Corn Stoves

The past 2 winters I have used corn, wheat or rye to heat my shop (40X56) and my old farm house.
I am using some old Dovetec corn stoves I picked up at an auction. The stove in the house is putting out about 24000BTU to 30,000BTU /hour and does about 60% of my heat load on the coldest days.

My neighbour (a farmer and Mechanical enginneer) and I have modified the units to run under vacuum and installed homeade plate heat exchangers to increase the stoves eff. to around 96%. The exhaust is comming out well under 100 degrees F.The exhaust used from the back of the exchanger is PVC pipe. No smoke or smell when the door is open and I can run waste grain to heat. I have a seed company that gives me old stock and other farmer give me the tail end of old bags or treated seed.

The grain stoves are great no wood to split, stack, cut haul.There is no ash or smoke either just a CLINKER to remove once a day (and its fertilizer).I put the grain in small gravity box wagons for storage and moved it to the house/shop in pails. 1 load per week about 9 bushels.

This year I plan on making a vacuum delivery system, to draw the grain into a small storage tank. No more pails.

Congratulations on your yankee ingenuity.

Anyhow, all that I see on the market are glass front gold trim, look more like a fireplace for a livingroom. I'd prefer an industrial type unit, no frills or looks, just sit in the basement with a good sized hopper. Anyone make something like that? Don't want a fireplace, I want a heat producer!

--->Paul

Ja-Ran is another company that produces a forced air corn/grain furnace, I am waiting for a brochure about them. Traeger Industies also produces a couple good sized units with the added capaability of heating water for washing etc. You can e mail Ja-Ran ( Randy@ja-ran.com) they are out of Lexington Michigan, I believe. I find the use of grain etc a very interesting topic, there are many different areas this type of fuel could be used. There is a large Green House industry in this area and the rising cost of nat. gas. has growers looking at Bio Mass fuels to heat their green house operations.

I need the shaft of the auger. It connects with the motor. Mine is all rusted and we still need heat here!!! Also the round spacer that goes around the auger staft.

Pls respond as soon as you can.

Thanks, Charrie