How do I calculate the energy and emissions of kiln drying timber per cubic metre?
Log the heat source and the fans. Steam or hot air from a wood waste boiler gives biogenic CO2, shown separately; fossil boilers and electric dehumidifier kilns count fully. Divide the period's fuel and electricity by cubic metres dried, and note species and moisture change, since hardwoods take longer.
What to count
- Boiler fuel: wood waste, coal or gas, by kiln if metered.
- Electricity for fans and dehumidifiers at the local grid factor.
- Hours per charge and cubic metres per charge.
Per cubic metre
Divide by cubic metres dried, and give the starting and final moisture. Drying from green to 8 percent uses far more energy than from air dried.
For buyers
Kiln drying is often the largest energy step in solid wood furniture, so a measured figure makes a buyer's product footprint far more credible.
What Senseible does here
Senseible reads fuel, electricity and freight invoices into a dated, fingerprinted record per site, so each figure you send a buyer can be traced back to the documents behind it.
Sources: IPCC 2006 Guidelines, Volume 2 Energy (fuel defaults), ISO 14067:2018, Carbon footprint of products (iso.org)
Last reviewed 2026-10-21.