What is better, Kiln dried wood opposed air dried wood?
This is always a hot topic with customers: Why does kiln dried cost more? and is it better?
So why is kiln dried wood cost more than air dried? Well simply, kiln dried is timber logs stacked into crates put into a “kiln”. The kiln normally has heat panels above a bit like big radiators which heats the logs to remove the moisture. To heat these heat panels above we need hot water, this is heated in various ways , projects we have been involved with use large log gasification boilers to heat the water to dry the logs, however different heat sources can be used.
Because of the process above kiln dried is more expensive, due to cost of installing and running the kiln. It’s also more expensive because people think kiln dried is better and are willing to pay more, therefor showrooms and web fuel suppliers etc charge more for this fashionable fuel.
Remember dry wood is dry wood.
Air dried logs, are logs simply stacked in crates with some type of roof to keep the rain off, logs are typically stacked for 2 years to dry down to 20%. The only advantage of kiln dried wood is that the drying process is much quicker, however at a cost of wasting energy and you the customer paying excessive amounts of £ for logs.
So you are burning logs to dry logs? Make sense? It doesn’t to us, why burn a perfectly good fuel for nothing.
Whether you buy kiln died logs or air dried to burn , all that matters is the moisture content, you should not be burning logs with a moisture content of more than 20%
Remember dry wood is dry wood, why pay more £££££££