Corn burning stoves (and grills) (Alt.Energy, I guess)

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THere was a thread about burning coal, and burning corn was mentioned. This intrigued me, so I did a search to see if I could find any information. I got these links, if anyone else is interested:

http://www.snowflame.com/productgrills.htm (rather pricey, of course!) http://cornburner.com/ http://www.amaize-ingenergy.com/index.htm

http://gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/crops/facts/93-023.htm (important information and considerations)

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), January 11, 2001

Answers

Joy, Thanks a mil. We've been thinking about getting a corn burner and I was going to do some research. You've done my work for me. Thanks.

-- Barbara Fischer (bfischer42@hotmail.com), January 11, 2001.

Joy:

If I were to build a house, I would seriously consider a corn burner.

For fuel, all I would have to do is call the local farmers' co-op. and they would deliver a pallet load within about an hour. Even help carry it inside. A ton would cost about $110, since I would expect a discount for a bulk buy. (The co-op is just down the road. They delivered one pallet of feed with their forklift since their delivery truck was tied up elsewhere.)

Even cheaper, I could arrange with an area farmer to dump a truck load for maybe $.20 more per bushel than what they would get at the elevator. Say about $75 per ton.

Very clean storage - no dirt, bark or insects. 50-pound bags are manageable to most people. Corn is a rapid, renewable resource. Even though input costs have gone up to farmers, corn is actually a bit cheaper than a year ago.

I've heard you only get about a coffee cup worth of ash per bushel of corn (about one and one-half 5-gallon buckets worth).

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), January 13, 2001.


I think it has to be very dry, low moisture corn, 5%. And be able to keep the mice and rats away.

-- Hendo (redgate@echoweb.net), January 13, 2001.

I can't say that I've thoroughly studied the sites yet, but I did notice a couple of things. One was that the corn had to be clean, no "fines" -- personally, I have not seen feed corn that did NOT have "fines" in it. Also, the corn is fed in by an auger, which is powered by electricity. No elec. no heat, unless you have an alternate supply of electricity (solar, battery, generator, wind, whatever) -- not insurmountable, but certainly a consideration.

-- Joy Froelich (dragnfly@chorus.net), January 13, 2001.

Thanks Joy! Linda

-- Linda (wklkmorgan@ifriendly.com), January 15, 2001.


Since my daughter is the one who owns a corn stove in her home I can only slightly comment. It is in an outer corner of the livingroom and that room is very warm. The farther away one gets from that room, the colder it is. She has an old farmhouse with many rooms. The upstairs is downright cold. My lungs cannot handle the corn dust, so I can't go too close to the stove. Other than that, I think it is very pretty, but, no I wouldn't have one. we have a boiler sytem (Central Boiler), which heats the whole house using wood as its heat source.

-- Ardie from WI (a6203@hotmail.com), January 16, 2001.

I need to amend Ardie's post....We do have the cornstove and distributing the heat has turned out to be a challenge since an exterior wall at the end of the house was our only option. However, since we have put [so far only] one ceiling grate in, the upstairs has become much warmer...although still about 5-8 degrees cooler than downstairs, which gets downright warm! The other problem we have is a lack of wall insulation in most rooms, but we are working on that.

The biggest drawback to a cornstove, however, is the dust that comes from dumping the corn in the stove. Everything gets dusty. My lungs were bothered, until my husband cut back on the corn and cut the fuel to half pellet and half corn. This seems to have worked.

I'm very happy to say we started this heating season in late September with 7/8 tank of fuel oil. As of this post, we still have 3/4 of the tank left!

-- Lisa (llehman16@hotmail.com), January 18, 2001.


I don't have an answer but a question. We have a bottom feed pellet stove and would like to know if corn would work in it?

Scott Pellot Stove. Thanks Ned.

-- ned hudnall (deenedhud@gsisp.com), March 05, 2001.


Ned -

The documents that came with your stove should tell you whether you can burn corn or not. However, if there is no stirrer to stir the contents of the fire pot, then you would not be able to burn corn. Since corn is high in sugar, you would end up with clinkers in your pot. I'm also not sure what you mean by bottom-fed, but I hope this answers your question.

-- Lisa In WI (lehman16@vbe.com), March 07, 2001.


I have used a Countryside multi-fuel corn/pellet stove for the last two winters and I love it! American Energy Systems here in Minnesota makes a great corn stove, and has been the focus of several National News features recently for alternative energy solutions.

http://magnumfireplace.com/cs_about.cfm

The same stove can be found at www.safehomecompany.com

Lots of Fun!!

-- Mike (mhaglin@lkdllink.net), March 25, 2001.



No answer - more questions. All this is very new to me, but do you have to use the automated auger? Or couldn't you just add corn using a bucket when you wish to use the burner? And on the complaints with the dust, is this with using the auger? Would it be better or worse using a bucket?

Is there a lot of work involved in installing the burners? Did you have to do any special work to your home or purchase special equipment to install or use the burner? I want to get the total picture cost-wise as to what we all would need to purchase and operate the burner. Thanks!!

-- Patty (par_tar@yahoo.com), April 30, 2001.


As to the moisture content 5% would be too dry, we recomend about 15%. We have automatic feed augers that turn on and off as needed. We also have an inexpensive way of circulating the heat. In the event of a power failure an inverter is an option. A good web site is www.cornfire.bigstep.com we even have corn furnaces and boilers.

-- Gary Benner (benner46@hotmail.com), June 27, 2001.

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