Pellet/corn stoves OT

Looking for advice and opinions on pellet/corn stoves especially if u own/owned one. Is there really a big $ savings? What did it cost u to heat with it for an average winter, especially if u live in the colder states.

Reply to
Pckstude
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I had an employee at a past company that runs one in SE Michigan. He loved/loves the heat it put out. His father farmed, so the corn was no problem. His only complaint was the feeding mechanism. He said feeding the thing was the pita....you (or someone) had to be there to tend it. He used a grain harvest wagon to store his corn in and then built a feeder tube to the unit. Sounded quite complicated. Jeff

"Pckstude" wrote...

Reply to
Jeff Rice

Living in PA - 100 YO farmhouse. Bought my pellet stove in Jan 2006 Love it.

$200 for a ton O pellets round here. I started out the winter w/ 6 tons and I have a LOT left. House is nice and toasty. Propane furnace kicks on a little, but not very damn often.

I can load slightly less than one 40lb bag into the hopper at a time. Lasts about 8-10 hours depending on how cold it is and where I have the feed rate set.

Much cleaner than buring logs. Much cheaper than propane. (also it's renewable energy- not dependent on foreign Oil, etc)

Vents through side of house in a double wall 2B vent. Clearance to walls is about 6 inches- not obtrusive

Issues I wish I had known aboiut - Noisy SOB. I have gotten used to it. Hear a unit run before buying it. Buy one w/ thermostat Buy one that is corn friendly Buy one with a big hopper.

Harman stoves is a Great name in the industry

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now you know what I know

Mark (warm and happy) Dunning

Reply to
markshere2

plus, no electricity, no heat.. they found that out down here by me..

--Shiva--

Reply to
me

Gimme a plain ol' wood burner anyday!

JT

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

Warning - Long winded post I live in a 30 year old electric heated house in upstate NY. The insulation is good enough that the basement is always cold so we've always had a wood stove in the basement. I've run the wood stove for years to warm the basement and provide heat for the house until I realized that after 50 years of living with wood stoves I had an allergy to the wood smoke. I never bought wood, but just cut it off the front lawn or got it whereever I could. Over the years I've taken meter reading and degree day data and there was little doubt that a constant running wood stove had a positive impact on my electric bill. My garage is not heated so I spend a lot of my winters working on projects in the basement and I wanted it heated. I bought a pellet stove and set it up in the basement. The first winter I stocked the crap out of it and the impact on my heat bill was not measurable. I think I went through 5 ton of pellets at $175 a ton, so I was a loser (by yet another measure). I did a little more research and discovered that a good working convective wood stove will throw off better than 100,000 BTUs of heat an hour, but this pellet stove in "use the most pellets mode" is only good for slightly less than 30,000. In my stove, using more pellets does not necessarily correlate linearly to more heat. I still use the pellet stove, but I can make it through the winter now on between a ton and two tons of pellets ($245 a ton a couple weeks ago) by not trying to heat the whole house, but only the basement. Its comfortable and I don't spend a fortune on pellets. I'm guessing if I moved the pellet stove into the house from the basement that it would make a difference in the house heat. BTW, this stove, a Heritage Bay by Lopi, is painless, low maintainence and quiet. I do have to shut it down twice a week and take about 20 minutes with a shop vac and clean out the ashes. I clean the chimney before I start and mid way through the winter. As far as my garage is concerned, it is uninsulated and I can heat it from 20F to 60F in about an hour with a

120,000 BTU Salamander heater. The pellet stove would be a waste. So heres my recommendation. See if you can understand your heating needs and see if the stove output is close to what you need. A pellet stove could be a great thing especially if you do not have a heat source and you want clean hot air heat to heat a small space like an insulated shop or cabin.. If your heating needs are far beyond the output of the pellet stove, a pellet stove might provide some auxillary heat but will not be enough by itself. I like my stove. Bill

"Pckstude" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@p10g2000cwp.googlegroups.com...

Reply to
Bill Clark

I've had my A-maize-ing heat corn furnace, just over a year now. And I love it. It's my only heat source, it's connected to the duct work,so it heats the whole house. I do have a portable kerosene heater if the electricity goes off.

It uses about 70# of corn a day, to about 112# a day during this last 11 days when it's been single digits daytime and minus double digit nights. I'm in West Central Minnesota. A neighbor has a corner unit and I sold him 200 Bu., each season for the last two years. Price was 2.00/Bu. in 2005. And 2.80/Bu. in 2006.

I'll probable burn around 250 bushels in a season. 56# of corn in a bushel.

It's connected to the thermostat, and gives nice even heat. The basement is about 15 degrees warmer than with the old fuel oil furnace.

As far as tending it goes, it has a 14 bushel hopper (i.e.) about 780# of corn. So that would last a week,at the least. Then once a week I empty the ash drawer,that amounts to almost a five gallon pail full of ash for three weeks.

And as Mark said, if you want a pretty fireplace style corn burner where you can see the flames,it would be hard to beat the Harmon stoves.

Here's a few links that have a lot of answers. Later, Kevin

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Reply to
Kevin Nordstrom

So! You're the one that's driving up the price of tortillas in Texas!

Reply to
Loy Daniel

You hafta wonder... Farmers are paid NOT to produce or subsidized in other instances.

In my small cramped cranium, it would seem that if farmers, (especially the large mechanized variety), were encourage to produce corn, it would soon become cheap and abundant.

In the meantime, I wonder if them thar' deer pellets would burn efficiently???

JT

Loy Daniel wrote:

Reply to
Grumpy AuContraire

the guys in MY state that are making the killing is the alcohol producers for fuel use-THEY get subsidized..

IN THE MEANWHILE.. price of feed corn for the farmers for the milk and beef cattle went WAY up, so, YOU are paying for the alcohol production in higher any meat but fish prices.. which then for SOME reason makes FUEL prices go up, to cover expense on the new higher product, which.. its a nasty circle

--Shiva--

Reply to
me

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