A silly place filled with caffeine induced ramblings of this person named KarmaGirl....or something.
the outside air smells like burnt popcorn.....
Published on October 31, 2005 By KarmaGirl In Home & Family
 

Corn Stove?  What the heck is a corn stove?

Well, a corn stove is similar to a pellet stove (which burns wood pellets) except that it burns dried, shelled corn.
This is a picture of ours (I can't take a straight on picture because a wall is in the way):

It sits between our dining room and living room, and heats most of our house (which is over 2500 sq ft)
Unlike a wood stove, it does not have a chimney, it just vents to the outside.  The heat is circulated away
from the stove by a blower.  It's a fairly easy system to use.  You pour corn in the top:

Then an adjustable auger system feeds it at your desired rate into the burn pot.  The following picture shows
corn falling into the burn pot:

Once every few days, you have to shut down the system and clean out the ash and clean the door, and once
every day or two, you have to drop the "clinker" (which is the corn remains that didn't burn) into the container
that sits below the burn pot in the stove.

It is a very low maintenance stove.  It is also easier to deal with than a wood stove in many ways.
1) You won't have a chimney fire, so you can leave it on even when not at home.
2) You can buy corn in bags or in bulk, so there is very little work in preparing for winter.
3) If it gets too hot in the house, you can turn it off and it quits producing heat within a few minutes.
4) You never have to worry about hot coals being spit out into the room.

I also like the stove because it is extremely economical.  We spent over $1300 in propane last year for heat only.
The corn stove is estimated to cost $500 in corn.  Corn is also as renewable of an energy source as you can find.
Corn is considered a CO2 neutral fuel source, since the growing of new corn will use up the amount of CO2 that
burning it could possible produce.

The stove that I have is called the "Auburn" and is made by St. Croix.  I purchased mine from a local grain elevator
called "Penn Acres": Penn Acres

If anyone has any questions about this stove or corn stoves in general, please ask.  They are a great source of heat,
are inexpensive to run, and are very environmentally friendly.


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