What and how do you heat your home and possibly shop during the cold winter months??

[ovrszd]

Thanks for taking the time to put all of that info out there @5030, it is most helpful. It also makes me understand why more people don't use corn stoves. It is a little bit of science and learning curve as well as access to the right corn.

I actually live on/adjacent to my MILs grain farm (under 300 acre, not too big) and I allow the farmers who farm my MILs property to farm mine and they pay her for her acreage and for my little two acres. Don't need it and they help me in otherways, not the least of which is that I don't have to mow that two acres.

I'm still not ruling it out but I do need to do some more research. I could undoubtedly buy my corn at a market price from them. I would need to make sure it is dry correctly so I appreciate that info also. I'm going to talk to them at some point and put the thought out there and see what they say. My guess, they would be all for it and help supply me as long as I pay them what the market rate is.

That's why I'm trying to decipher how much corn is needed? For those that might buy corn on the market, we need a value.

 

[Rustyiron]

Around here, "log length" is the length of the bunks on a tri axle log truck. In the 20' range. I see them every day but never bought a load so I can't testify to the length. It's universally understood (locally) to be around 8 cord.
They'll make it nice neat pile for you with the first 2 logs placed crossways so that the rest of the load is off the ground.

 

[ovrszd]

Around here, "log length" is the length of the bunks on a tri axle log truck. In the 20' range. I see them every day but never bought a load so I can't testify to the length. It's universally understood (locally) to be around 8 cord.
They'll make it nice neat pile for you with the first 2 logs placed crossways so that the rest of the load is off the ground.

Eric, do you know a cost for such a load?

 

[Rustyiron]

I think there up to about $8-900. But I don't think that's delivered to MO

 

[5030]

Thanks for taking the time to put all of that info out there @5030, it is most helpful. It also makes me understand why more people don't use corn stoves. It is a little bit of science and learning curve as well as access to the right corn.

I actually live on/adjacent to my MILs grain farm (under 300 acre, not too big) and I allow the farmers who farm my MILs property to farm mine and they pay her for her acreage and for my little two acres. Don't need it and they help me in otherways, not the least of which is that I don't have to mow that two acres.

I'm still not ruling it out but I do need to do some more research. I could undoubtedly buy my corn at a market price from them. I would need to make sure it is dry correctly so I appreciate that info also. I'm going to talk to them at some point and put the thought out there and see what they say. My guess, they would be all for it and help supply me as long as I pay them what the market rate is.

Not knowing where you are in the Buckeye I cannot say what the local coop price is but here in Michigan (and I presume Ohio as well), You can go on the Net and check current prices, either new crop corn or old crop (last years corn in storage). Keep in mind that in order for any coop or grain storage facility to accept corn, it has to be at 15% RM or less and if it isn't, the facility will dock it because it cannot be tanked over 15% or it will mold in storage. Sometimes it does and why at regular intervals the tanks have to be cleaned inside and that is a dangerous job. Couple workers died at Andersens in Toledo last year cleaning tanks.

 

[5030]

Good stuff. Maybe you mentioned and I forgot, how much corn do you burn per year?

Never gauged it actually. I always have an abundance of it so I don't pay a lot of attention to what I go through. Last year I roasted at least 3 full skids of 50 pound sacks because I always return the skids to the seed house. believe it or not, each hardwood skid costs them 12 bucks. Right now I have one full skid of off grade 'Parent Corn' in 100 pound sacks and 2 supersacks which are a ton each and there is more down there to pick up. Haven't a clue what 'Parent Corn' is. All the same to me. I prefer the stitched closed sacks over the supersacks even though they close up. Damn mice can still get in them so I have to stay vigilant and keep the traps in good order. Corn and mice were made for each other.

 

[5030]

Coal, supplemented by an oil boiler and mini split electric in the house, oil fired.

What is your heating oil at Lou?? Same as off road diesel or more? If I wasn't able to get the free corn and had to buy it and if rice coal was available here, I'd be running rice coal in a stoker stove. it's not however. Live too far west of the hard coal fields.

 

[5030]

That's why I'm trying to decipher how much corn is needed? For those that might buy corn on the market, we need a value.

Richard.. I will say a bushel of 15%RM or less field corn is about 53 pounds and a bag of pellets is 40 pounds and corn makes about 1/3rd as many btu's as wood pellets per given volume. Like I said in the other comment, last year a went through 3 skids of seed corn in 50 pound sacks but we kept the entire house at 72 all the time. This year will be less, more like 68-70. Our issue is the humidity inside. I can turn the house into a desert in a flash so we have to run a humidifier a lot and we have to use bottled water in it because our well water has so much calcium in it, it destroys humidifier wicks in less than a day,. but then I'd have the same issue running the new furnace anyway.

 

[John_Mc]

When I'm around, I heat mostly with wood with a single wood stove in the center of our open floor plan home. (The bedrooms upstairs open onto a balcony hallway running above the wood stove, so leaving their doors open heats them as well.) Our home is very well insulated and sealed. Even so, it's surprising how well a 40,000 BTU stove can heat the place. It won't keep up if the outside temperature is well below 0˚F, but we can stay quite comfortable otherwise.

I harvest all of our firewood from our own land. I enjoy the work, and it's an opportunity to manage the forest for wildlife habitat and to improve the forest structure.

For backup heat or when we are away, sick or just too lazy/busy to deal with the wood stove we have a propane fired boiler driving radiant heat in the floor on the first floor and baseboard heat upstairs. (The basement also has radiant heat in the slab, but we don't run it much.) My wife wants to put in a cold climate heat pump - more for the AC than the heat. When we first moved here more than 20 years ago, there were summers we never put the two window AC units in. In recent years, they've been getting quite a workout. Once the heat pumps are installed, I suspect they will be used for some of our heat as well.

 

[LouNY]

What is your heating oil at Lou?? Same as off road diesel or more? If I wasn't able to get the free corn and had to buy it and if rice coal was available here, I'd be running rice coal in a stoker stove. it's not however. Live too far west of the hard coal fields.

This is the current market pricing, my brother and I did a lock in this spring at $4.04. Volume purchases are getting close to that now.

And then the port prices,