Corn Furnaces make national news

Joseph Gwinn · 2005-12-19T03:16:00+00:00

There was an article on page B1 of the 12 December 2005 issue of The Wall Street Journal, "Demand Pops for Furnaces That Burn Corn". Basic point is that corn costs less than ordinary fuels (which has to be a consequence of farm subsidies, one would think). They also tell of discouraging someone living in an apartment on the 33rd floor of a Manhattan apartment building from getting a corn furnace, if for no other reason that cheap corn isn't exactly common outside of the corn belt.Joe Gwinn

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jw 20 years ago

Part of that it is due to depressed pricing. There has been little motivation to sell corn at a loss and prices never reached an attractive point. This year due to Katrina, transportation become an issue so "old" corn never moved. With old crop still in the bin, new crop had to go somewhere.

You are right that it would definitely be more cost effective to burn than to watch it go to waste in piles. It varies on size of the pile and location etc, but it not unheard of to have 10% shrinkage(term for lost grain for whatever reason), on outdoor piles.

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jw 20 years ago

You are right. Generally it is ground that is of little use to actually be farmed anyways, but it is still done. The theory is/was to limit production to help increase the price. With ever improving genetics this has not really worked out that well. I really don't agree with it. Many of those I know that have ground in CRP are not farmers. They are city people that own really rough ground(ie scenic), but somehow qualifies for CRP. They collect the check with no intention of ever growing a crop regardless.

JW

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john 20 years ago

formatting link

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Dave Lyon 20 years ago

Thanks.

I wonder how they get around the dangers of using seed corn. It's got pesticides and stuff sprayed on it. Suppose the existing scrubbers take care of the problem? Or, are they just not burning enough of it to be a problem?

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tomcas 20 years ago

That last part about discouraging use in Manhattan high rise apartments is humorous. I could be wrong but I think it's doubtful that anyone, in any high rise Manhattan apartment building, has any choice, say, or care about the source of heat for their apartment, regardless of the availability of corn in NYC.

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Martin H. Eastburn 20 years ago

Maybe a solar array! Martin Martin Eastburn @ home at Lions' Lair with our computer lionslair at consolidated dot net NRA LOH & Endowment Member NRA Second Amendment Task Force Charter Founder

Steve wrote:

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Steve 20 years ago

Hmm! how well will a solar array work during a "Blackout"??

Seriously. Anytime I have experienced a prolonged loss of power, it has been at night and/or stormy weather.

I thing the best source of back up power for any heating system, requiring power, is a generator. Batteries and invertors can only last a very limited period of time with a pellet stove because of the blowers and igniter. True, a very basic stove will operate with out the igniter but you still need at least two blowers (one combustion and the other for heat distribution or you risk burning up your heat exchanger.)

I don't have a home generator but I do have an old (broken down) motor home with a very good generator. Starts everytime and I just run an extension cord directly to the frig and stove.

Steve

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daniel peterman 20 years ago

I've been using my fireplace latley just to take the chill off and I know about 75% 0f the heat is just going up the chimney. Part of the main double walled stack is exposed near the raised ceiling for abot 3 feet. Is there a safe way to tap into the galvanized stack and install some sort of heat exchanger with a blower to improve efficiency? I've done some web searching but found nothing for a double wall stack. Thanks dan

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Dave Hinz 20 years ago

Well, yes, but. The cooler you make your chimney, the faster the creosote will build up. So you can extract heat from the exhaust gas (well, that's what it is) just by adding fins and a fan to the outside of the galvanized chimney inside the house, but get it too cold and the creosote will condense and stick, rather than go up and out. I'm sure someone here can give you that temperature off the top of their heads, otherwise google knows.

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