Heating with corn

Steve, we looked at the corn option when we were in the process of buying our furnace. But, the ones I saw were corn and corn alone. With all the trees I get for turning, we had wood rotting on the ground, so we went for a wood furnace with a coal option. Right now I have about 12-15 cords of wood in various forms and stages of drying, two tons of coal in reserve, and about 150 gallons of oil in the tank in the house. As long as I can get gas for my generator, we will have heat whether the power is on or not.

The guy who used to deliver my propane was looking at a corn stove as well, since he grows it on his farm, and he doesn't get much of a discount from his employer (if any at all). He checked my stove out at length, as has just about every visitor I have had in the past three months.

We burned 1300 gallons of fuel oil a year before putting our furnace in, and that was keeping the house cool - 58 at night and 68 during the day. Last year we cut 800 gallons out of that total, and this year we should do even better. We still burn oil in the warmer months since we have it heating our domestic water as well. I told the rest of the family I was not stoking a wood stove in the heat of the summer!

Good luck with the corn. I have talked to a couple of people who really like it.

Bill
 
Steve, very very interesting! I had envisioned more of the individual pellet stove sitting in the corner of a room like my parents have in their living room. I had the thought of how that would heat a whole house, unless an air intake was close and then distributed on from there through a central system. Now I know!! Jim.
 
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