Sun exposure!
Just google Stodoys and make some dust.