A complete model based on the wood drying mechanism and incorporating a multi-period operation was established for wood in batch drying systems. Both energy savings and improvement of wood quality were obtained by an optimal strategy proposed in this study. Energy saving was indicated by the numerical results to be roughly 22.5% for drying of soft wood under the conditions of a given drying time and final moisture content. The gradient of moisture content within the dried wood could be minimized for the sake of enhancing the quality of wood by applying the proposed operational model.