Last winter, I was out on a teamup with the missionaries and we went to visit a family whose house was heated by a corn-burning stove. That’s right; it burned dried corn kernels. It worked great, too; it was probably 80° in their family room. That’s nice to consider when it’s 10° outside. My interest was recently rekindled by this WSJ article that talks about corn-fueled heating. Here’s the kicker:
Calculating the new post-Katrina prices, [Penn State professor Dennis Buffington] figures that to make a million British thermal units of heat it takes $22.64 of heating oil, $33.80 of propane or $16.47 of natural gas. But burning corn can do the job for $8.75. “The truth, in my opinion, is that corn is such a good deal that the data don’t need to be hyped,” he concludes.
The idea of being able to cut a $300/month winter heating bill to $75 or so is awfully attractive. Oh, and the exhaust smells faintly of popcorn.
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