Corn Burner

The most popular alternatives for whole house or supplemental heating are corn and wood pellet stoves fed. These machines are easy to use and the initial capital outlay is significantly less than solar, wind or geothermal systems.

A key question to ask before you begin to assess the quality of pellet stoves versus corn should be: "Which fuel, corn or wood pellets, is most easily available in my local and therefore cheaper to burn ?

For example, in Massachusetts corn for fuel is virtually nonexistent. Closest Agway store I contacted (03/02/2006) was only eleven, 50 pound bags in stock at a price of $ 9 each or $ 360 per ton.

In a new heating season in England, a stove consumes three tons of fuel. If you compare this to $ 260 per ton of wood pellets from a well-stocked supplier Connecticut, wood pellet stove becomes your only choice.

Similarly, if you live in Iowa, why would you buy a pellet stove?

In some parts of the country, like Wisconsin and Minnesota, there is usually an abundance of wood pellets and corn. The obvious advantage is the ability to switch between fuels when one of them is missing.

A perfect example is the shortage this year of wood pellets. Do you think the pellet stove owners had to think real Wisconsin know where to get corn when the supply of wood pellets ran low?

However, Nancy Koval, owner of Woodburning Warehouse in Watervliet, New York, warns that when burning corn in a pellet stove, it is preferable to use a 50/50 mixture of wood pellets and corn.

The problem is clinker. When corn is burned it leaves behind a substance from the sugars it contains that when cooled is very difficult and remains in the burner. The clinkers must be regularly cleaned out of the pan. Some special corn stoves are designed to automatically clear clinkers, Koval said.

wood pellet stoves and corn have many common features. They are comparably priced at around $ 2,000 for a unit enough to heat 1200-1500 square feet, and share an efficiency rating of about 80%. Corn and wood pellets also produce an equal amount of heat per pound of fuel.

Please note: Since most house tracks do not allow the free flow of air into the house, a central stove will not heat the whole house. If your home does not have an open floor plan, the size of the stove to heat the room where the stove.

Both types of stoves need electricity to run fans, controls, and the auger that feeds corn or wood pellet stove in the home. In normal use, they consume about 100 kilowatt-hours (kWh) or about $ 9 worth of electricity per month. Unless the stove has a backup power supply, loss of results of electrical energy into heat and can not be a bit of smoke in the house.

In addition to periodic ash disposal, corn and wood pellet stoves have an annual maintenance treatment must be followed to ensure that your stove will still function as efficiently as the day you bought it.

The storage of maize, unlike wood pellets, can be problematic. The owners of heating systems that store maize corn inside their homes need to use tight storage containers, clean up spills immediately, corn, maize and avoid storage for prolonged periods time to avoid problems with rodents and insects of stored grain.

A third option to consider is a multi-fuel stove. Typically they are advertised as corn stoves that also burn wood pellets or vice versa.

The number 1 selling multi-fuel stove is the group's dance dear Charlie model HCCC2GD corn stove that burns wood pellets also.