WOODDRYER SYSTEM specification sheet

Gas fired heating units with separate combustion area.

Most lumber kilns will be heated using steam, hot water, or direct fire. Today steam is the most common method both for hardwood and softwood. Direct fired kilns have mainly been installed on fast drying high temperature kilns for softwood. The steam or hot water has generally been generated through a boiler either burning wood waste, gas, or oil. For large lumber operations with plenty of wood waste --which they need to dispose of, a wood waste boiler system served two purposes. The two largest problems with a wood waste system are the very high initial investment and the ongoing maintenance. Only large operations can justify this initial expense due to the low cost of self generated waste fuel. Although oil and gas boilers are significantly less expensive, they still represent a large portion of the investment in a building kiln facility . . .especially when all the piping is figured into the price. The mid-size gas and oil burning boilers do have a slightly higher efficiency than the single gas fired heat units; however, the extra efficiency may or may not be noticeable.

Since the conventional method of heating kilns utilized boilers, smaller operations interested in installing kilns found the expense of boilers excessive. In the past, many found the use of dehumidifier units feasible for small kiln operations. Although these unit use less Kw than vented kilns, they are costlier to operate since all the Kw is electrical (as opposed to boiler generated); whereas vented kilns generate most of the Kw (btu in heat energy) at a much lower cost per Kw. In addition, vented kilns can recover a large portion of the waste energy through the vents with the addition of heat recovery systems.

In years past, those building smaller kilns facilities did not have a true economical solution. It was a choice between high initial investment for a boiler system or high operating cost for a dehumidification system. Wooddryer System has recently developed a system that is economical, both in terms of initial investment and future operating cost. In order to meet our demanding standards, we have adapted the installation of these units to insure both the overall reliability and durability in harsh kiln environments, such as kiln drying oak.

Wooddryer System offers several different gas heating units with 400,000 B.T.U. capacity per hour at 80% efficiency (320,000 btu output). All the gas heater we offer comes with separate combustion chamber. This removes any direct connection between the air in the kilns and the air used for the flame in the heater, this also removes the necessity of venting when the heat is being used. The heat is being transferred through an air to air heat exchanger inside the heat unit.