Corn burner or wood burner?
 

LP costs have gone thru the roof. We decided to go and get a stove to heat the house or at least a big supplement of the heating.
Well, We might have the stove put in the basement and have it piped into the existing duct work and to keep the mess out of the house. Wife wants one in living room so she can sit next to it when it is 0*F out side. (Shes from Texas, she HATES the cold).
Im leaning towards a corn burner. I live in IOWA. We "Got Corn". I know it is at an all time high of over $6/bushel, but it is always cheaper at harvest time. All I have to do is pull a wagon over to any farmer, fill it, park it in shed, open gate of back, Throw a bucket in a day and Im done.
No chainsawing, splitting, hauling, stacking, hauling inside, clean up mess, go get more wood.
Plus Ive been told that a wood stove ups your house insurance big time, if they even cover it at all. (Im calling my agent today)
What do you think?
Any experience with either one?

Brother just put in a corn stove insert couple years ago and it was a great cheap heat source when corn was in the 2-3 dollar range but now that it is up to 6 and 7 dollars he is looking at going back to a wood stove. The corn stove worked great and only used about 1 bushel a day with great heat little harder to start but not bad. I still have a wood stove in the basement and like it but it is a big stove and I can fill it up once in morning and night and be good with it plus I back a big trailer load of wood in my basement and just burn it off the trailer so that its not as much of a hassle you do still have the mess but i just sweep it right out the door when i pull the trailer out. If I had to buy the wood and then do all of the work to it I would say corn is way to go but since I have a free supply of wood off the farm its not worth me switching over. DId see one of the best woodsplitter ideas on you tube the other day was a guy mounted one upside down on the end of a backhoe and plumed the lines in so that he could move and split wood and never get off the backhoe so im in the process of making one for a small excavator now.

LOL, I was going corn, went wood.

Now I am seriously considering a heat pump, electricity is cheaper than either wood or corn........

My uncle has corn and loves it. We raise corn around here also so it doesn't cost him much. He made a small silo out of 2 55 gallon drums stacked on top of each other in his garage so he can just open the little door and fill a bucket easily.

One thing to keep in mind with corn is mice and birds are atracted to it so you want some way to keep them out.

Got a word burning stove at all of our properties. Never an issue with insurance. We have 50 acres of land so wood is free. All winter long the heat runs mayb 10% of the time, the rest of the time the wood burning stoves heat everything right down to our shed. If I didn't have the land I might lean towards something else, but wood burning stoves are a way of my life and reg. heat just don't feel the same to me anymore. The same temperature just doesn't feel as "warm" to me.

I'm partial to the corn stoves, burn just under 200 bushel a year to heat the house. House is just over 2k square ft. Here is a pic of my corn stove, its an American Energy Countryside. This will be my Fourth year heating with it. While corn has gone up, so has everything else, so the savings are about the same. For me between 1/3 and 1/4 the cost for the winter.

https://www.dieseltruckresource.com/...7&ppuser=18881

Stove only took about 2 1/4 heating seasons to pay for itself over propane. Problem is the first year was under $550 dollars to heat the house, If corn goes back up to 6 dollars/bushel, it will cost me around $1200 to heat the house, at the current price of $5, I,m right at $1000. This is also keeping the house at 72-74 instead of 67-68. So I'm cheaper AND warmer!!

All that said, I would still like to have a small wood stove in addition to the corn stove in case of extended power outages. But my wood stove would also have to have a cook top, need more than just heat in extended outages. Typical corn/pellet stoves should burn less than 400 watts so a large generator is not needed to keep'em going, but would be a pain in the rear for extended periods of time.

I you do decide on corn, make sure that it is a multi fuel stove. Don't want to be stuck out of corn and cant run if a quick trip to the store could net you some wood pellets. Also don't want to rely on pellets only, could have a shortage. Remember, you get what you pay for. Compare the cheep stoves to some better ones, you will quickly see where the price differences are. Also check on spare parts prices and availability.

If you have questions, PM me and I'll get you a number. I am a American Energy dealer but I could NOT sell to you ( have to service what we sell and you are too far away, so I am NOT advertising ) but I will help with answers if I can.


DuaneW.

if you have access to wood and don't mind busting your butt (cutting, blocking, splitting), a wood stove is always the way to go. the only way i'd go with the corn stove is if the corn is free or really cheap.

to show my stoopidity, do corn stoves burn the actual corn or the chaff?

They burn the corn itself and uses a fan to force air in and keep it going.

Last winter i heated my home 80% with just using my wood stove insert and pellet stove. Oil prices are just too high for me to get my two tanks filled.
I burned just less than a ton of pellets and about 2 cords of wood. I too get my wood for free.