Corn-burning stoves show environmental, financial benefits...

Associated Press

FITHIAN, Ill. – Walk past Dave and Lisa Davis’ house in the winter and you’ll detect a light, sweet smell in the air, a scent similar to that of popcorn cooking on a stove.
 

That’s the smell of a corn-burning stove working to keep their home toasty warm.
 

Corn-burning stoves, furnaces and fireplace inserts are economical and clean-burning, provide an additional market for corn farmers and can reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, proponents say.
 

The Fithian couple has been using and selling corn-burning stoves since winter 2000-01, when natural gas prices were high and the temperatures were often below freezing.
 

“We were completely amazed,” Lisa Davis said of the first time they used the stove.
 

Added Dave: “It’s cheaper to heat and easier to install than a wood-burning stove.”
 

Depending on the size of your home, it will cost you about $2.50 a day to heat your home for 24 hours a day with a corn-burning stove, furnace or fireplace insert, Dave Davis said. “This year it’s a bit higher because the price of corn is higher,” he said.
 

After they were sold on corn-burners, the couple started a business, Alternative Heating Systems, to sell the products.
 

“Every year is getting better. As long as gas prices are strong, we’ll be doing good,” he said.
 

Their stoves range in price from $500 to $2,700. The stoves produce about one cup of ash every 24 hours and require daily cleaning that takes about five minutes. All have blowers to distribute heat, and some connect to thermostats. Some feature automatic lighters. They can heat single rooms and a house or shop up to 3,000 square feet.
 

“On a BTU basis, it is cheaper,” said Paul Mariman, an educator with the University of Illinois Extension in Macon County.
 

A bushel of corn has about the same potential energy as 4 gallons of propane, Mariman said. According to a study he conducted on corn as a nonethanol fuel in 2001, a bushel of corn produces 352,800 BTUs, compared with 100,000 BTUs per Therm of natural gas and 91,500 BTUs per gallon of propane. (BTU is the amount of energy needed to raise the temperature of 1 pound of water one degree Fahrenheit).
 

If you are considering buying a corn-burning furnace or stove, review its efficiency rating and compare it to the one on your current stove or furnace, Mariman said. If you recently purchased a gas furnace or installed a wood stove, it may not be cost-effective to install a brand new corn-burner, he said.
 

Users will have to purchase corn from farmers, a grain elevator or feed store. The burners run on yellow or white field corn, the same kind that goes into producing ethanol.
 

Once the corn is purchased, you need a place to store it on your property, Mariman said.
 

If you heat your home for 24 hours straight, expect to burn about one bushel of corn.
 

Don Magelitz of Waverly stores his corn in bulk feed tanks and has it transferred to his corn-burning furnaces through augers.
 

His company, Biomass Heating Systems, has been manufacturing corn-burning furnaces, stoves and boilers since 1983. He is currently working with another manufacturer on developing an air-conditioning unit to cool homes using 4 pounds of corn per hour and 25 watts of power.
 

“The thing about corn is it’s nonpolluting and it’s renewable after 90 days,” Magelitz said.
 

When corn burns, no greenhouse gases are produced, unlike fossil fuels, which produce sulfur dioxide, Mariman said.
 

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Sunday, December 7, 2003