Purchasing a 226 year old farm, farmhouse, 3500 sq feet. Considering a Biomass 60 gasification boiler to burn whole corn cobs/kernals. I see lots of info on guys burning wood. Anyone burning corn? Also, is there really this much trouble getting these systems dialed in????? From what I read it looks like a real P.I.T.butt! I want to raise my own fuel and save heating costs, but I have a business to run and not tend to boiler issues all the time. Help!
You guys are scaring me!
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Its really not that hard to get it dialed in. Just a little learning curve, but worth the effort. If your really worried about making a couple small air adjustments at first to accommodate your fuel source / moisture, then spend a little more and go with a lambada unit. Corn burners used to be popular, but when the price of corn went up most people found it cheaper to burn wood, coal, or pellets. Also not easy to get dry corn on the cob nowadays. Not many corn pickers or corn cribs left around here.
I would like to try burning corn on the cob just for fun but it's not economically feasible to do on a regular bases for me.
I guess it really depends on your own personal knowledge, and or the knowledge of the people you have available to you during the design and build process..For us here on Long Island there are VERY FEW knowledgable people when it comes to these systems ...you can have a very competent plumber who has installed hundreds of gas and oil fired boilers over the years, ask them to integrate a solid fuel appliance into the system and they are in some new territory....We are getting through it, but for me, it has taken a couple of years to get it working OK, still have many improvements ahead, which will take more time, and money....
Woodmaster- Thanks, that makes me feel better. I am fortunate to be able to grow the corn and the farm has corn cribs on it
Still investigating the process with a farmer to see how much we would have to grow, for him to make it worth his while, and mine. I am excited about the prospect of it anyway.!
Still investigating the process with a farmer to see how much we would have to grow, for him to make it worth his while, and mine. I am excited about the prospect of it anyway.!Genecop- Thanks, that's my concern here too! I am looking to use this as my only heat sourse, but I see lots of you guys have it in tandem with other systems. Is that a mistake on my part??
The learning curve can be very minimal if you have an experienced gassifier person to teach you the basics or to mentor you a bit. The best example is at Deep Portage, where everyone was inexperienced, and with just a little guidance staff had it down to a T with a Wood Gun gasifer, a Garn and a Froling lamda boiler. Design it right, plumb it right, have the right storage, have well seasoned wood, and a mentor and you are good to go.
As J said, those 5 things , and the $ to purchase a high end gasifier, and yea you can get dialed in quickly, remove any one of those assets, and the dial in time will grow. As far as having one heat source, if you never plan on leaving town for the weekend in the winter, you will be OK.
I use mine as a stand alone system. I do have a couple electric heaters in the house that could be used if the boiler broke to keep stuff from freezing. If I go on vacation I fave a friend come and fire it once a day.
LF, I presume by now you've read the BioMass sticky. Keep in mind that the vast majority of folks show up here to do research and get help debugging their systems. You'll see lots of examples in that sticky of folks showing up for 1-2 posts, get squared away, and you don't hear from them again (unless they become boiler geeks then they hang around because they enjoy this community, like yours truly). Also because of the Biomass's price point it attracts the DIY'r... like myself, this often results in even more debugging and posts here... like myself. You'll see far fewer Froling, Vigas, Effecta users post here for help because of the boiler's technology and dealer support afforded by their higher price point. I received thousands of dollars free advice from the guys here to get my BioMass system designed and squared away. Had we purchased a Froling, etc I'd probably have a much closer relationship with a dealer than the guys here. The BioMass for us was an excellent "starter" boiler because it was really unclear if we'd be able to sustain or enjoy tending a wood boiler. No regrets, but now after 6 years of wood burning experience, I'd probably spend the extra $3-4K and move up in the boiler food chain if I did it all again. You're going to spend a lot of time with this appliance and the additional money spread over a 10-15 year lifetime isn't much and really not a big percent increase to the total system cost. Our home is 1850's, drafty, 5,000 sf, but in a much milder climate. This is our first year running storage with our 60 and I should have had storage from day one. Storage is even more important for us in the South. Yesterday was 60F so we heated most of the day off stored energy. Go find someone within an hour's drive who has one of the well known gasification boilers here to see and touch their system. Sorry I got so long winded. Don't let all the issues you read about here scare you... this site is the "911 for Boilers" help line for those of us without real dealer support.
Now if you need advice for tending and caring for an old house, that's something my wallet and I know a lot about. Enjoy the research and go slow. Picking the boiler is just one of many decisions. Best wishes.
Now if you need advice for tending and caring for an old house, that's something my wallet and I know a lot about. Enjoy the research and go slow. Picking the boiler is just one of many decisions. Best wishes.
My boiler was plug and play for corn. I installed an aux bin and auger this year. Just pull the wagon with auger around ever 2-3 weeks and fill up. I have tended to forget it is out there.
Still need to empty ash and brush the heat exchanger every week. Empty ash twice on cold weeks.
If you search on my name I have a couple pics posted.
When corn was high I sold the corn and bought pellets.
Still need to empty ash and brush the heat exchanger every week. Empty ash twice on cold weeks.
If you search on my name I have a couple pics posted.
When corn was high I sold the corn and bought pellets.
Same experience here with my Central M175, except I mothballed it when corn hit $7+ and bought a Vigas 80LC and burn wood now. I sold it for $3k - of course corn is now at a reasonable price again ( my timing stinks )
Given your apprehension on how much time this takes - think this thru very closely. Unless you are a tinkerer and like spending time on this kind of stuff you will regret a solid fuel choice. Financially you will be much better off selling the corn as shell corn and using all of the extra hours you'll save on your business or some other endeavor and heat with gas.
rough guess if your house takes 200,000,000 btu/yr to heat your going to burn 500 or 600 bushels of corn, or a bit more than half a crib full ( assuming they are a standard 14' wire crib ). I'm not shure how you are handling it, but cob corn is a PITA to move compared to shell. If your neighbor is set up, it may be best to crib it for 8 months till dry, hire him to shell it and put it in a 15 ton hopper bottom grain tank like I had hooked to my Maxim. I never touched a kernel as it was augered right into the maxim hopper.
Given your apprehension on how much time this takes - think this thru very closely. Unless you are a tinkerer and like spending time on this kind of stuff you will regret a solid fuel choice. Financially you will be much better off selling the corn as shell corn and using all of the extra hours you'll save on your business or some other endeavor and heat with gas.
rough guess if your house takes 200,000,000 btu/yr to heat your going to burn 500 or 600 bushels of corn, or a bit more than half a crib full ( assuming they are a standard 14' wire crib ). I'm not shure how you are handling it, but cob corn is a PITA to move compared to shell. If your neighbor is set up, it may be best to crib it for 8 months till dry, hire him to shell it and put it in a 15 ton hopper bottom grain tank like I had hooked to my Maxim. I never touched a kernel as it was augered right into the maxim hopper.
Why didn't you burn pellets for the 1.5-2 years corn was high?
I don't have the time for cord wood so this isn't an option for me.
New here just saw this post. Corn on the cob is a great btu source. Per pound there is just as muck energy in the cob as the kernel. I have an eko 40. Get it going with dry wood then dump in the corn on the cob. I grow flint corn for Halloween and plant extra for heat. I save my own seed and fertilize at 400 pounds an acre. 5 acres cost about 600$ in expenses. Not sure how many acres I need to get a season still playing. I wait till the corn is dry on the stalks and pick into a bin wagon. I took 5 gallon buckets and bolted on a chunk of stove pipe to make a spout. I dump in 3 buckets at a clip and top it off with wood that has a little bit of moisture in it also save the brown paper grocery bags and fill them and throw it in. The corn fuses together to form a brick like chunk and that gasses like a rocket.
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