Does the house smell like popcorn?
No not at all... you can smell a semi-pleasant burning in the immediate area of the furnace when you open the
door of the furnace ans soemtimes when the wind is right and the fire is right you can smell that same odor outside.
Where did you get your furnace?
From the people at Helm's Corn Heat in Milton Illinois (217) 723-4238. They're a married couple who currently run their
business out of their garage and were very nice and helpful. They freely told me about the downside to burning corn and
I never felt like they were lying to me or trying to sell me. Give them a call, I'm sure they'd be glad to answer any
questions.
Do you burn the whole ear?
Nope just the kernels. We burn #2 feed corn, not seed corn (seed corn is coated with stuff to make it grow better).
Where do you get your corn?
From a grain elevator about 8 miles from our house. A farmer friend of ours has offered to "take care of us" and
we're going to take him up on whatever offer he makes.
Did you design this website?
Yes, but it hasn't gone through my typical testing/proofreading/design phase. I do at least try to have
a life and this website is kind of a hobby. I'll make correctons and additions as time goes on if the site
gets any traffic.
Which is better a stove or a furnace?
We like our furnace but we have a ventless gas log in the front room that we really like too. If we didn't have the gas log a corn stove would have been nice. A stove is much easier to install but I have to think that stoves would be more trouble to operate but probably more efficient. If your house is farily open and you can get the heat from a stove evenly distributed, I'd probably choose a stove. It just depends on your situation.
What's the downside to burning corn?
Well it's certainly not as easy as gas or even fuel oil but it is way easier than cutting/splitting/carry in wood. There's also slight fear of the fire going out when we're away that you don't really have with gas. It can be dusty and some people are allergic to the corn dust. Corn is heavy and it takes mass quantities to heat a home for a season.
Feel free to ask questions and I'll do my best to answer them. Most
of your questions are probably already answered in the forums at Iburncorn.com
Last edited Dec 10 2005
