I have a trailer load of lumber with 1 inch spacers (1 inch pine boards)that I am planning on parking in my green house and trying to heat to 130 degrees to kill boring insects. It has been air dried for years hence the bug problem. Then I was going to store it with a dehumidifier to prepare it for use in a house after milling it. But then it occurred to me that maybe I should try to convert the green house to a kiln and then heat it as the last stage. If I heat it first the bugs could reinfect through any air vents during the Drying process. I was planning to try heating it this week while I am off work but thought I might post pone the heating process if I am going to try to use the green house as kiln. It is a hoop style green hose with plastic covering it and plastic on the ground. 12 x24 and 10 feet tall. I know I will have to do some reading (advice welcome). But do you all think The green house can function as a kiln with maybe a little modification. I need to decide if I start heating Tuesday morning or not? I did just order 2 wood moisture meters. Pinned and pin less. How long should I expect it to take to dry my air dried wood to interior use level in my make shift kiln?

More back ground for anyone who has time. When I built my present house 15 years ago I used wormy maple for my stairway and oak for my trim. It was air dried for years but had active bugs. I put it on the same flat bed trailer in my pasture under clear plastic and used a torpedo heater to heat it. Then I put it in my house with a dehumidifier for several months while I painted the interior and worked on the outside of the house. Then I planed it and T&G some for the stairway landing. It worked well no sign of bugs or shrinkage or warpage. Surprised it went so well considering I did not even have a moisture meter. I do not recall the specifics of everything since it was so long ago. Now I have lots and lots of wood I have cut over the years and stored in my barn I want to build another house with.

Thanks for any advice ( specific general or reading recommendations)

The wood should be 133 F to sterilize.

Remember that it takes time for the heat to travel into the wood. Wood is a good thermal insulator. This means that if the air is 133 F, the interior of the wood might get to 120 F and then it will take quite a few hours to get up to 133 F. For this reason, most people will use air temperature of 150 F.

You probably know that once the wood is strerilized, store it in a location away from the unsterilized wood. Maybe even wrap it in plastic to prevent or lower risk of reinvention.

Softwood bugs do not like dry wood, except for the old house borer. Hardwoods only have the lyctid powerderpost beetles that cause problems in low MC wood.

Your technique to lower the MC in your first house is indeed appropriate.

Doesn't work too well for either. got to 130 the first day. Then thought with another heater would get to 150, but it was cloudy the next day. Then tried covering with plastic inside green house to make smaller area to heat, but cloudy today and the heaters are acting up maybe not enough oxygen. what a waste of time. Maybe I can make an enclosure with 4x8 foam sheets either in the green house or under my pole barn. Will be tight in the green house, but I would rather burn it down instead of the barn if something went wrong.

That's a cool idea of killing pests bugs that are disturbing you in your daily work routine. Sterilize lumbers that too at 103 degrees would produce high heat that will cause all the bugs to fall out of the hidden holes. Well, according to me this is his temporary technique that you can manage if you are having a high amount of lumbers available to you. Otherwise, to get rid of such pesky pest one can try out contacting to the pest exterminator like exterminators NYC.

Exterminator NYC