Corn stoves for home heating have been gaining in populity at an amazing rate within the last several years due impart to the ever increasing cost of oil and electricy to heat the modern home. Once, a source of heat that was only known in the northern regions of the country and over seas, they have begun to enter the mainstream of our society.
Corn Stoves operate much like a wood or coal pellet stove, which have hoppers to hold the fuel and then have an archimedes screw that delevers the fuel(corn, wood pellets, coal, or wheat) to the burning chamber. Air from outside the home is brought in by an electric blower to add air or Oxygen, which is the second part of the equation to make the corn burn. The third part of the pyramid is heat. Heat is required to make anything burn...a match must be struck or something must ignite. Many corn stoves such as the ones sold by Earthinhandcornstoves.com, require you to start the fire with something other than corn. Corn will not readily burn by itself, so it does need a little help to get started. This can be done by starting the fire with wood pellets, which burn at a lower temperature than corn, or fire starter that would be used to start a camp fire and perhaps some starter gel. Toss in a match for heat go take a shower and come back and your corn stove will be heating your home.
The stoves can run continuously for weeks at a time, needing to be shut down about 1 time per month to clean out the clinkers, which is what is left from the corn burning.
For more information about Corn stoves, visit the blog http://cornstoves.wordpress.com/.