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Corn burning stoves
In the Northern Tool catalog they talk about the economy of the corn burning stoves. Anyone have personal experience with this type of stove. Or can anyone direct me to web sights to investigate this subject.
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Corn burning stoves
Just do a Google search for "corn stoves" there's a million of them.
My sister had one in her house, the main problem was getting a suitable supply. If the corn is too dusty or dirty it clogs up the works and if it is too moist it doesn't burn right.
When it worked, it worked well, in the end they moved it to the workshop and replaced it with a wood pellet stove. She figures the cost of heat was nearly the same and the convenience wasn't worth it.
Best of luck.
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Corn burning stoves
I've heard os several being put in in our aeria, but I haven't kept abreast with how they've worked out. About the only two heat sources I can think of for a home that the price of isn't controled by supply and demand are solar and fire wood. Corn and any oil based sources are commoditys that the prices of can fluctuate because most anything related to the total supply being available for sale at any given time. Right now corn prices are low and oil is high. Usually world weather conditions and the need for corn control the price, corn could double in cost by next year, maybe not, oil could, tho I doubt it could brecome less expensive in time. weather conditions have nothing to do with the amount of oil that can be available, the supply is just in the hands of countrys thart we seem not to be able to negociate with to our advantage. Frank.
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Corn burning stoves
The biggest factor in keeping the price of wood pellets low is the fact that they are manufactured as a 'value-added' product. In other words, the pellets are not manufactured from trees harvested for that purpose.
They are made with scrap wood and sawdust which are by-products from the manufacture of other things, principally lumber.
This is a good deal for the producer, especially if it's a lumber company since they are now getting revenue from their waste. If the price climbs too high the demand will fall off and it will go back to being waste. This doesn't mean they don't edge the price up a little when oil or other heat sources go up, but overall it has stayed pretty steady.
In the 10 years that my sister has been buying pellets she says the cost has only gone up by 15%. Even the cost of firewood has gone up far more than that around here.
Best of luck.
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Corn burning stoves
My neighbor has one. He put it in about 3 years ago when gas prices went nutz. Said it works great but it is kinda funny seeing that big hopper outside his house full of corn. I would think it would be more of a novelty than anything else unless you farm. Even in that case nothing beats a good energy efficient furnace but to each there own.
My next furnace will be an outdoor boiler (wood burning) Of course I will have a back up lp just incase I am getting lucky some day and dont want to leave to fill her up with wood. ((((RIGHT)))))
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Corn burning stoves
whatever happened to the good old fashion old motor oil burning furnaces...those are truly the best. the local tree service by me uses that in their shop and man, that is the hottest heat you will ever get. (messy though, and how many oil changes do you really need in a week>)
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Corn burning stoves
A freind of mine has an outdoor corn burner.It also burns wood chips.It nice no cutting wood.Just run it thru a wood chipper.He has a grain trailer he fills at with corn for about $250 uses 2 a winter.
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Corn burning stoves
Why not pelletize the corn stalks? There must be 5 times the energy in one plant's stalk & leaves as there is in it's kernels. Some of it is used as feed roughage but most just gets used for bedding.
Anybody want to comment?
Dave
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Corn burning stoves
BA,
Which one are you talking about "filling up with wood"? .
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Corn burning stoves
The problem with burning corn stalks is two-fold.
First, while as a food source stalks are good, they are low in density which means you need far more volume-wise to get the same number of BTU's.
Secondly, in order to dry the stalks to a low enough humidity level to make them suitable you would expend more energy than you would recover by burning them afterwards.
They do make 'bio-fuel' stoves, including one I know very intimately, that will burn corn, but again, you need vast amounts to get any real heat out of it.
The big outdoor models seem to work the best from a reliability point of view, but are expensive initially to setup.
I have seen some interesting hybrids though. A manufacturing shop I know of has an outdoor corn-fired boiler which uses a propane burner to light the corn when it needs to make heat and shuts down completely when not needed. The glycol mixture it heats is stored in a large underground tank that acts as a thermal reservoir, the burner only keeps the tank above a set temperature, the heat is extracted from it by floor loops and heat exchangers that give off a slow steady heat almost continuously. The burner is fed by a large hooper that stands next to it.
Best of luck.
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