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Quadra-Fire woodstove inserts
Candoarms:
My suggestion is don't do it! I had an AmazaBlaze corn stove that attached to my furnace. I had excellent corn density, dried to perfection and the cleanest corn they had ever seen and couldn't even keep it burning. The house got down to 55 degrees on the main floor and colder upstairs. The soot from opening and cleaning the unit got sucked in through ducting and the entire house got black; walls, drapes, carpeting and ceilings.
I'd only figure 100 bushels per acre rather than 150. Figure the cost of equipment, seed, fertilizer and fuel. Remember it also needs to be clean and dry. If you want to go forward, I have a wooden gravity box that would fit on a pickup, hand corn shellers and a fanning mill from days gone by. Can make you a really good deal, since I've sold the farm yard properties and need to dispose of stuff.
If you want a secondary heat source, consider wood pellets. My cornstove was taken back at full price and replaced by a pellet style furnace. Now that worked awesome!
Getting back to the originaly discussion. I have a LOPI insert in a ranch style house of about 1200 sq. ft. that is a rental unit. They get free wood from a relative. Each room has a ceiling fan and recirculates air very even. The logs go in sideways and yes they had one roll out and burn the carpet. The primary heat source is a propane fired hot water heat furnace. That works well, since the wife uses the basement as a seamstress for a cowboy apparel store. She can turn on just the basement zone as required.
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Frank, Yooperpete,
Thanks for the heads-up info on the corn burners. Unfortunately, trees are very scarce here in North Dakota. Wood pellets would have to come from far away, making the shipping uneconomical, alone. In addition to the cost of shipping, wood pellets cost about twice as much as corn.
Not sure which way to go at this point.
I might allow the mother-in-law to move in. The hot air would be free. I'd only need to invest in a good pair of ear plugs. hehehe.
Joel
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I have set up a separate board for Pellet stoves.
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Joel, my intuition says you'd end up losing money on your proposition but even if you did manage to save $1200/year it seems that's an awful lot of labor each year to save $1200. And I'm not a farmer but I don't think you can grow corn year after year without depleting the soil.
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Candoarms:
I've been told that some stoves designed to burn bio mass work lots better than those intended to burn just corn. You can burn cornstalks, corn, woodpellets, wheat, soy by products to name a few. I think mine had trouble getting enough air. The saleman was back peddling lots at first about the corn and said the corn from out West burned better than the corn here. Some people I know have and still are burning corn but agree that it is a hassle.
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I suspect there's a lot of mis-information about wood pellets here.
First, there's lots of reputable dealers all across North America who will quite happily sell to anyone with a credit card. Shipping is as simple as gravity and as common as the nearest transport company yard.
Pellets come typically in 40 pound sacks, very easy to move, and a typical user needs 100 -150 bags a year. 4 to 6 thousand pounds is not a lot to ship palletized and not much money either.
Secondly, I doubt there's an area of the US where there isn't a dealer selling both pellet burners and pellets.
Best of luck.
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Kw....forget the corn burners....For your 3 floors you will be fine with the insert. You may want to put plastic on the windows if an older home but at 1100 square ft per floor you should be fine, not counting the basement. You may have to burn a fire in the basement when in the teens to just help out, but think with your insulation and movement of air you may lose upto 5 degrees per floor, more or less depending on weather. I know heat rises but you will have heat loss due to no direct heat source on the other floors besides residual heat from the insert cooled from another fan. Anything is better than an open fireplace for sure!!!
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Thanks for the input. I'll go look at the LOPIs tomorrow and then make my choice. The windows shouldn't be an issue, they're efficient sealed dual pane Low-E units.
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Ken, I have several Pacific Energy units, both inserts and free-standing stoves, they are absolutely top-drawer stuff!!
They are made just north of you in British Columbia.
Other than being a VERY satisfied consumer I have no affiliation to the company whatsoever, I first learned of them from a recommendation from a (very large) local dealer here.
All of their units carry a lifetime warranty and they've been making units for over 30 years now, the founders were employees of another manufacturer that closed it's doors.
As a side note, one of the features I like most about their unit over some of the others is the clever draft design, unless I am burning scrap paper or something equally nasty, the glass in the door is always perfectly clean, and if it does get covered in soot and such, 10 minutes after adding some good clean wood and the door is clearing itself again.
Have a look at some of their info. if you're interested.
Best of luck.
Link:
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Murf, there's a local dealer for Pacific Energy so I'll check those out too. Thanks for the recommendation.
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