Hello everyone. I'm looking into the possibility of getting a corn boiler so I can get away from my aging extremely inefficient oil boiler. I'll start with a little background...
We just purchased the house this past November. It's our first home and we hope to spend at least 15-20 years here before we build our "dream home". The house was built mid 1930s but has been updated a lot and had additions added on over the years. Insulation is moderate to pretty good depending on what section of the house your in. Roughly 1700 sqft one story. Half basement half crawl space. Oil boiler resides in the basement. I have been slowly working on increasing insulation to basement walls and around the rim joist and even the attic.
I have a detached 2 car garage roughly 20-25 ft from the house that is insulated but needs some TLC. But it will be receiving a completed overhaul over the next 2 years.
Now that I've got all that out of the way on to what I'm really here about...
I'm burning between 175-225 gallons of fuel oil every 3-3.5 weeks. It's insane. Luckily fuel is cheap this winter and temps have been unseasonably warm here. I knew the boiler was a problem when we bought the place. But I had ideas in the back of my head to solve the problem. I've insulated the hot water pipes and had the boiler serviced by trusted pros who tell me it's just old and isn't burning efficiently at all. While we will limp through the remainder of this so called winter, this summer a new system will have to take over the heat demand.
This brings me to the possibility of a corn boiler. My main reason behind one is the fact that I can get free corn in unlimited amounts. It is dirty corn but very dry. After a little googling I found a few different types of machines to clean the corn fairly easily. The idea of having free fuel is very enticing. Other than cleaning it there isn't much work involved to the supply end of things which is a bonus.
I would ideally like to put the boiler in the garage and run underground lines to the house. It's not that far of a run so it shouldn't be too bad. With the boiler in the garage I can either build some kind of storage hopper for corn or I've looked into buying a used grain bin for corn storage. Would like to run a auger from storage to the inside of the garage too. I have a small Woodstove in the garage currently but I'd take that out and use its chimney for the boiler.
I've been eyeballing the A-maize-Ing Heat brand boiler. I can't seem to find a whole lot about them online from owners perspective. A few scattered reviews here and there seem to be majority positive which leads me towards possibly giving it a go.
Anyone out there have any experience with the A-Maize-Ing heat or another corn boiler I should be looking into as well? I appreciate any info or feedback!
We just purchased the house this past November. It's our first home and we hope to spend at least 15-20 years here before we build our "dream home". The house was built mid 1930s but has been updated a lot and had additions added on over the years. Insulation is moderate to pretty good depending on what section of the house your in. Roughly 1700 sqft one story. Half basement half crawl space. Oil boiler resides in the basement. I have been slowly working on increasing insulation to basement walls and around the rim joist and even the attic.
I have a detached 2 car garage roughly 20-25 ft from the house that is insulated but needs some TLC. But it will be receiving a completed overhaul over the next 2 years.
Now that I've got all that out of the way on to what I'm really here about...
I'm burning between 175-225 gallons of fuel oil every 3-3.5 weeks. It's insane. Luckily fuel is cheap this winter and temps have been unseasonably warm here. I knew the boiler was a problem when we bought the place. But I had ideas in the back of my head to solve the problem. I've insulated the hot water pipes and had the boiler serviced by trusted pros who tell me it's just old and isn't burning efficiently at all. While we will limp through the remainder of this so called winter, this summer a new system will have to take over the heat demand.
This brings me to the possibility of a corn boiler. My main reason behind one is the fact that I can get free corn in unlimited amounts. It is dirty corn but very dry. After a little googling I found a few different types of machines to clean the corn fairly easily. The idea of having free fuel is very enticing. Other than cleaning it there isn't much work involved to the supply end of things which is a bonus.
I would ideally like to put the boiler in the garage and run underground lines to the house. It's not that far of a run so it shouldn't be too bad. With the boiler in the garage I can either build some kind of storage hopper for corn or I've looked into buying a used grain bin for corn storage. Would like to run a auger from storage to the inside of the garage too. I have a small Woodstove in the garage currently but I'd take that out and use its chimney for the boiler.
I've been eyeballing the A-maize-Ing Heat brand boiler. I can't seem to find a whole lot about them online from owners perspective. A few scattered reviews here and there seem to be majority positive which leads me towards possibly giving it a go.
Anyone out there have any experience with the A-Maize-Ing heat or another corn boiler I should be looking into as well? I appreciate any info or feedback!
