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The Corn Pellet Stove - a Brief Explanation

A corn pellet stove is one of several types of pellet stoves - kitchen appliances that burn either wood pellets or biomass pellets that are fed into a burning pot. These pellet stoves are used in residential and even industrial sites mostly for heating and sometimes even for cooking. They can be free-standing or they can be inserted onto fireplaces and vented towards a chimney. The use of biomass matter for pellet stoves and heaters came about as a result of the global fuel crisis that necessitated the use of alternative and renewable sources of energy.

Fuel for pellet stoves

Users of pellet stoves utilize cherry pits, sunflower seeds, even wheat as biomass fuel, but a lot of these pellet stoves' makers opt for the use of another biomass fuel - corn. While wood may be the original choice, and the other seeds and pits additional choices, most pellet stove users swear by corn pellets. Pellet stoves that are specifically made to use corn pellets are becoming more and more in demand because they have been proven to be more fuel efficient and less maintenance-intensive. Although a corn pellet stove looks almost exactly like a wood pellet stove, the former usually does not require a chimney as it is highly efficient. It can simply be vented through pipes to an outer wall. As such, corn pellet stoves may be used to heat almost any room in a house.

How it works - the basics

Like any other pellet stove that has a hopper, auger, blower, firebox, vacuum, and control box, a corn pellet stove feeds the biomass pellets from the hopper through the auger or screw onto the firepot. The auger is used to control the heat. The blower is used for combustion and exhaust as it blows combustion air over the pellets and forces smoke outdoors. The stove mechanisms allow for efficiently clean performance. The intense heat that is produced by the stove is highly concentrated. The convection blower and heat exchangers allow for the circulation of the heated air towards living or cooking spaces.

The use of corn pellets ensure clean, pollution-free burning so that chimneys are no longer required for the corn pellet stove. A vent from the stove towards a window or opening outdoors will suffice. With its highly combustible nature, the use of corn in the pellet stove enables the heating of average-sized homes on less fuel, and less money spent for fuel of course, compared to other traditional and conventional fuels. Like a traditional furnace, a corn pellet stove is combustion-based - burning the corn pellets and warming up the surroundings as heat radiates from the flames. The secret is in the gradual feed of the corn pellets through the hopper, allowing for consistent heat which is not possible if the biomass fuel lot is simply dumped onto the fire. The larger the hopper, the longer the stove is able to continuously burn to provide long-term heating.

Another aspect of the corn pellet stove's efficiency is the heat-exchanger inside the furnace. The heat exchanger, like that in a gas-furnace, extracts heat from the exhaust. The result is a more efficient heating system that allows for more space areas to be heated for less fuel consumption. It will only be a matter of strategically positioning the corn pellet stove in a residential or industrial structure to get the optimum heat from the contraption. Facility of locating is addressed easily as the stove is simply vented, no need for a chimney, so that smoke exhaust is forced outdoors.

Over and above the efficiency is the environmental issue. There are a lot of contentions that corn is a cleaner fuel, with less harmful emissions than traditional wooden fuel. Burnt corn leaves less ash, reportedly, less than the ash resulting from burning wood of equal quantity to the corn fuel. The construction of a corn stove pellet also allows for the ability to push ash out of the stove's top towards a pan for easy emptying. The fire is thus allowed to burn continuously for a consistent, continuous heating. Then there is the safety issue, where fire is more controllable in a corn pellet stove, and outside areas are shielded and protected through the use of the blower that has an effect similar to bellows where despite hotter flames generated, the flames are confined to the stove area and are in no danger of accidentally touching on external or surrounding combustible materials.

With all these advantages of a corn pellet stove, including efficiency, economy, environmental-friendliness, and safety, a lot of residential and industrial users prefer it over the traditional wood-fed stoves.

About the Author

About Author:
Stephanie Larkin is a freelance writer who writes about topics concerning alternative heat sources such as Wood Stoves | Pellet Stoves

Questions about Wood Auger

Help! Coal stove/pellet stove, switched from coal to pellets?

I have an Alaskan model 140 w/ auger. I usually burn rice coal but my coal dealer is out until this weekend. This model stove can burn either rice coal, or wood pellets. Do I need to do anything different when burning pellets? I threw some "test" pellets in, the flame is very high compared to burning coal. If you don't have details, or don't know about this subject please don't answer, I really need ligit info.

I saw on the Coal Forums that a guy just tried it and it burnt back into the hopper and had a hopper fire and made a real mess.

I would check with Alaska Stoves to see what needs changed or adjusted to burn pellets.

What kind of drill bit should I use?

I'm trying to remove a stump in my backyard, and I need to drill 1" diameter holes up to 10" deep and then fill them with stump remover, but I'm having problems drilling the hole.

The largest bit I had was only about 1/4", and obviously that didnt work too well. It resulted in a broken drill bit and holes too small.

I went to the hardware store and bought a 1" auger bit, but its not getting the job done. It's just burning the wood and not drilling much of a hole.

Any suggestions on what kind of bit to use?
The drill was NOT in reverse, but I switched to a slower speed drill, and abandoned any attempt to drill down the top of the stump. The slower speed drill combined with drilling at the bottom near the ground seemed to work well. Thanks all for your input

1-1/4" auger bit in either a right angle(old school) drill or a "Hole Hawg" made by Milwaukee. drill straight down from the top of the stump. -The point of the auger is that it has scew trhreads at the tip which cause it to really dig into the wood, so you'll have to throw it into reverse to get it back out.- Then drill at about 45 deg. angle from the sides of the stump down to meet the holes from the top. Fill them up with the salt peter, and then water. The drill your using, probably just doesn't have enough torque to run an auger bit into a tree stump.
A spade bit wont "bite into the wood and will just burn your drill motor up.

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