With the rising cost of natural gas and propane taking bigger bites out of budgets, area residents are searching for other ways to keep themselves warm this winter.
“Pellet stoves and corn stoves have been the most popular source of alternative heat in the last couple of years,” said Mark Shook of Waters Tru-Value.
The extreme needs for wood pellets that evolved from Hurricane Katrina last year seem to have abated.
“I think right now that we should have a good supply,” Shook said. “I know last year, they ran out of pellets.”
Shook said that several factors have contributed to the increasing popularity of pellet stoves.
“It burns cleaner, it burns hotter. It comes in bags so it doesn’t have the mess — chips, bark, dirt,” Shook said. “It’s a lot more efficient. It doesn’t take as much to make the heat.”
The wood pellets, about the size of a pencil eraser, come in 40-pound bags that cost around $5 a bag. Shook said that burning pellets represents a savings in time and in money.
“When I was burning wood, I was cutting my own wood,” he said.
That meant investing in a chain saw, owning or obtaining permission to a wooded area to cut the trees, and having access to a truck to haul the logs.
“If you purchase wood, you’re actually paying someone with equipment to go out and cut the wood,” Shook said.
Wood pellets produce a range of 28,000 to 110,000 BTUs and will heat an area up to 2,300 square feet. Shook estimated the free-standing wood pellet stoves cost approximately $1,000 to $1,800, depending on the type of stove chosen.
Ron Goodwin of Goodwin Enterprises in Burns agreed that pellet and corn stoves have been increasingly popular in recent years. The company manufactures grills and distributes corn stoves.
“Corn stoves burn shelled corn instead of wood pellets,” Goodwin said. “It’s a renewable source of energy, not a man-made product,” so the cost of shelled corn is determined by the cost of corn on the agricultural market.
“Corn right now runs about 5 cents a pound,” Goodwin said.
As with all devices that use live fire to generate heat, care must be taken to join each type of fuel with its appropriate stove. Corn, wood pellets or logs generally are not interchangeable in stoves or fireplaces. Some corn stoves will accommodate wood pellets, though the result is not as efficient or effective as it should be, Goodwin said. In most stoves, though, interchanging fuels is not advisable.
“It’s easier to put pellets in a corn stove than corn in a wood stove,” he said. “Corn burns hotter and it takes a different air mixture” than wood. “You will have a few more ashes from your corn stove than the wood.”
He estimated that one bushel of corn or less per day would be needed to heat through the winter months.
Jason Miller, assistant store manager at Sutherland’s, said that he has seen a surge in popularity of both pellet and corn stoves.
“The majority of the purchases are geared toward pellet, then corn as a very close second,” Miller said. “The cost of the fuel is probably the No. 1 factor.”
Corn is inexpensive, he said, but it is essential that corn stove owners use corn fuel that can be burned efficiently. The corn must be clean and Miller recommended using only corn with 10 percent or less moisture content. As the corn stove’s popularity increases, he said he expects that more elevators will begin producing corn especially suited to home heating. Until then, corn fuel is more difficult to find than wood pellets.
Miller said that these new breeds of stoves create much less mess than log-burning stoves and fireplaces.
“The pellet stoves create a little ash pile in the bottom ... that’s very easy to clean. We Shop-Vac ours out once a week,” he said.
Miller said the pellet and corn stoves, like traditional wood stoves, all have instructions for installations and for safety and efficiency purposes, the instructions need to be followed.
“The piping system is different, the clearance is different,” Miller said. “There’s definitely certain precautions that need to be taken.”
Corn also is an option for furnaces, according to Lyle Hayslett of Bluestem Farm and Ranch Supply.
“It can be ducted into the existing ductwork,” Hayslett said, describing a theoretical set-up he could use with his own home furnace. “I could simply run a duct from the top of this corn-burning furnace and hook it right into my supply trunk on the furnace that I have.”
The corn furnace also can be installed as a stand-alone furnace, though Hayslett does not recommend that option.
“They don’t shut themselves off and turn themselves on,” he said. A warm spring day could translate into an exceptionally warm day inside the house. “(Corn furnaces) are continually burning. That’s a slight disadvantage for running it as a stand-alone.”
Fuel for the corn service may be purchased at mills, Hayslett said.
“You can buy corn that’s clean, and moisture is really not a problem because when the farmer takes it in to sell, it’s usually at 15 percent (moisture) or less.”
“Now, if you leave it set out and open and it’s a real moist winter, it’s liable to draw some moisture,” he said.
The corn needs to be screened, before or after purchase, to filter out the dust and debris that can diminish efficiency. Screening usually is done before purchasing, though some people prefer to screen their own corn at home.
“Most people buy bulk and find a way to store it,” he said. “Inside, it shouldn’t be a problem in the winter, anyway. People that store it in the barn, it might be a problem.”
Corn furnaces vent similarly to log-burning wood stoves — out the wall and up. The difference between the two, however, lies in the waste, both in production of ashes and in chimney build-up.
“They do not accumulate creosote. On pellet and corn stoves, there’s very little creosote or creosote-like substances,” Hayslett said.
Biomass fuel inserts, as well as gas inserts, are being manufactured to use in home fireplaces.
Jeff Schelling, hearth representative for Modern Air Conditioning, said that the natural gas inserts are about 80 percent efficient, which far exceeds the efficiency of wood-burning fireplace. Some of the traditional wood-burning fireplaces post negative ratings, with heat lost exceeding the amount of heat generated.
“We’re seeing a lot more interest in corn and wood,” Schelling said. “It’s basically a box that will slide in” the fireplace. Like pellet and corn stoves, the fuel burned in the inserts results in much less debris and ash than logs.
“The pellets are in big demand,” Schelling said. “Some manufacturers are having trouble keeping up.”
He added that corn and pellets may be only the beginning of the transition to alternative heats.
“Down the road they’re going to be turning out ones that burn wheat and cherry pits,” Schelling said. “Technology is changing all the time.”