Does anyone have a corn burning stove?

[One Shot Will]

Another trick with the corn to prevent the clinkers and the ceramic buildup is a couple cups of oyster shells that you feed chickens to a bu of corn makes a big difference.

 

[indiansprings]

I'd run from a corn furnace, just getting the moisture down to less than 12% to have it burn efficiently is a major cost. My uncle tried one that was sold at John Deere dealerships and it has been a major failure.
Auger issues all the time, not getting corn dry enough to burn well, major build up. He finally dang near gave it away, gave over 3500 and took 250 for it within three years just to get it out of the house.
Now he has a Central Boiler OWB and loves it. I heat with a pellet stove made by Lennox, my living space is slightly over 5200 sq ft, the great room it is in is 40' x 38" I'll usually burn 2 pallets of pellets and one 500 gallon tank of LP for the entire years heating and cook stove needs. Outside walls are 6" of cellulose insulation, 1" of reflective foam board and then brick, so about 9" thick, I blew in I think 28-32" of cellulose in the attic.

I farm, could grow my own corn, but their is no way to come out on it, put a pencil to it, it will cost you right at 300.00 an acre if you put it in yourself, fuel cost, fertilizer, seed corn, spraying and then if you din't have a combine you have that cost. Dry land non irrigated corn was lucky to produce 40 bushel to the acre due to the drought, even in a good year dry land corn at 70 bushel to an acre just isn't worth it.
Then your going to need to have it dryed and bagged. Run Forest, Run.lol

 

[AdamG]

I'd run from a corn furnace, just getting the moisture down to less than 12% to have it burn efficiently is a major cost.

My dad burns right around 15% and it seems to burn well. He got a couple hundred lbs. this year that the guy accidentally dried to 7%. No 'problems' yet, though. As far as bagging, cheaper to store it bulk. around here anyways. We have a gravity wagon he got for an amazing deal that holds ~3ton, and then we pipe it into 55gal drums in the basement. Quite a simple yet effective setup

 

[cantoo]

Adam, I'm not understanding your comment. his furnace holds 4bushel, and even on the coldest days he can go 24hrs between loads.
Are you saying he uses 4 bushels in 24 hrs? This is $7 x 4= $28 for 24 hrs? Over $1 per hour to burn corn?

 

[AdamG]

Adam, I'm not understanding your comment. his furnace holds 4bushel, and even on the coldest days he can go 24hrs between loads.
Are you saying he uses 4 bushels in 24 hrs? This is $7 x 4= $28 for 24 hrs? Over $1 per hour to burn corn?

I'll double check my figures with him to be sure. 4 bushel sticks out in my head. I do know when it gets cold (0-10 degrees) he's loading somewhere around the 24hr mark- maybe slightly longer.
It takes a hot fire to light the corn off, so it does still eat a bit just idling.
He hasn't burn a whole lot of corn this year due to pellets and corn being so close in price, and he got basically a ton and a half of pellets for half price from a family member who couldn't seem to get their furnace to work right. Store Returned the furnace but wouldn't return the pellets.
Just got 2.5 ton of pellets at $6.39/bushel this morning. Works out to $560 and that should get him through the rest of the season- if not have some left over due to the warm weather so far unless it turns cold and goes late.

 

[CRThomas]

Corn burner

How are they? I have 10 acres (about 8 are tillable) and I was thinking that growing and drying corn might be a lot less labor intensive than making firewood. But I could be wrong.

I currently have a decorative high efficiency Napoleon wood burner in my living room. It is my only source of heat. It does a really nice job of heating my whole 1200 Sq ft home. I go through 5 full cords each winter. How much corn would it take to heat my house for the winter?

OK all you corn burners, I wanna hear from you.

Don <><

My daughters boy friend he's there shop with corn. A big shop that you can drive a combine around in the corn burner you can put a VW in it. They burn wood before he said it is cheaper to burn corn. Later

 

[heatsaver]

I have had a corn stove for 8 years. Love it, heats house fine. When I first got the stove (used) I created a simple spread sheet in excell, using the BTU out put of LP, corn and wood pellets. Based on the BTU value of 1 gallon of propane versus the same BTU value of corn(13 lbs) or (11 lbs). of wood pellets, corn is till a better value versus propane, even at $6.32 a bushel. wood pellets are alot different as eveyone is selling them now, you really have to watch the price. Anything over $3.50 for 40# is more than corn in my area.
While I'm very happy with my corn stove I long for the days of $1.80 bushel corn so I am currently building a forced air outside wood stove which is how I got to the Arborist site to begin with.

 

[AdamG]

Adam, I'm not understanding your comment. his furnace holds 4bushel, and even on the coldest days he can go 24hrs between loads.
Are you saying he uses 4 bushels in 24 hrs? This is $7 x 4= $28 for 24 hrs? Over $1 per hour to burn corn?

So after talking with him I am slightly off. Furnace holds 3.5 bushel, and generally on colder 0-10 days, he will go somewhere around 36hrs on a load.
So, taking what he just paid 6.39x3.5= $22.36 for 36hrs. When broken down to cost per hr I come up with right around $.62/hr.

 

[LAH]

I am currently building a forced air outside wood stove which is how I got to the Arborist site to begin with.

Are you doing a thread with pictures & text?

 

[hoosier daddy]

on the money...

Heatsaver is doing the math correctly. Corn versus LP because of the BTU's corn can generate many times a guy can burn corn over $4-bu and pay himself back...I forget the exact #'s but the ratio is something like 5.3 to 1 (Gal propane to Bu corn)...Corn burners work for some...just not me

 

[heatsaver]

Are you doing a thread with pictures & text?

Yeah, maybe. I'm not very computer savy, but I have been taking pictures along the way.

My plan is a to consolidate the best features of some burners that I have first hand knowledge of. I really like the concept of the "elm" stoves with the secondary burn tubes, however I like the control of a forced air primary blower to control the burn, tied to a wall thermostat.
To top all that off I want it to be outside, forced air, and down flow. I know there are stoves already out there (fire chief,US stove) but they unfortunately do not fit my situtation.
I'm starting with a piece of 24" seamless steel pipe 1/4" thick, that was 10' 9" long. I got for $150.00 and the guy I got it from threw in a 10' piece of seamless 6" for my flue. So if my first design does'nt work I have some room for error. But hopefully I'll just have material leftover to make more stoves for my kids.

I think any heating device has a "learning curve" my corn stove (from canada) took me about three years to figure out. Now I can clean out the "clinker" while the stove is still burning, it runs about four days before I need to shut it down to vac out the ashes and restart it.

 

[LAH]

Yeah, maybe. I'm not very computer savy, but I have been taking pictures along the way.

My plan is a to consolidate the best features of some burners that I have first hand knowledge of. I really like the concept of the "elm" stoves with the secondary burn tubes, however I like the control of a forced air primary blower to control the burn, tied to a wall thermostat.
To top all that off I want it to be outside, forced air, and down flow. I know there are stoves already out there (fire chief,US stove) but they unfortunately do not fit my situtation.
I'm starting with a piece of 24" seamless steel pipe 1/4" thick, that was 10' 9" long. I got for $150.00 and the guy I got it from threw in a 10' piece of seamless 6" for my flue. So if my first design does'nt work I have some room for error. But hopefully I'll just have material leftover to make more stoves for my kids.

I think any heating device has a "learning curve" my corn stove (from canada) took me about three years to figure out. Now I can clean out the "clinker" while the stove is still burning, it runs about four days before I need to shut it down to vac out the ashes and restart it.

I hope you do. The whole thing sounds very interesting.:smile2:

 

[chuckwood]

hemp biomass

I'm the OP.

Does anyone have a pellet stove AND make their own pellets from either saw dust or biomass (leaves, grass, etc). If so, please share your experiences.

Don

Someday economic circumstances will force us to legalize industrial hemp. It was a crime that it was outlawed in the first place, the stuff won't make you high, and it is an extremely useful plant. It creates biomass with little to no input of pesticides and fertilizer. Someday, we'll see hemp pellet stoves on the market. The smoke from these stoves will smell sweet, just like the air at a rock festival!

 

[diskjockey]

my buddy and i went in and bought a pellet mill. one you can find in davenport ia unless they moved again. We been using it part of the summer trying to make pellets and found wood shavings and sawdust the best stuff to burn in a corn/pellet stove. been kinding of trying to try different things but havent had much time this summer will do alot next spring and summer, just wish i could find more sawdust somewhere around here ive looked everywere

 

[zogger]

Someday economic circumstances will force us to legalize industrial hemp. It was a crime that it was outlawed in the first place, the stuff won't make you high, and it is an extremely useful plant. It creates biomass with little to no input of pesticides and fertilizer. Someday, we'll see hemp pellet stoves on the market. The smoke from these stoves will smell sweet, just like the air at a rock festival!

I agree, but selected entrenched industries who pull strings wouldn't like it. Plus, they get to create more of a police state, by making an ever increasing number of things either illegal, or needing of "permits" and so on. I think it will be made "legal" again, but only after a rather drastic restructuring of the states.

I mean, there are quite literally now millions of laws, yet every year, all these state congresses and the feds get together and make new ones. WTH is up with that. They have had hundreds of years now of compounded law passing. How many do they rescind, as opposed to create new?

There's assaults on food, growing at home, seeds, nutritional supplements, home schooling, burning firewood, etc. And then once you get into agenda 21 stuff, it all comes together, you can see what they are trying to do, that and create some sort of giant global government.

I call the whole convoluted business "technofeudalism". Masters and slaves, with enough armed muscle no questions asked order followers to keep the slaves in line. For awhile anyway.

The good news is, total collapse of "the union" by at the latest around 2020. None of the economic numbers can add up, simple math, grade school math, it is to far gone, too many promises, too much debt, too many foreign nations starting to slide away from the federal name debt note for their trade. And no possible combination of corrupt Ds or Rs "in power" will change a thing, except for the worse.

Of course we'll have a few years of some rather intense fun and games as the goons try to hold onto power. But in the end, they lose. The only variable will be how long the order followers keep following the demonic dictatorships orders, before they bingo they are on the losing side, the immoral side, the illogical side, and the just plain evil wrong side.. Judging by historical and current "in the news" parallels, they hang on too long and make the situation much worse then it has to be.

Topic at hand, industrial hemp, hell ya it is a worthwhile crop..but it ain't gonna happen, any legalisation of it at the fed level. Just way too much of a threat to some big concerns, plus a great excuse for police state action.