How to Heat Corn Burners
If you've been heating your house with a wood-burning stove, you may want to consider the more convenient alternative: a corn burner. Corn contains oil and ethanol, fuels that produce heat when burned. Corn is a renewable fuel,and it can be grown much more quickly than wood. In addition, unlike a wood stove, you do not need to stoke a corn burner. Heating a corn burner is simple. Here's how. Does this Spark an idea?
Instructions
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Choose quality corn for your burner. You can buy high-quality corn from a farmer or a feed supply store. Although any corn will born, higher quality corn will give off much more heat as it burns.
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Pour a 50-lb. bag of corn into the hopper of the burner. This amount of corn should burn for about 24 hours.
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Add wood pellets or starter gel and light with a match. You do not need to supervise the fire or stoke it while it is burning.
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When the fire finishes burning, use a metal tool to prod the leftover "clinker" to the side of the fire box. Clinker is the sugary residue left behind after the corn burns.
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When the clinker cools, crumble it. You can then add it to your compost heap or use it as fertilizer.
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Tips & Warnings
Because the auger in a corn burner uses electricity, corn burners cannot be used during power outages. You may wish to invest in a secondary source of heat, or to buy a battery backup for your corn burner.
Do not touch the door or window of your corn burner. Although most of the exterior of the burner is cool to the touch, the door and window can burn your skin if they are touched.
