About a year ago we started building a dry kiln for drying lumber. At the time I was using a neighbor's tobacco bulk barn for drying lumber. It worked very well, but it was also very expensive. Seeing that I have a seemingly endless supply of fuel, it was only natural to build a wood fired dry kiln for drying the lumber sawn on my Wood-Mizer portable sawmill. It worked better in the summer than it does now, because I have not insulated to large bi-fold door that is made of recycled sheet metal. In the summer I could dry the pine lumber in about 4 days. Now it takes about 6 days.
I fire the kiln with oak, poplar, and pine slabs. It has an eight inch flue pipe that runs down one side, across the end, and back down the other side before going out to the smoke stack. The walls of the kiln are made out of 6"x6" pine beams held together with all-thread rod. After we used it a few times, we had to go back and seal the cracks that opened up. The walls have stayed fairly tight since that.
According to a magazine that I read on the subject, using wood for heat is carbon neutral. I'm just not sure about that smoke and steam going out the stack.
Oh, another bit of lumber has just finished it's drying process and will be picked up by the customer in a couple of days. :)
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