DH drying costs????

[karl]

Once upon a time I had a list of prices for DH drying 1000'- 2000' lots of various woods that someone  gave me, it has vanished along with my memory.
I think the knomes that live under my desk took it :
Usually if I yell "GIVE IT BACK!!!" - I find it the next day or so, but not this time.
Did a search of this forum and "that other one" but can't find anything other than ".20-25 a foot" - ok for w.pine but kinda low for RO don'chathink?
Anybody got such a list? How about a formula that works with Nyles L-200 drying schedule????
Thanks in advance, I'll put it right where I know where it is if you do.... ;)

[Frank_Pender]

Karl, I know I do not have such a schedule nor do I recall every seeing one. I charge a straight $.50  a board foot for drying all species out here in Oregon. ;D

[Don_Lewis]

I think it is better to charge by the day. If someone gives you 1000 BF of Oak to dry, it will take just as long as 2000 BF but the income is 50%. You do save some money on electricity but that only represents a fraction of the total cost of drying.

[Brian_Bailey]

karl,  

I have a kwh meter on my kiln (L-150). Once the load gets up to temp. I avg. 35 to 40 kwh / day. Doesn't matter much if the chamber is full or half full.  I use a little more power in the dead of winter. My chamber size is 10'w x 18'L x 8'h.

[JohnnyF]

Karl,

Don is probably right with charging by the day but who knows how many days it will be?  I can't get 50 cent where I'm at.  I had this same conversation with a good friend that is starting to dry lumber. He wanted to do it by the day. I told him he would need to know the species, the MC and how much lumber there was.  By the time he makes it over to the customer to measure the avg. MC - which ain't on the outside of the pile, the customer has called me and I've quoted him 20-25 cents a foot.  Actually anything over 2000ft. is going to get him to 20 cents.  Now the guy knows exactly how much he has to cough up.  He doesn't care if it takes an extra 2 days at $15 per or something.  If he can't fill the kiln, I'll charge a small premium and add some for myself to the load to sell.  Just how I do it here.  Good luck and keep it simple.  

[karl]

Thanks for the replies.
$.50 makes it real simple in this neighborhood- just use the kiln for storage. :

Charging by the day sounds good, but nobody likes surprises and it leaves me trying to guess at the time involved based on the species and a guesstimate of MC before seeing product...

35-40 kwh sounds about right based on last years drying of pine and maple- works out to about $4.40 a day - I bring the kiln up to temp with wood boiler or oil.

.20 sounds good for W. pine- thats more than I charge now. R. Maple takes me about twice as long with only slightly more labor- If I use the .20 as a pine price and add the additional kwh's plus the minimal added monitoring/labor it looks like I am still under .28 all other things equal. Not much oak 'round here so don't need to worry on that.
Sooo, thanks for helping me reinvent the wheel- simple IS best!

.20-.25 it is with added costs depending on aggrivation and attitude ;)