How to burn wood pellets in 2006 Auburn corn burner

[Ssyko]

We got a big storm last weekend 2ft.fri 1.5 sat 10”-12”sat night sun morn. Changed a chevy starter in the snowbank for my father in-law. Now on to the burn, if its not over filling on 4 leave it there if you can the extra air in the path through will help burn chit out. You can hook that convection blower up to the cord Plugging into the wall and run it wide open that would get a lil more heat out of the stove

 

[Rxwoman1961]

We got a big storm last weekend 2ft.fri 1.5 sat 10”-12”sat night sun morn. Changed a chevy starter in the snowbank for my father in-law. Now on to the burn, if its not over filling on 4 leave it there if you can the extra air in the path through will help burn chit out. You can hook that convection blower up to the cord Plugging into the wall and run it wide open that would get a lil more heat out of the stove

Leaving it on 4.
This thing is about to cook me out of the dining room!
Hard to believe. I usually keep the door to the extra bedroom closed this time of year. I had to open it.
My old Siegler is rated 70,000 btus. But it NEVER got this hot. There's no way it's only doing 50,000. It's nice to be able to take a layer of clothes off.

 

[Ssyko]

Its good to hear that!

 

[SidecarFlip]

Eventually, I'll loose but then eventually, we all loose. Life isn't forever and you are dead a long time . I plan on being around as long as possible. I just get to fight a bit harder than most people. Makes me more appreciative of life in general.

 

[SidecarFlip]

We got a big storm last weekend 2ft.fri 1.5 sat 10”-12”sat night sun morn. Changed a chevy starter in the snowbank for my father in-law. Now on to the burn, if its not over filling on 4 leave it there if you can the extra air in the path through will help burn chit out. You can hook that convection blower up to the cord Plugging into the wall and run it wide open that would get a lil more heat out of the stove

I guess it's 'nice' living in the path of the Great Lakes snow machine....lol Isn't SOP for you to get dumped on regularly?

On stove... Think I'd wire the room air blower to a line cord as well and let it run at max rpm. Difference between a central furnace rates at say 110K Btu and a solid fuel stove rated at 50K Btu is, the stove is CONTINUIOUS output whereas the central furnace isn't. The furnace reaches set temp and shuts off and the HX cools off and the blower shuts down and then when the T'stat calls for heat, it has to heat the HX back up to temp to activate the blower and the cycle repeats itself over and over, whereas t solid fuel stove NEVER cools down and the room air blow is blowing all the time, so while a stove might be rated at 50K BTU which is a fraction of what a central furnace outputs, it's CONTINUAL so that 50K is ALWAYS keeping the house heated. Big difference in operation as the stove is constantly heating. That even applies to one on a thermostat, at least one with no auto complete shutdown (like mine, manual light). Mine will revert to the base PPH feed when the T'stat opens but it's still firing and the room air blower is still pumping out heat, just a lower BTU output than at the set by me firing rate.

That all works good for me when it's cold out (like it is now). When it's more temperate out, the continual run can make it a sweat box so my only alternative is lock mine down to continuous idle setting. Problem with that is, it don't fire efficiently and makes more soot and blackens the view glass because the a/f ratio gets wonky. I can live with it after all these years. I just accept it as part of the quirks of using a biomass heater.

 

[Lordtimothy200]

We solve the whole continuous heat thing in the Spring and Fall when it is cold enough for the stove but too warm to keep the stove on. Just open up a window or two. Hate to run the furnace in this house. It was shoehorned into a closet with like 3 vents for the whole 1500 square foot house.

Back when I was young and the parents were not at home, my brother and I found some old creosote wood. House was cold and we were young and stupid (now I am older and still stupid). So threw like 3 pieces of that creosote wood in the wood stove. Didn't take long, even though it was 5 degree's out we had the doors and windows open in the house. The stove and the pipe going up was glowing red, can't believe we didn't burn the house down.

 

[SidecarFlip]

When my wife and I lived in Ohio, many years ago, we heated with an Iron Fireman coal furnace, I love coal heat and a coal furnace will burn anything including old railroad ties but only at night. The smoke from railroad ties is wicked and stinks up the entire neighborhood so it is an after dark deal when no one can see it, They can smell it however. That Iron Fireman would really chug on railroad ties.... You'd have to open the windows in the dead of winter to keep the house below 80.

 

[Rxwoman1961]

Hey guys, we got over a foot of snow on Monday. I was digging out all week.
I hate snow.
But question. How much pellets should this thing be going through. It has an auger trim button with only 2 settings, and I cant really tell any difference between the 2.
The pellets come in 40# bags. More than one bag seems to fit. If I leave this thing running all day ( yes, I can do that now, as long as I poke the burn pot once in a while. YAY!), from when I get up and around, to when I shut everything off for the night, 14-16 hours, it seems like it goes through 3/4 of a full hopper. Is that normal? If I left it on all night I would be empty before morning.
How many pounds should it go through?
How much are you guys using?

 

[SciGuy]

Hey guys, we got over a foot of snow on Monday. I was digging out all week.
I hate snow.
But question. How much pellets should this thing be going through. It has an auger trim button with only 2 settings, and I cant really tell any difference between the 2.
The pellets come in 40# bags. More than one bag seems to fit. If I leave this thing running all day ( yes, I can do that now, as long as I poke the burn pot once in a while. YAY!), from when I get up and around, to when I shut everything off for the night, 14-16 hours, it seems like it goes through 3/4 of a full hopper. Is that normal? If I left it on all night I would be empty before morning.
How many pounds should it go through?
How much are you guys using?

It looks like the Auburn is rated for an input up to 40,000 BTUs/hour. That would be ~ 5 lb per hour or 120 lb i.e. 3 bags per day run at maximum input. The capacity I see says 90lb so you can load ~ 2 1/4 bags in a full hopper. How much you end up burning is a function of how cold it is outdoors, how warm you want it to be indoors and especially how large, well insulated and leaky your house is. I'm burning ~ a bag per day with outdoor night time lows running around -6*F and day time highs in the single digits. This is to heat a small not very well insulated cabin. There really are tons of variables at work here and it's hard to nail down a precise number someone might use.

Hope that helps a bit.

Hugh

 

[Washed-Up]

My P61a goes through a bag a day during -5/-10f, but as said above depends on your house, size insulation etc.

 

[Lordtimothy200]

I will have to look up the manual for pellets but for Corn on heat setting 1 it will go through .8 bushels a day (about 40lb of corn) and on 5 it will burn though 2 bushels a day. That has been my experience.

Expect you will be going through at least 1- 1 1/2 bags a day.

 

[SidecarFlip]

All depends on your level of comfort really. I go through on an average this time of year (cold), about 100 pounds of corn/ pellet mix every 24 hours. So that would be 2.5 bags of pellets. One 'trick' I use to keep my consumption under control is, I run a wick type humidifier all the time but it's expensive because I use either purified drinking water or distilled in 2.5 gallon plastic jugs. I hold my interior RH around 50% all the time and go through about 4 gallons of water every 24 hours. Dry field (shelled corn) burns much hotter than pellets but the drawback is a lot more ash, In as much as I get all my corn for basically free, my only expense is hauling it down here a mile in supersacks and plopping it in the barn but it takes a big farm tractor to move 2.5 ton supersacks. Typically I go through a skid of pellets every winter and I buy them in the summer when I can find them cheaper because most retailers store them outside and rainwater can play hell on bagged pellets. This year I got a deal on pellets and bought 4 ton on skids for just under 200 bucks a ton or 4 bucks a bag, but I have indoor (in the barn) storage so they stay dry and keep for many years. I have I believe, about 6 ton in the barn right now, all shrink wrapped and stuck in the corner, stacked 2 high.

If you get a humidifer get a wick type, not an ultrasonic one. The wick types don't produce white dust (calcium) and the wicks are treated with anti-microbial chemicals. I get about a month out of each wick and then change them.

The higher the RH is, the 'warmer' it feels at any temperature and heat lowers the RH in the winter, The lower the RH is, the more you perspire as your body sheds moisture and that makes you feel colder. Being a nurse you know that your body is basically comprised of liquids and those aspirate through your epidermis.

Keep my ambient temps in the house at around 68 during the day and 65 at night, I dial back the stove a bit when we retire for the night and the bedroom isn't heated. I like to snooze cooler.

It's always dry in the winter inside any home. Dry warm air is hell on your nose too and makes your skin feel like a prune. Being a gal and having prune skin don't work, gals like to be soft, least my wife does...

 

[SidecarFlip]

I will have to look up the manual for pellets but for Corn on heat setting 1 it will go through .8 bushels a day (about 40lb of corn) and on 5 it will burn though 2 bushels a day. That has been my experience.

Expect you will be going through at least 1- 1 1/2 bags a day.

You are running about the same rate I am (a bushel of 12-15% RM corn is about 55 pounds give or take. Only reason I run the pellet mix is to negate the clinker issue. Taken me years to perfect that so I stick with what works for me. Your mileage will vary.

 

[Rxwoman1961]

It looks like the Auburn is rated for an input up to 40,000 BTUs/hour. That would be ~ 5 lb per hour or 120 lb i.e. 3 bags per day run at maximum input. The capacity I see says 90lb so you can load ~ 2 1/4 bags in a full hopper. How much you end up burning is a function of how cold it is outdoors, how warm you want it to be indoors and especially how large, well insulated and leaky your house is. I'm burning ~ a bag per day with outdoor night time lows running around -6*F and day time highs in the single digits. This is to heat a small not very well insulated cabin. There really are tons of variables at work here and it's hard to nail down a precise number someone might use.

Hope that helps a bit.

Hugh

That helps a lot! Thank you.

 

[Rxwoman1961]

Thank you everyone! That helps quite a bit. I thought it was eating pellets too fast, but it sounds like its doing exactly what its supposed to do (for a change). Pellets are about $5.50 a bag right now. No wonder they were burning farmer's corn, it was probably much cheaper.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Thank you everyone! That helps quite a bit. I thought it was eating pellets too fast, but it sounds like its doing exactly what its supposed to do (for a change). Pellets are about $5.50 a bag right now. No wonder they were burning farmer's corn, it was probably much cheaper.

Corn can widely vary in price (and quality as well), whereas pellets are pretty stable. I just happen to get my corn for almost no cost but I'm an exception. Corn around here (from the co-op) is priced per the Chicago Exchange so it varies weekly but it's usually around $5.00-$6.50 a bushel and a bushel of 12% Midwest medium dent field corn weighs around 56 pounds, so it's a tad more than pellets if you have to buy it and of course there is a storage and transport issue with corn that don't exist with pellets. Pellets come in 40 pound sacks, whereas corn is bought in bulk so you need the equipment to handle it or a grain tank to store it in. I'm very fortunate that all mine either comes in Tyvek sacks palletized or in super sacks, but you need a substantial sized tractor to handle 2500 pound supersacks and 2500 pound skids.

If I didn't have a perpetual supply of very dry and cleaned field corn and I had to buy it from the co op, I'd be buying old crop corn in bulk (gravity wagon loads) just before the start of corn harvest in the early fall. That is when elevators like to purge old crop corn and start finning with new crop, which becomes old crop the following year.

Stuff I burn can be 5 years old or more but it's stored in a climate controlled building so it never degrades,

I remember when I started with corn, before I fell into the deal I have now, buying corn at the co-op and having it delivered and augered into my grain tank and then having to clean the organic matter out of it before I burned it, don't do that now. Goes from the sack or bag into the garbage cans, mixed with pellets and on the deck into the stove. Never paid tax on it, because I was feeding the cattle with it too.

 

[rickwai]

Rx,
Have you hooked the vac switch back up yet or is it still bypassed?

 

[Lordtimothy200]

Most years you can go to Orschlens or Tractor Supply around here in Nebraska pre purchase them mid summer ish. You can get them for a nice discount. Then they will be delivered to the store and you can pick up in Oct.

 

[Lordtimothy200]

It is nice if you have an option to do either pellets or corn. Right now to get some from the Coop it is running 5.45 a bushel of corn. Yet in 2019 I had 200 bushels of corn dropped in my grain wagon for $3 a bushel.

I use on average about 200 bushels of corn a year.

 

[SidecarFlip]

Keep in mind that the corn is for the stove AND the steers as well. Tend to feed the steers from the 1000 bushel bulk tank next to the barn.

I always buy my pellets mid summer. The local TSC always has left over pallets out back. I always have the 'associate' pull them from underneath the top pallets, that way there isn't a moisture issue. TSC isn't smart enough to store them inside.

Right now, I have enough for next year in the barn anyway.

 

[rickwai]

I got corn for $4.23. Farmer charges us market price plus $.05/bu. for drying. The TSC pellets in the blue and white bag have been pretty good. I bought a skid sight on seen with my rewards rebate. They were fine

 

[SidecarFlip]

I got corn for $4.23. Farmer charges us market price plus $.05/bu. for drying. The TSC pellets in the blue and white bag have been pretty good. I bought a skid sight on seen with my rewards rebate. They were fine

You are certainly a TSC Neighbors Club junkie and I thought my wife and I bought a lot of stuff there....lol

I think the blue and white bags can be any extruder, packed in TSC generic bags. Our local TSC has them as well as the Michigan Hardwood and same price so I get the MHW pellets. Pretty consistent being made from recycled pallets and timber slash. I like the packaging on the MHW pallets too. The are covered with a double shroud white plastic cover and double shrink wrapped and as long as the TSC 'associate' don't play 'stab the bags' with the forks on the fork truck, all is good. They are good at impaling the bottom bags if you don't watch close. If they stick one, I get another pallet. Not dealing with dribbling pellets....

I stack the MHW pellets on skids, 2 high in the back of the barn and then shrink wrap both pallets myself. Harbor Freight sells shrink wrap rolls cheap. They keep very well.

 

[SidecarFlip]

I got corn for $4.23. Farmer charges us market price plus $.05/bu. for drying. The TSC pellets in the blue and white bag have been pretty good. I bought a skid sight on seen with my rewards rebate. They were fine

I take it that is per bushel (56 pounds). Not bad. Is that in your container (I presume gravity wagon), or is that delivered? If I got it from the co-op it would be a tad higher I suspect. I have a sweetheart deal with mine, all it costs me is the diesel to drive the tractor and pallet forks down the road a mile to fetch it. I do have to return the skids and supersacks which is no big deal.

I was surprised how much the skids cost (and they buy them by the truckload), they are 12 bucks each but they are nice hardwood skids and they have the company name burned into the side rails. Supersacks aren't cheap either but I don't know what the cost per sack is. They get everything back other than the Tyvek bags. I roast them, but most of it comes in supersacks.

Mine is all by the hundredweight, not bushel but don't much care what it weighs, just so long as I have excess in the barn, I'm good with that. Supersacks run 2500 pounds per and bagged on skids are right at 2500 as well.

 

[Rxwoman1961]

Rx,
Have you hooked the vac switch back up yet or is it still bypassed?

Right now its still by passed.
I got to thinking about and wondered "well, what does that switch really do for me, except tell me I have airflow and some negative pressure?"
So I left it off.
I can redo it later today and see what happens.

 

[Rxwoman1961]

Keep in mind that the corn is for the stove AND the steers as well. Tend to feed the steers from the 1000 bushel bulk tank next to the barn.

I always buy my pellets mid summer. The local TSC always has left over pallets out back. I always have the 'associate' pull them from underneath the top pallets, that way there isn't a moisture issue. TSC isn't smart enough to store them inside.

Right now, I have enough for next year in the barn anyway.

I'm a bit leary of storing corn. I dont have a barn (I wish!) Just a shed and chicken coop, both full of junk.
Corn attracts rodents and bugs.
Last summer I bought a bushel bag of cracked corn (thought it was whole corn) for $5.00 to use to chum for carp and catfish.
Well I only used half a bag and then rest sat in a corner on the kitchen floor all fall into early winter.
One day I started noticing tiny moths.... EVERYWHERE.
Blechhh. I finally ended up setting the bag on my porch so it could freeze them out.
I ended up feeding it to the deer that are all over my yard every night.