Brrrrr. It's really cold outside. Temperatures are in sub-zero range at night and some days too. I'm sure glad the wind isn't blowing too bad.

We're staying warm. The shop isn't insulated very well, and since the accident last fall there hasn't been anyone to finish insulating the ceiling. SO - well that adds to the corn consumption. Dale turns down the thermostat in the shop to 55 so that helps. (corn consumption)

We did run out of corn yesterday. That would put our usage at 400 bushels over the last three months. We're heating this huge shop (poorly insulated) and our home with that.

At least most of the time, the automatic feed keeps the stove full of corn so there's no bucketing! Corn prices yesterday, (we buy bottom of the bin corn, it's cheaper) was $3.00 bushel. Last fall it was $2.70 bu. Looks like we got some soybean mixed in this time. Soybean is good in the corn, it burns nice and hot and is normally 8.00 bu.

End of my January report. Winter.

We're on Twitter.  We talk about how our stoves are used, what our customers are experiencing.  We provide tips on stove usage and we make ourselves available for questions there.

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This cleaning procedure should take only about 15 minutes. it should be performed at regular intervals, not to exceed 12 days. 

1. Open the top and bottom fire doors.
2. Start with opening the smoke chamber door, and cleaning the ash at the top of the water chamber (you can pull the ash out or you can push it back to the end of the smoke chamber and let the ash fall to the bottom)
3. After cleaning smoke chamber close door and open the back door of the smoke tubes, this is done by turning the lever on the right side to the left (See “A”) then turning the left rod to the left (See “AA”) this will push the door down and allow the ash to go to the bottom of the fire chamber.
4. Take a brush to clean the tubes and push it thru the tubes and go all the way to the back then pull it back and go to another tube until all the tubes have been cleaned.
5. Move the door rod on the left to the right and the rod on the right to the right (this will close the back door to divert the smoke again.
6. Now you are done cleaning the top door of the fire box so you can shut the door.
7. On the bottom fire chamber clean out the ash that has settled on the floor.
8. After cleaning the ash, there are two small round holes in front of the fire pot take the screws out and inspect to see if any ash has settled in the air chamber of the pot. If you have an ash vacuum, vacuum the ash out and put the covers back on.
9. You are done cleaning so take a minute to check the water feeds to the pot to see if there are any drips around the flex pipes.
10. After that inspection go ahead and close the bottom door and the stove should fire up. (do not leave the stove until you see the temperature start climbing up on the controller.)
11. At this time you should open the doors under the hopper and inspect all the mechanical and make sure it is working well.

Dry Corn With Corn Heat

The Department of Soil, Water, and Cliimate at University of Minnesota have printed an article on how corn ash performs when used as fertilizer in the garden. You can read it here: Evaluation of Corn Ash as a Nutrient Source for Gardens

I know it works, proof is in my garden this year. Here's a picture for you

One of the reasons we like our outdoor corn boiler (a small part) is that it doesn't endanger our building or raise our insurance rates.

Using renewable fuel in this time of uncertainty - is getting more popular. I'm sure you're aware that it's going to mean the heating system will be something you think about now - not a set it and forget it deal as it is with fossil fuels.

A few things for you to consider also, before you buy that Outdoor Corn Boiler. I'm sure you're aware of these, but I have to put them down anyway:

• Weekly maintenance is critical - the stoves burn reliably and efficiently when they're cleaned weekly. But any deviation in the weekly maintenance schedule will change that.
• Insulated pipe, heat exchangers, boiler antifreeze, anti-rust solution, and anything else you would need to install the boiler - doesn't come with the stove (We'd be happy to provide a list of the required materials and the cost to the church)
• We can customize the appearance of the stove to blend with your outbuildings so that there isn't a corn boiler staring your visitors in the face. I think you've seen our "Church Stove" But that's not the only style, so we can talk about that too.

There's no heat like corn heat.

Country Farm Lifestyles is a website full of resources and information for farmers. The site is written by farmers for farmers.

On this site, you can find videos, podcasts, photos, articles, and more. The web site isn’t commercially produced, but it does the job. Reading through this site makes me realize that the world is small and farming is something we all have in common.

Here’s the link to Country Farm Lifestyles web site: http://www.countryfarm-lifestyles.com

Oh, and by the way, I found these guys through a Twitter search.

I like the look of chipped bark used as mulch on my garden beds, but right now I just can’t afford it.    So I use grass clippings.  This is good for the soil, it keeps the weeds down, and makes my neighbors happy too!  ( They’re not happy because I’m using grass as mulch)

My neighbors like to de-thatch their lawns in early spring.  They also pick up their grass clippings every time they mow.  We offered a place for them to put all those grass clippings in the back of our lot.  So they bring me all kinds of it.  That’s why their happy.  I’m happy because I didn’t have to spend any of my tight budget on mulch this year, and I don’t have to worry about the weeds either.  So it works out for everyone.

We make it a point to recycle anything we can. In 2003, when Dale and I built our house in Glencoe, we had this motto, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

One by-product of the stove manufacturing process is lots of scrap metal. To that end, we've laid out our CAD drawings so that any small crack in a 4-by-8 sheet of metal can be filled in with some doo-dad or ornament.

We take these pieces of cut metal, tumble them to remove rough edges, and put them here for you to browse. Perhaps you'll find something that will fill a need for one of your projects. Perhaps you'll be inspired to create (as we have!) garden art.

Check out the pieces we've got assembled and how we used the cut metal to enhance our garden and living space. And please share with us how you've been able to use this scrap.

Here's the link to the product page for All Recycled materials. I hope you'll find something there in the months to come that will trigger your creative genius!

Not really, but I got your attention.  What I should have said was Too Much Scrap Metal.  The by-product of Corn Stove Manufacturing. 

We’re going to recycle our scrap metal as much as possible.  Part of this recycling process means new products to sell on the website.  For example, when the stoves are cut out on the CNC plasma cutter, there are small miscellaneous pieces of metal here and there that could be put to good use in my garden. 

Windmills, plant-stakes, garden signs – I’m busy today making the CAD images we’ll use to feed the plasma cutter.  And tomorrow, I’ll have lots of raw material for my garden decorations.  I hope to be able to sell some of these as well, what’s cool about that is the cost of my raw materials is pretty low – and if I keep the  labor low (by selling these items as paint it yourself for example)  I can sell them for very little money.  That may help someone else – maybe someone who wants to use these shapes for their own small business. 

We’ll see.  In any case, here’s what I’m cutting out today:

I want something like this for my garden, a windmill that's a yard light, not a pump. I'll have light when the wind blows which is just about all the time here at my home in MinneeeeSota.

I've got my order in to the EZBurn store, and they're making me one. I can't wait for it to be done.

The inspiration for my pump is here at Michigan.Gov's web site.

I get a lot of questions about the efficiency of insulated pex pipe. People ask what type of insulated pex is better, how much R-value each brand has, and how to tell if a certain brand of pipe will work for them locally. These are important questions since improper installation techniques can lead to poor efficiency.

Insulated pex is commonly used to transport hot water from outdoor boilers to home systems. Whether the outdoor furnace is fueled by wood, corn, or pellets - that heat needs to be transferred efficiently to the dwellings and shops that it's intended to warm. Insulated pex pipe will have a hard outer shell, some kind of insulative wrap or fill, and two pex lines in the middle which transport hot water to and from the stove. The shell material is commonly plastic corrugated tile pipe. It's purpose is to prevent environmental water, harsh environmental conditions or particles from getting into the system, because that could interrupt the efficiency of the insulation. The heavy duty tiles also prevent the inner insulative barrier from becoming compressed which would also lessen thermo efficiency.

Underground pipes should be well insulated with foam and the feed and return pipes should not be allowed to touch each other. Insulated pex can be buried anywhere from 1.5 feet to 2.5 feet below ground. Some say don’t place the pipe in the ground deeper than 18” to avoid ground water. When installing your insulated pex, seal against water entry where ever possible.

Some types of pex pipe are better able to protect than others. For example, a pex pipe that is insulated by wrapping an insulative blanket around the pipes will lose it's protective quality if any ground water finds it's way into the hard outer shell.

Do your research, there's a lot to know. This is a big investment and you basically get one shot to get it right before winter hits and you're locked in till spring.

Here's a list of links you may find helpful:

• How to Buy an Outdoor Furnace OR Global Hydronics I found that these two sites contain the same content (Hmmmmm......There were even more than TWO after I got into it) But that content is full of great tips on choosing and installing your outdoor furnace.
• An article written from a wood furnace owner(I prefer corn heat, as you know)
• Thermoflex, High Performance Foam Insulated Pex Pipes
• Flexsul Seal by Insul Seal elastomeric thermal insulation wrapped pex.

This project is a dryer conversion, to add heat from an outdoor furnace to the electric heat the dryer already uses.  There were some mishaps and adventures in the process, but it's done now and it works.  I'm using the outdoor furnace heat through my dryer exclusively since it's been completed.  That'll work in our Minnesota climate all through winter.

I thought someone might be interested in how it's done, so here's some pictures and a few notes on how Dale would have done it differently if his space for the dryer was shaped differently.

First of all, you don't want to do this to a new dryer.  It'll definitely void your warranty!  My dryer was 10 years old and had to be taken apart anyway to fix a bearing that was going out, so no big deal if the job didn't work. 

In my clothes dryer, the heating element is in back of the drum. My dryer fits under the counter in my laundry room, so there was a space issue we had to deal with. Because putting the heat exchanger onto the side of the dryer would make it not fit back under the counter, Dale had to attach the heat exchanger to the back. He says this isn't the best place for it, and if he could have gone with putting the heat exchanger onto the side, he would have done it that way.

Close ups of dryer conversion images are here 

First step in the conversion is to drill the holes that heated air will be pushed through.

All the holes as they've been drilled.

A close-up of the holes, I don't know why.

This is the heat exchanger that will be attached to the back of the dryer.

Here is the heat exchanger being attached to the back of the dryer.

Here, Dale covered the grill with aluminum tape to plug off the air source and force air through the heat exchanger.

This is a view of how the heat exchanger attaches to the dryer.

Here is a view of how Dale hooked the heat exchanger into the hydronic heating system which is fed from the outdoor stove

Fall's here!  It's getting chilly, and our thoughts are turning to the long winter ahead.

Here are some links for you, in case you're looking for information.

Fuel Comparison Calculator

Installation Check Off List

Underground Pipe Sources

Herbie Lutheran Church in Argusville, ND was the recipient of EZBurn's first ever church stove.  It was custom painted to match the church atmosphere.  They're installing now, and we hope it keeps them warm and cozy for many winters to come.

This Jumbo EZBurn stove will be warming the congregation at a North Dakota church this winter. 

This is the list of parts we think you’ll need to install your stove.  You can buy this package from the EZBurn Parts Store where you'll receive free shipping. - use coupon code STOVE

These are the parts we sell:  Note:  GT Globe Thermoflex is sold by the foot the manufacturer sells in 100, 150, or 200 foot rolls.

	100 Ft 2 X 1" Thermoflex® Evoh Insulated Pex Pipe ,
	Heat Exchanger (UH-140) for hooking into the furnace
	3/4" Mixing Valve – for the hot water hookup, keeps water at a below scalding temperature
	1" 3-WAY ZONE VALVE, bypass valve so when corn stove goes out your house furnace will not heat the corn stove.
	1 1/2" X 3/4 " X 1 Side Arm Water Heater Kit, hot water from the corn stove

 Additional parts you’ll need which are better to buy from your local home center.

• Brass 90 degree 1” elbow – unknown quantity
• Brass Tee – 1”  - unknown quantity
• Compression Rings – tie the pex pipe together on the fittings – unknown quantity
• 1” Crimp to ¾” sweat adapter – used to move from 1” PEX pipe to ¾” Copper Pipe
• 3 – 1 to ¾ reducing couplings, these go to the solenoid valve ( 3-way zone valve)
• 1 – Full Port ¾ “ Ball Valve

Last year we received this question :  "I'm looking for a basic clothes dryer hook up drawing/kit.  If you don't have one, do you know of anyone."

At that time we could only say "What a great idea."  We had no knowledge of any kits or practical applications to create one.  Well, today I came across a potential solution for the problem and I wanted to spread the news.   Too bad there aren't more details, but this web page throws out some hint of how this could be done.

http://www.pauknermetalproducts.com/ah_dryer.htm

Paukner Unit Heater Dryer Options

Here's another way to help you take full advantage of your hot water heating system. By taking an AH60 Paukner Air Handler and adding these options, you can use your hot water heating system to dry your clothes. Options available include a 8" round cap, timer and a filter grill.

Pasted from <http://www.pauknermetalproducts.com/ah_dryer.htm>

Parts needed to connect to dryer will vary depending on dryer model and installation. Timer wiring is 24 volts. Filter Grill can be mounted on the front, right or left side, or bottom. Filter Grill cannot be mounted on the back of cabinet.

Pasted from <http://www.pauknermetalproducts.com/ah_dryer.htm>

EZBurn Parts Store has these items for sale, you can find them here:

AH60 Air Handler, Timer, and Filter Grill

http://store.ezburn.com/catalog/air-handlers.aspx?&guid=8903a700-e52b-4c19-9772-1b749881467a

I got a question today which was interesting to me.  It came from an artist in North Carolina, Norman Thomas.

Are the stoves adaptable to solar panels (this would be in the future)?  This could heat hot water in the summer and maybe save firing the stove in October and March and/or April?

I guess I've never thought about this, but it's something I'd like to try for my own outdoor corn stove.  We don't have as much sun in Minnesota as we do wind, but whatever sun we do get could surely heat my hot water during the summer months.  With the stove down due to warm weather it would save me some electricity. 

For the stove to work all the piping must be in place and so everything is there in terms of infrastructure to support solar panel operation -- except for the solar panels.  We've already tied the hot water heater into the corn boiler.  (When I say WE, I mean my husband of course.  I supported his efforts, though!!!!!!).

 I wonder if that'll work for us after all.  My situation is complicated a bit by the fact that for the last three years we've (There is the royal WE again…..) cooled our house in the summer by using the temperature of the ground to cool water then pipe it through the floors.  With a few well placed fans and one window mount air conditioner (to dehumidify) the temperature stays at a comfortable level.

 Truth is I'm all for anything that will take me one step further away from my dependence on Fossil fuels and towards something sustainable and renewable.  My grandchildren have to live in this world.  And their children after (should the Lord Tarry that is)  We must be better stewards of this creation than we have been.  Any place is a good place to begin.

This is a link to a page which will give you a way to compare what fuel costs would need to be to compare to the value that heating with corn offers you.  The entry values are as prices could be determined with a google search on 03/31/2008.  You can adjust as you wish. 

This information is taken from a presentation to Staples high - which is stored at CleanEnergyResourceTeams.org web site:  http://www.cleanenergyresourceteams.org/files/CS_Biomass_CentralLakes.pdf

• The EPA (environmental protection agency) says emissions from burning corn are negligible, and that it’s a CO2neutral process.
• Corn burns less than a gram of emission per hour
• The emissions from burning corn is non-polluting

Fuel Value Calculator

This is just a link to an external web site:  http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/techline/fuel-value-calculator.pdf

Here's a blurb about why you may want to view it:  The Fuel Value Calculator is a tool that can be used to compare typical unit costs of various fuels.

Background Information on Estimates of Corn Stove Carbon Dioxide Emissions

"Corn Heat" Google alert - pays off again. 

Today, the Google alert came from the Cattle Network web site and the article explains how heating with Corn should be considered an alternative to heating with traditional means. Here is the URL: http://www.cattlenetwork.com/content.asp?contentid=205869

MCGA: Thinking About Going Green – Look No Further Than Corn Heat

DEWITT, MICH. – There is a growing trend in the United States to become more environmentally friendly by going “green.” Michigan’s corn farmers suggest Americans use corn heat as a “green” solution for not only reducing our use of foreign fossil fuels, but also as a way to lower home and business heating costs.

Businesses, homeowners, and municipalities can use corn, America’s renewable resource, as their primary heating fuel and make themselves more “green” by using corn heating units. Corn heating units are designed specifically to generate heat from burning corn kernels. Corn heating units are different than wood-burning stoves because they are designed to burn the dry granular fuel. Some units are biomass stoves and can burn other fuels in addition to corn such as pellets, nutshells, small wood chips, and other small grains such as rye, wheat and barley.

Corn is an annually renewable fuel source. It is grown across the United States and has been roughly an 11 billion bushel crop for the last three years. By using corn for heating purposes, we can help to decrease our use of fossil fuels and other rapidly depleting energy sources. As oil and other energy sources are being depleted; corn is replenished annually and therefore makes an alternative fuel source that is renewable year after year. “I take great pride in the fact that I grow corn on my farm and am able to utilize its potential as an energy crop to heat not only my home, but also my shop and office,” added Pat Feldpausch, Michigan Corn Growers Association (MCGA) chairman and a corn grower from Fowler.

Corn heating systems can be used for many different heating purposes. Corn can take the place of other heating sources that have been used in the past, such as electricity, propane, heating oil, natural gas, or wood. Heating a 2,000 square foot home would require approximately 250 bushels of corn a year. “Corn heating units are very economical and are a cost-effective alternative to heating with propane or electricity, or even wood,” said Chris Schilling, an engineering professor at Saginaw Valley State University. “Even with corn around $5.00 a bushel, it is still cheaper to heat with corn than with electricity or propane.”

Not only are corn heating units cost effective, but they are also environmentally-friendly. Since corn heating units are designed to burn under oxidizing conditions, the resulting smoke is nearly odorless and consists largely of carbon dioxide and steam. In addition, they do not emit significant particulate emissions. Unlike the combustion of ordinary fossil fuels, the carbon dioxide produced during corn burning does not add greenhouse gases to the atmosphere.

For more information on heating with corn, a list of corn heating unit manufacturers and dealers, and a list of corn sellers specifically for corn heat, visit www.micorn.org/heat.

I'd be extremely interested in giving these pellets a try in an EZBurn Outdoor Boiler.  I think it's a fantastic idea, to turn prairie grass into heat for your home and shop.  And I want to try them in my stove.  Now, if I can only find some!

Once I started looking around for more information on using grass pellets in a corn stove, I see that there are plenty of resources out there talking about it.  For a year or so, they've been talking about it.  But where's the beef?  Does anyone know where there is a manufacturing facility that will be able to supply some grass pellets?  If you do, please drop  me a line here - bcp@faxt.com

Wow, it's been a long time since I wrote a journal entry. This summer was just a blur with all the work and truthfully this will be my first chance to catch up. I'm actually going to clean my house for a change!

 Business is good though. It's been an adventure getting the corn stoves to market,  building a routine for placing these outdoor furnaces in their new homes as they are delivered. We're getting better at this and next year things should really come together.

EZBurn is a good business for me. I have the websites to maintain, and the software for monitoring the stoves to remove the bugs from.

That software installs on our customer's computers. The stoves contain the monitors, which transmit serially to the computer in the house through the ground wires. This in turn sends the temperature monitoring data to our web site, where Dale can pull the reports to his cell phone. It's very cool.

Here's a video we took which shows one of the customized stoves EZBurn has installed. This one is filled from the top, more convenient for the dairy farmer who owns it.

Thought you'd like to be able to make comparisons between different fuels.

This group, local to Glencoe, MN, is Preact-Mcleod

They have put out a Fuel Compare Calculator:

www.preact-mcleod.org/fuelcomparecalculator.htm

A local offshoot of Minnesota's Clean Energy Resource Team (CERT). Our members are interested in promoting the advancment of Alternative Energy Sources such as: Wind Energy, Solar Energy, Corn Fired Furnaces and Boilers, Wood Fired Furnaces and Boilers, Manure-to-Methane Digestors, Hydrogen Technology, Fuel Cells and the like.

This came in on my Google Alert: - It's very appropriate to the way EZBurn is doing business today.

Rising propane cost prompts farmers to experiment with corn stoves
Joplin Globe - Joplin,MO,USA
Both men said they began looking for alternative heating sources three years ago, when propane jumped to $1 per gallon. Schnake said poultry farmers stop ...

Sometimes you have to get creative

The 2006-2007 selling and heating season was regarded with great expectations by stove manufacturers and dealers.  Early figures looked strong and promising for this year to continue, with the rise in interest and use of corn-burning appliances.  Using corn for heat has become a fast growing alternative to traditional heating methods, especially during times of high fuel prices.  As fuel oil, propane and gas prices continue to rise, homeowners are looking elsewhere for a more cost effective way to heat their homes.  As a result, the corn stove industry is growing at a rapid rate, with the production of biofuels growing right along side it. 

Throughout history, farmers have burned corn as a way to heat their home during hard economic times.  In fact, burning corn dates back to as early as the 20th Century.  During the Great Depression, the market price for corn was very low.  Farmers did not have the money needed to buy fuel, so they burned what was readily available to them - corn.  In the 21st century, one doesn't need to be a farmer to benefit from the low cost of burning corn (although it can help to know one!) and corn is not looked at as the last resort to heat one's home, left only for roughing out the hard times.  In fact, upper-middle class families are also now looking at corn as an alternative to heating their home, as they steadily grow weary of fluctuating fuel prices.

Corn is one type of biomass, which is one of the oldest fuels known to man (in fact, the first campfire can be considered heating with biomass).  Biomass is vegetation, i.e., trees, grasses, plants, corn, etc.  When biomass is burned, it produces heat and energy.  Before 1875, biomass was the primary source of energy in the United States.  Today there is actually an abundance of biomass in the world, with about only 7% of the available annual production of biomass currently being utilized.  If we used all biomass that is potentially available today, in the United States alone, the energy produced from that fuel would be enough to heat 260 million homes! 

With the current political state over seas, and the ever-increasing price of fuel, consumers are looking for a renewable source of energy here at home.  The corn stove industry is realizing the benefits of being a domestic, renewable alternative at a time when consumers are looking for home-grown resources.  In the recent years, heating with corn has flourished, not only because it is a source of domestic energy, but also because it is cheaper, cleaner and it is a more reliable option for home heating.  Many in the corn stove industry remain confident that the market will grow, with the direction of biomass heating as a more preferred source of heating by homeowners. 

According to the Federal Biomass R&D Technical Advisory Committee, all of these factors illustrate the need for increasing domestic resources to address the U.S. energy demand.  This committee has provided a vision and roadmap to guide the U.S. in boosting its rural economic development and decreasing its vulnerability of energy supply to political events or natural disasters.  As a result, the corn stove industry will continue to grow.

Consumers may have noticed fluctuating corn prices in the past year. Despite this increase in prices, burning with corn can still save homeowners a lot of money on their heating bills.  The price of corn has fluctuated some, but not near as drastically as the price of fuel.  The historical price of corn has been between $2.00 and $2.50 a bushel.  In July of 1996 it peaked at $5.55 a bushel.  In January of 2007 it was just above $4.00 a bushel.  Even with these recent fluctuations, the price of corn has remained relatively stable throughout the past twenty years.  There is a consistency in the belief that the price of corn will likely level out again at a new long-term average in the future.  The most common belief is that a bushel of corn will cost around $2.50. 

The cost to heat a home with fuel oil will undoubtedly continue to remain high.  The introduction of biomass alternatives, including corn, offers consumers an economical alternative.  Consumers will continue to seek home-grown resources and America's leaders continue to respond to that need, through research and development of additional energy sources.  The corn burning industry will continue to rise, as it too responds to consumer need.  EZ Burn Manufacturing will be there, ready to provide consumers with a reliable, low-cost energy source.

Resources:

this compilation of Internet resources is presented for your convenience, references :

•  Total Energy Solutions                                       www.gototalenergy.com
•  Magnum                                                          www.magnumheat.com
•  Focus on Energy                                               www.focusenergy.com
•  Biomass Research and Development Initiative         www.brdisolutions.com
•  Corn Marketing Program of Michigan                      www.micorn.org

Pictures from an infloor heating installation into a 40 X 60 foot shed.

We use our Outdoor Corn Furnace/Boiler to heat our home. This year, we moved a shed in from a neighboring farm. It was being replaced there and the owner gave it to us to get it off the property. Since our motto is Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Retire Someday we were excited to have the opportunity.

The shed's settled on our lot, and it is getting infloor heating installed now. A Lot of Manual Labor, since this floor is getting poured by hand. Not for those who don't like shoveling! But Great on the budget. For a do-it-yourselver with more time than money, this is the only way to get what you want sometimes.

Pictures from a typical infloor heating installation.

We bought our Outdoor Corn Stove before we built our house. We were living in a home that had forced air heating system. We purchased a radiator system with the Outdoor Corn Stove that sat over the duct work where our Forced Air System had been, and ran the hot water from our stove to that radiator. When the thermostat called for heat, the fan kicked on, and the heat from the radiator was blown through the ducts.

We built a new home beside the old one. When it was time to build, we were able to install a heating system that would be more compatible with the hot water our Corn Stove produced. Below are some photographs of the installation process. We are lucky in our home, it has concrete floors through out, and was designed for them from the beginning.

Burning Shelled Corn to Produce Heat Energy

The combination of high fossil fuel prices and low corn prices has spurred an interest in burning shelled corn to produce heat for heating buildings and for drying grain. Dry shelled corn contains a fair amount of energy and it is relatively easy to handle, so in the short run, it can make sense to use shelled corn as a heating fuel. Here are some factors to consider when making decisions about shelled corn vs. other fuels.

Fuel cost per unit of energy

Shelled corn contains about 7000 Btu (British thermal units) per pound at 15% moisture, or about 392,000 Btu per 56-lb bushel. It is better to use dry corn as a fuel source, because dry corn is easier to handle and store than wet corn, and because dry corn produces more energy per unit weight of corn. Energy content per pound of corn is dramatically lower for high-moisture corn because more of the weight of the corn is water, which doesn't produce any energy, and because more energy from the corn dry matter is needed to evaporate water from the kernels and less is available for heating.

In most cases, equipment used to burn corn (and other fuels) is not 100% efficient, so it is important to use burner efficiency in calculations for heat output. When comparing costs for using different fuels, it is easiest to compare cost per unit of energy produced; cost per million Btu is a common way to compare fuel costs. Cost per unit of fuel, energy content per unit of fuel, and burner efficiency all need to be considered in calculating fuel costs.

Example: Calculate cost per million Btu for 15% moisture shelled corn that costs $2.00 per bushel and is burned in a stove that has an efficiency of 65%.

Cost per million Btu = [$2.00/bu ÷ (392,000 Btu/bu x 0.65 efficiency)] x 1,000,000

= $7.85 per million Btu

Here are energy content, burner efficiencies, and costs per million Btu at average efficiency and the indicated price for several fuels:

Fuel oil, 140,000 Btu/gal, 70 to 90% efficiency (80% avg.), $1.50/gal:

$13.39 per million Btu

Propane or liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), 92,000 Btu/gal, 70 to 90% efficiency (80%avg.), $1.00/gal:

$13.59 per million Btu

Natural gas, 100,000 Btu/ hundred cubic foot (ccf), 70 to 90% efficiency (80% avg.), $0.80/ccf:

$10.00 per million Btu

Electricity (resistance heat), 3413 Btu/kWh, 100% efficiency, $0.08/kWh:

$23.44 per million Btu

Keep in mind that the price for corn and for conventional fuels will fluctuate over time and that the cheapest fuel today might not be the cheapest fuel in the future.

Other costs for using fuel

Fuel cost per unit of energy is very important, but you also need to consider the cost for the burner, fuel storage, and other equipment needed to store, handle, and use the fuel, equipment maintenance, and labor to handle the fuel and remove ash. If you are considering new construction or are replacing a worn out system, you can compare the annual cost of owning and fueling a conventional heating system vs. the annual cost of owning and fueling a corn burning system. But if you already have a conventional system that is in good working condition and will be kept as a back up system, then you need to compare the full cost of owning and fueling a corn burning system to the value of conventional fuel saved. A supplemental corn burning system can easily cost several thousand dollars, so annual ownership costs can be a significant addition to the cost of the corn fuel.

Labor costs are likely to be higher for corn burning systems than for conventional fuel systems, although labor costs for corn systems might be lower than for bulky biomass materials (like fire wood, straw, or hay). Very little labor is required to fuel, maintain, and clean conventional fuel systems. Corn-fueled systems can be relatively easy to automate, but some labor is required to periodically refill the corn hopper and to remove the ash or clinkers that are left after corn combustion.

Fuel handling and storage

Corn is easier to handle than some other bulky biomass materials (wood, straw, or hay, for example) because it flows fairly well through hoppers and augers and because corn has a better energy to volume ratio (it takes less space to store the same amount of energy for corn than for bulky biomass materials). But corn is not as easy to handle and is not as energy dense as most conventional fuels.

Corn handling and storage will be relatively easy on farms that produce corn, but it will be more of a challenge for people who don't produce corn - especially for people living in urban areas. Non-farmers will have some difficulty obtaining, hauling, and storing the amounts of corn needed for heating a home or other buildings. Also, the cost per bushel will probably be somewhat higher for people who buy a few bushels at a time.

Owners of corn burning systems who store corn inside their home need to use tight storage containers, clean up corn spills immediately, and avoid storing corn for long periods of time to prevent problems with rodents and with stored grain insects. Some species of insects that infest stored corn could also move into food products stored in the home.

Burner design

Designing corn burners is more challenging than designing burners for some other biomass materials because it's more difficult to get enough air into the fuel pile with shelled corn than it is for bulky biomass materials, and because corn ash melts at a different temperature than ash for some other biomass products. Corn ash tends to produce a hard, glassy slag that can coat the inside of the burner, or corn ash can produce hard chunks (clinkers) that need to be removed frequently (perhaps daily). It isn't impossible, but it would be difficult to build a homemade burner or to modify a wood-burning stove that works well with corn. Several companies that have tried to build shelled corn burners have failed, so it might be best to buy a corn-burning stove from a company that has been in business for several years and that has a number of satisfied customers.

Long run needs for heat energy

In the short term, it might make sense to burn corn to produce heat energy, but it's hard to know whether burning corn makes sense in the long run. If our goal is to find something that farmers can grow that will help solve our need for heat energy, corn might not be the best answer. It takes a lot of energy to grow, dry, and transport corn, it takes a lot of energy to produce the fertilizers and pesticides used to produce corn, production of corn makes the soil more vulnerable to erosion than does production of some other crops, and corn might be more valuable for feed, food, and liquid fuel uses than for heat energy production.

Other sources of information

The Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs has a good website on burning shelled corn as a heating fuel. Keep in mind that the website uses Canadian dollars and a mixture of metric and English units. The website address is:

http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/engineer/facts/93-023.htm

Here are some questions, adapted from the Ontario website, that you should consider before purchasing a corn burner:

• What is the heat output of the burner? Do you know how much heat is needed to maintain the heated space at the desired temperature, to dry the crop, or to meet other needs for heat energy?
• If you are trying to heat your whole house with a stove or space heater, does the house layout allow for the convective movement of heat through the whole house? Most newer houses are not built to allow convective air movement.
• What is the size of the fuel hopper? Will it require filling on a daily, weekly, or biweekly schedule?
• What is the seasonal heating efficiency of the corn burner?
• Does the unit meet UL standards?
• Does the unit have hot exposed surfaces that could cause burns to skin?
• What type of exhaust venting is required? Does it require a chimney with a flue liner or can a combination flue/fresh air vent pipe be used?
• Are you prepared to clean out the clinker daily and clean the heat exchanger of ash on a weekly basis?
• Will the stove handle granular solid fuels other than shelled corn? This is important in the event that the economics of burning corn become unattractive or an alternative low cost pelleted fuel becomes available.
• Will the corn burner be a primary heat source or act as a supplementary heat source? Stoves with small fuel hoppers will not meet heating needs for long periods of time, unattended.
• How and where will corn be stored?

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EZBurn Outdoor Corn-Fired Boiler

 

Outdoor Corn-Fired Boiler
We use an outdoor corn-fired boiler to heat our home, our shed, our hot water, and our hot tub. 

Our outdoor corn stove is located in a shed that we built specifically to house the stove and the corn storage bin. (There's a picture of the corn stove shed top left of this screen) Inside the shed is a corn storage bin which holds 200 bushels. That's the top of the grain bin sticking out the roof, I painted the galvanized steel to blend it with the shed.

MDH fills the bin using an auger and gravity feed trailer that our corn provider loans us whenever we purchase the corn. We buy our corn from a farmer who lives about 10 miles away.

This text is a description of a unit MDH built which he will use to keep the corn stove full all the time. Before we had this device, MDH would fill the hopper of the corn stove using his electric auger. The auger extended from the bottom of the grain bin over the hopper of the corn stove. And periodically he would have to check to see if the hopper was getting low on corn and turn on his auger to fill the hopper. Making sure to stand by so that the corn didn't overflow.

Now, with this device, the hopper will have corn in it to a specific level as long as there is corn in the bin. (There's always a gotcha......) The unit operates like so: if the corn is out of the tube, and the thermostat in the house calls for heat then it will start filling because the switch turns on.

When the level of the corn gets up to the level of the tube, the tube is filled and then the switch shuts off the auger. Here is a picture of the stove storage bin with the tube that fills it.

 

Here is a picture of the auger coming off the storage bin

Here is a picture of the motor and everything hooked up to that tube.

The switch that controls if the auger is on or off, is in the white box with red label.

Economy of Corn

The headline I saw is: "Ethanol Demand Boosts Corn Planting [biz.yahoo.com] - An encouraging sign for Outdoor Corn-Fired Boiler manufacturers.

Here’s why I think this is a good thing for EZBurn Manufacturing.

Even at today’s peak prices, heating with Corn is less expensive per BTU than heating with propane. Using Google as my librarian, it's hard to pin down the number of BTUs produced by burning a bushel of corn. Part of the problem is because the efficiency of the burning device will produce wide variation in the amount of BTUs produced by burning a bushel of corn.

The winter of 2005-2006 saw an increase in natural gas prices brought on by unusually hot weather that increased the demand for natural gas-fired electricity generation in the summer. This price spike was further exacerbated in the fall when multiple hurricanes shut down domestic production sources for months – at times eliminating more than 20 percent of the nation’s daily domestic supply.

The resulting surge in demand for alternative-fueled heating sources produced shortages of these devices. Across the country, dealers who sell wood and corn stoves ran out of stock and had customers waiting for backordered stoves.

This experience produced a reciprocating increase in orders for such devices the following year, the season of 2006-2007. Dealers increased their inventory to be able to handle the perceived increase in demand. Unfortunately for many of them, the increased demand didn't hold into the next season, probably because the price of corn rose.

For years, the price of corn had hovered in the $2 bushel range. Corn had been stuck at around $2 a bushel for years before the ethanol boom lifted prices. In May of 2007 - Corn for May, 2007 delivery was trading at $3.74. Corn prices actually peaked at $4.50 bushel on Feb. 26, a 10 year high.

Agriculture industry analyst David Driscoll, of Citigroup Research, said in a report to investors that he expects increased corn planting to cause the price of corn to fall to about $3 a bushel by December, 2007.

More corn planted and available for purchase at a lower cost per bushel – that’s of benefit to the industry. Although it’s not getting any easier to say what the savings are to the consumer – it’s obvious that the more efficient your corn burning device is, the better your savings are.