Corn Burning Stoves

Anyone have one of the stoves that burns corn or know anyone that does?

Im so cityfied Ive never heard of such a critter, hope someone here has.

I did a search on google and got some information but would like to hear what someone useing one has to say about them.

Busybee, what part of the corn does it burn, the cob or like the dry kernels? What an interesting idea. Corn can also be turned into fuel for cars. Now if that idea ever took hold the whole midwest could grow corn and give the farmers a great cash crop. Maybe we wouldn't need so much oil.

You can read about it here http://www.actionfireplaces.com/index.php?content=why

Someone I know has one. It also burns "pellets", wood pellets made from wood chips/scraps, etc.

Apparently they like it cuz it is an auto-feed. When the price of corn went up tho he started buying it from a local grower.

It certainly sounds cleaner to use than a wood burner, and less labor intensive.

We are going to do some research and maybe go see one in operation. I think it would be better than the gas heat we have now. I told DH that we could raise our own corn and he could shell it while he was watching ball games every night. He didn't think that was a good idea, said corn is cheap we could just buy it. LOL

here's what i found http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/home/articles/1122dulley22.html , http://www.hechlers.com/cornburner.html , http://www.americaninsurancedepot.com/help/9.htm

Lots of interest here in corn stoves, being in the corn belt.
Blacksmith in town has one in his shop. I think he is on the third one, (always getting an improved model.)
The kernal is what is burned.
There is a small hopper with an auger that pushes the kernals into the burning pot. The pot is only a couple of inches across. The kernals actually glow rather than burn fast. They produce amazing amount of heat.
The auger is hooked to the thermostat. When more heat is needed to auger pushes more kernals into the burner.
The rest of the unit is like any other forced air furnace.
They use between 1 & 2 bushel of corn per day to heat an average house.
Cost of the furnace is around $2500.00.

Olden days people burned the cobs in regular wood stoves, now with combines there are no cobs,(they are broken & left in the fields.)
Bernie

Thanks shoe, MaVieRose and CountryGardens for the information.

Yardbird, I just reread this thread and I realized I called you Busybee, so sorry. I have to admit I link you too in my mind quite often. I wonder why that is. Anyway, I apologize. Must be a short in my gray matter. LOL
Thanks for the information Bernie. We have people here who burn wood pellets instead of cut wood. It is similar to what Bernie talks about. It is cleaner, I couldn't say cheaper. We heat our home with a wood stove and we have a great supply of wood but will admit it is messy. The oak is the worst.

I just love a wood stove, but only have one in my shoffice. I look forward to the smell of wood burning and the smoke every winter! By yep, can be a bit messy.

On those corn-burners, I wonder if you can manually operate the augers if you need to? Like if the power goes out, will you still be able to heat the house?

I think some of them have a battery back up shoe.

Great! and if they don't I bet one could be easily made!

Hmmm...wonder if I can talk DW into a cornfed heater. Heck, she took me in, and I'm cornfed!

Yep shoe is one who eats great amounts of corn and a very little bird.Ernie

Yep, ernie! Reckon I "eat like a bird", eh!

A vulture!!!!

I'm Hongry! :>)