Sustainability

Our mission is to find innovative, beautiful solutions to today’s problems without passing the consequences onto tomorrow’s earth. We aim for a net neutral carbon footprint and repurpose wood that otherwise would be a carbon burden by sequestering carbon and diverting usable products like urban lumber from the waste stream.

Everything we do and every piece we build is done with a conscious mind for our planet and sustainability. Including our kiln drying.

Drying wood in a kiln is necessary to reduce the moisture content from 20-30% to a more stable moisture content of 6-8% for building furniture. There are several technologies for drying wood. One popular technology is a vacuum kiln which reduces the boiling point of the water inside the wood (typical 212°F at atmospheric pressure). Reducing the pressure below atmospheric reduces the required temperature to evaporate (or boil) water. Vacuum kiln technology allows for accelerated drying without higher temperatures damaging the wood.

Quick research on vacuum kiln electricity usage indicates about 14 KW per hour to power a 4000 BDFT kiln. The impact of this electricity usage will depend on your state/country energy portfolio. For example, Illuminated Grain is located in the great state of Tennessee. Much of our electricity comes from nuclear power (~47%). This helps Tennessee maintain one of the lower CO₂ equivalent emission rates of ~0.6 lbs. CO₂ / KWHR. So the estimated CO₂ equivalent impact of vacuum kiln drying in Tennessee is 2.5 lbs. CO₂ / BDFT of wood. Say we build you a 3’ x 8’ x 2” dining table; that’s 60-70 BDFT or 150 – 175 lbs. CO₂ discharged into the atmosphere. This is equivalent to driving the average car 130-160 miles. 400 miles if dried in Kentucky.

We dry our wood using a solar kiln which requires zero power. All heating and power to operate fans are pulled from that yellow ball in the sky. This means that our drying process emits zero CO₂ into the atmosphere. Note, there is some embodied CO₂ from the production of the polycarbonate roof, solar panels, and fans.

Everything we do and every piece we build is done with a conscious mind for our planet and sustainability. Including our kiln drying.

Drying wood in a kiln is necessary to reduce the moisture content from 20-30% to a more stable moisture content of 6-8% for building furniture. There are several technologies for drying wood. One popular technology is a vacuum kiln which reduces the boiling point of the water inside the wood (typically 212° F at atmospheric pressure). Reducing the pressure below atmospheric reduces the required temperature to evaporate (or boil) water. Vacuum kiln technology allows for accelerated drying without higher temperatures damaging the wood.

Quick research on vacuum kiln electricity usage indicates about 14 KW per hour to power a 4000 BDFT kiln. The impact of this electricity usage will depend on your state/country energy portfolio. For example, Illuminated Grain is located in the great state of Tennessee. Much of our electricity comes from nuclear power (~47%). This helps Tennessee maintain one of the lower CO₂ equivalent emission rates of ~0.6 lbs. CO₂ / KWHR. So the estimated CO2 equivalent impact of vacuum kiln drying in Tennessee is 2.5 lbs CO₂ / bdft of wood. Say we build you a 3’ x 8’ x 2” dining table; that’s 60-70 BDFT or 150 – 175 lbs. CO₂ discharged into the atmosphere. This is equivalent to driving the average car 130-160 miles. 400 miles if dried in Kentucky.

We dry our wood using a solar kiln which requires zero power. All heating and power to operate fans are pulled from that yellow ball in the sky. This means that our drying process emits zero CO₂ into the atmosphere. Note, there is some embodied CO2 from the production of the polycarbonate roof, solar panels, and fans.