Everyone is proud of the Kilns they operate, and we are too.
You may have heard a lot from others about their kiln they operate. You've heard of vacuum Kilns, Nile Kilns, iDry Kilns and more. In the end, there are basically two types of kilns used by most providers... Conventional and Dehumidification. Conventional Kilns are steam heated, massive kilns used by the big lumber processors, and most everyone else uses some form of a Dehumidification Kiln.
Our custom kiln was designed and built by us, and is based on dehumidification with supplimental heating and a focus on massive airflow. The real trick to optimizing such a kiln is that we use a smart control system that manages multiple profiles (simultaneously) of heat, humidity and air flow cycles to efficiently dry while preventing the harsh effects of drying on the wood. Short of publishing our design and control secrets, we describe the basic elements below.
Our kiln dehumidifiers maintain a dry air environment during the drying process. No matter what temperature the kiln operates at, we can maintain a low humidity level for optimum lumber drying. Dehumidification drying is effective while being easy on your lumber.
Our kilns move more than 2.5 million cubic feet of air through your lumber stack every 24 hours! This aggressive airflow, combined with low humidity and warm conditions maximizes the moisture transfer from inside your wood to the air, where our dehumidifiers remove it from the kiln. Using a high volume of moving air in the process allows maximum moisture removal while minimizing stress on you lumber.
Our measured heating process uses only moderate air temperatures and a 16 hour heating cycle. We avoid the higher drying temperatures to avoid case hardening, splitting and warping. Allowing the kiln temperature to cool on a regular cycle causes the wood to relax and equalize its internal moisture.
The Kiln's control system not only manages the dehumidifiers, air flow volume and direction, and the heat levels, it manages the relative humidity on a cyclic basis to allow the wood to rest and avoid checking and case hardening. It manages a number of parameters as well as deciding when to use the sun/solar vs propane as a heat source. Our kiln's solar attic provides nearly all the heat requirements during the warm half of the year. Whenever the sun is not producing enough heat to benefit the kiln, our control system switches to clean, propane heating.
2400-4000 board feet capacity*
Max wood slab width 72” (6’0”)
Max board length 234” (19’6”)
Max lumber/slab thickness 4” thick, and 6x6 posts
2.5 million cubic feet of air volume through the wood stack per day
Condensate removal up to 18 gallons per day
Operating Temperature 90-120 degrees
Operating Relative Humidity 25-80%
Heat Treatment Cycle - 24 hours@150-160 degrees (F)
Computerized, wifi controller manages humidity, airflow rate and direction, temperature, daily relax profiles, internet remote monitoring & control
17,000 BTU propane chamber heater
60,000 BTU propane heat treatment heater
1.09 KW Dehumidification
Electric 18A @ 120 VAC (includes 12 VDC battery charging for essential fans)
Backup 12 VDC power capacity allows up to 24 hour operation in limited operation mode (control system, essential circulation fans & propane heat during power outages)
* Maximum load size depends on the board lengths. More than 4000 board feet can be achieved with the optimum length/thickness of the lumber in the load.