This $1500 solar powered KILN SAVES US $$$ THOUSANDS every year
Rough sawn red oak costs about $0.70/bf when its fresh cut, green lumber, right off the sawmill. But once its kiln dried and graded, the market price jumps up to $2.80. Which means that the red oak behind me stacked up in this kiln is worth almost $3000!!! That’s 4 times what I paid for it green!
For generations, Woodworkers all over the world have been using small solar kiln dryers to create furniture-grade wood, in their backyards!
Not only can woodworkers save yourself tons of money on your personal woodworking projects; this solar kiln is a MONEY MACHINE.
Air-Dried Lumber is dried in the open air. It usually takes 2-12 months to dry to a moisture content worthy of building something (usually about 12%-20% MC).
Kiln-dried Lumber is dried to the absolute lowest moisture content (usually about 6-9% MC) and is the most stable lumber. We use it to build cabinets, furniture, and anything else that will be indoors under low humidity and climate control.
This solar kiln is a passive energy workhorse. It saves a tremendous amount of fossil fuel energy by using the SUN to evaporate moisture from wood.
(open curtain) Solar Kiln collects and intensifies heat from the sun to dry lumber. (bright inside kiln)
It’s basically a GREENHOUSE w/ FANS placed strategically to move hot air through the stack of lumber and remove the moist air as it evaporates from the wood.
The Clear twin wall (insulated) polycarbonate roof panels collect the radiant heat of the sun and keep it inside.
Blue metal panels absorb heat from the sun and radiate into the space better than any other color of metal.
I designed the kiln with the fans in a baffle wall to force hot air collected in the heating chamber down through the lumber stack and out the bottom vent.
Vents positioned at the top of the doors allow cool air to come in as the hot air inside the kiln is pushed down through the lumber and forced out the vents in the bottom.
It takes about 200 hours to solar kiln dry lumber that’s already air dried at about 20%.
The cost to operate this SOLAR KILN for $0!. It’s literally saving us thousands of dollars every year. Plus, we save a couple barrels of oil for every load of lumber we dry ourselves with POWER of the Sun.
COST TO BUILD: This little SOLAR WOOD KILN, built from rough sawn lumber and scrap foam, only cost about $1500 to build. It literally paid for itself with the first load of dry lumber. And now its just sitting here, like a little money machine, We quadruple our money in a few weeks! Where else can you get a return like that?
QUALITY: As most of you probably already know, half of the wood you buy off the shelf is garbage. It’s twisted, bowed and case-hardened to the point where you either have to spend hours picking through a stack of lumber to get something good, or struggle to build something flat and straight if you can’t find anything decent to work with on the lumber rack.
QUALITY: Solar-kiln drying is a much more gentle drying process that release moisture slowly, drastically reducing lumber defects and case-hardening. In other words, the solar kiln takes longer, but yields a much higher quality AND quantity of useable lumber.
Small shops like ours at Heirloom Builders, can make a bunch of money buying or milling rough cut lumber, drying it in our own little kiln, get the BEST lumber!
The technology is simple. And the cost to build it is so low it only takes a single cycle to pay for itself. This was one of the best investments our business made to improve the quality of our lumber and skyrocket our profits. If you have the space to build a kiln and dry your own lumber, I would highly recommend that you do the same!!!
Even if you don’t need a constant supply of wood, this kiln can dry your firewood, your kitchen herbs and medicine, dried fruit, and so much other stuff! So if you’ve got the space, build a solar kiln and start turning green wood into dry lumber and CASH MONEY!
#solarkiln #kiln #solarpower #wood
LINKS:
Solar Fans: ($150/ea for 2pcs) amzn.to/3tOp9Ra
Strap Hinges (need 4): amzn.to/3sKTRci
Bolt Hooks for strap hinge (need 4): amzn.to/3sMyXcJ
Polycarbonate Greenhouse Panels: ($200/ea for 3 pcs)
www.growerssup...
Moisture Meter: ($390 - the one we use) amzn.to/2YwmUHs
Moisture Meter: ($89 - good one that's more affordable) amzn.to/3lb6z3t
Plans available for $25 at www.heirloombuilders.com/designs-for-sale
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26 сен 2024
