Hi everyone. Just wanted to give an update on the corn furnace.

I've had it set on 1 and 2 of 10 for these last few cold days, and it is keeping the entire house at a constant 76 degrees, and our bedroom over the garage at 70. I took a temperature measurement in or bedroom because it felt so cold. It wasn't cold, we have just gotten acustom to the house being in the mid 70's all the time. 2 bushels of corn is lasting almost 48 hours with a setting of 1. I haven't cranked it to 10, but the manufacturer says it will put out 70000 btu's at 10, and will burn off 115 pounds of corn in 14 hours. I'm sort-of looking forward to the days the high temp won't be above freezing to see how this thing performs.

Just wanted to update you folks that live in the DC suburbs. If you are looking to buy a pellet stove, pellets are in very short supply. I keep a bag of pellets to start my furnace. I spatter the pellets with denatured alchohol to get the fire pot hot quickly, and the corn to feed in quickly. Getting the bag proved a bit of a challenge. The only place that I have seen that hasn't run out of pellets is a tru-value in Waldorf Maryland. They seem to get a couple of flat bed truck loads a week. Home Depot said they are sold out through December, as well as Lowes. The fire and hearth place I originally was going to buy my pellet furnace from said they are sold out, and aren't even giving a date at this point.
If you burn wood, the cord price seems to be averaging about $185.00 per cord, and the 2 major suppliers in our area are selling everything they bring in. My supplier is saying he has contacted more farmers, and has fuel on hand, so I'm going to go pick up 1.5 tons.
Gonavy, I contaced that co-op place you found on the net but they haven't gotten back with me yet. I wouldn't mind getting hooked up with that group.

 

It's not surprising that so many places are sold out on alternative heating devices. The way natural gas prices have been going, I think a lot of folks are realizing they will want to have some alternatives if natural gas prices spike upwards again the way they did in the previous couple months.

I guess the good news is that the current spot market price on natural gas is showing as $9.25/mBTU versus $15/mBTU back in September and October, but that's still well above the $6-7/mBTU that it was all last winter.

 

I guess a corn stove would work ok as long as you didn't use Orville Reddenbacher's in it...All kidding aside, does this type of stove burn the whole plant or just the cobs??

 

dried kernels.

 

Yup, dried kernels.

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 It's not surprising that so many places are sold out on alternative heating devices. The way natural gas prices have been going, I think a lot of folks are realizing they will want to have some alternatives if natural gas prices spike upwards again the way they did in the previous couple months.

I guess the good news is that the current spot market price on natural gas is showing as $9.25/mBTU versus $15/mBTU back in September and October, but that's still well above the $6-7/mBTU that it was all last winter.

My neighbors are getting very curious about the scent coming from my house. When I got home this evening, one of my neighbors said it smells like my bbq had been going, and wondered what we were cooking.
They are also curious about the furnace and the difference in price to heat. I have told a couple of the guys about it, but it does involve work to move the bags, clean the fire pot and so forth. I think once they get there first gas bill the end of this month, or some time in December, they will be willing to cut up some trees, or look at another source for heat.

 

The furnace is still keeping the house toasty warm, with a btu rating of about 50,000. I called the company, and they gave me the dial settings and apprx. btu rating.
Also got our first gas bill since we've had the corn stove, and was just under $80.00. We only used the gas furnace twice last month before we had the corn furnace installed!
At the end of the month, I'll post my November Data.

 

Here's my data. Looks like I'll be burning about 4 tons a year. However, thanks to gonavy, I got in touch with the corn co-op he found, and instead of paying 175 a ton I'll be paying 130 a ton. Big difference. As you can see from the data, I have used 41 bags of corn, or 2050 pounds for the month of November. I am going to try to improve the efficiency of the furnace with in-line booster fans in the duct work. I put a fan in the duct work that you would find in a microwave vent. It has helped a bit, but I think it is only about 150cfm. I am going to put 3 600cfm fans in various points in the duct to improve performance. Let me tell you, the air is very warm, definitely in the 120-140 degree range. Just need to push it out!

 

Has the temp evened out among the rooms?

The fans will certainly help, but make sure it doesn't get too loud...

 

Nevermind about natural gas pricing being close to "normal" again. Just since my previous post quoted above natural gas has broken the record highest price in history, reaching as high as $15.52 last night before closing at $14.95. Congrats to any of you with the corn furnaces to suplement your natural gas furnices. Looks like it's going to be a terrible winter for everyone who depends on gas for heating.

EDIT: In other news, the corn-burners are famous! You got featured with this story!

 

Thanks AZ Civic. What I have found is when it get really cold, the gas kicks in for about 20 minutes, but that is maybe 2 times a day. The really great thing is the co-op I'm joining is only 130 bucks a ton.
The one thing I have noticed with the corn, the fan that pushes it just isn't strong enough. I have ordered booster fans for various parts of the house, and I'm hoping with booster fans I can push the air fast enough to keep the whole house warm. The ducts are acually hot to the touch in some parts of the house, so it definitely has the capabilities to make things real warm.
My neighbor has an outside, wood fired boiler coming sometime next year. He didn't tell me how much he payed, but the boiler looks like a nice storage shed, but puts out 500,000 BTU's! That is incredible. He should have not trouble heating his house. Plus, between he and I, we have enough scrap wood on our properties to last him for years and years.
We were looking at my corn stove, and he had lots of questions. I told him it would never work for his house. He needs a real machine. I told him about the outside boiler, and he was sold after he got the info from the manufacturer.