Improving a Pellet Stove

[BrokenTrack]

I got an older, cheap pellet stove that is pretty simple. It just has a hopper, an auger, and then a power draft and room blower. Overall I like it, but found that I can dramatically improve its performance, while lowering its operating cost, by mixing whole corn in with the wood pellets. It took me awhile to find the right ratio, as corn burns way too hot by itself for this stove, but burns really well in a 66% wood Pellet/33% Whole Corn mixture.

Now I am wondering if I can improve its performance and cost efficiency some more by burning coal in it. I am not sure what the ratio would be, but I think by mixing rice coal with wood pellets, I could get the same, or more output of heat, with less consumption of a cheaper fuel source.

Has anyone tried this?
What was the ratio that you mixed the pellets to coal too?
Or did you just burn 100% coal and fuss with the controller to slowdown the auger even more? (I admit I did not do that when I tried to burn straight corn because I found mixing corn/wood pellets was just easier.)

 

[Diggin It]

Most wood stoves I've seen state emphatically NOT to use coal. Not sure if it's a heat issue or the acid in coal.

Doesn't corn add a lot of goo in the smoke stack?

 

[BrokenTrack]

Most wood stoves I've seen state emphatically NOT to use coal. Not sure if it's a heat issue or the acid in coal.

Doesn't corn add a lot of goo in the smoke stack?

I am not sure about "goo", but it does add more ash, but that is easy to take care of.

One concern I had was with moisture content of the corn, but I found out pretty quickly that any moisture dries out pretty fast when the corn is in the hopper. That is why I could easily see raising your own corn to provide heat for a person's house.

I did the math on that, and what little bit it would take to grow your own corn, would really make pellet heat affordable. If a person had an all-corn stove, they could even get their cost down more. I mean if people are going to have a woodlots for firewood, why not dedicate an acre or two for corn to heat their home instead? While you got the tractor out tilling ye ole garden, make a spot for some corn!

I researched making your own wood pellets and that seemed insanely expensive and time consuming, but processing corn in Do It Yourself machinery looked really easy. My thinking was pretty simple: instead of forcing wood into a convenient pellet, burn something that is already at the size needed. Corn and sunflower seeds fit that bill.

I was going to try it this year, but like anything with heat, as soon as the stove is put out for the year, I do not think about it until fall. That, and I had a lot of other things going on this past Spring.

 

[oosik]

I have a Wollenco Pellet Master. It's rated to burn coal, olive pits, wheat, saw chips( not saw dust ) & regular pellets. I suppose it would burn corn. I've tried wheat, coal & wood pellets. Wheat does not make as much heat as regular pellets & there is a LOT of ash. Coal stinks and continued use would probably burn out certain parts of the stove. Coal is HOT.

Wheat is cheap here. However - running a pellet stove with anything is always somewhat of a mess. Pellets are expensive. I haven't burned the pellet stove in over twenty five years.

Electricity is so darn cheap here, completely trouble free, absolutely dead quiet and there is no mess involved.

I've used electric heat for the last twenty five years.

 

[Diggin It]

See, that's what I don't get about the fancy stoves. They all seem to require some other source, usually electric to operate some portion of them. My electric already costs me $70/month or so and I watch every KWHr. Can't imagine it being the sole heat source. My little tiny cast iron box stove gives me most of my heat for nearly free other than elbow grease and some two stroke gas/oil.

Buying pellets and what not seems counter-intuitive. Now, if you can make pellets or use chips or grains, that's a different idea that I could get on board with if the blowers didn't run up the electric too much.

 

[Egon]

With coal the grade used is quite important to the heat produced. Then there are clinkers and the smell outside.

And there are stoves designed to use just coal.

 

[RNeumann]

 

[5030]

See, that's what I don't get about the fancy stoves. They all seem to require some other source, usually electric to operate some portion of them. My electric already costs me $70/month or so and I watch every KWHr. Can't imagine it being the sole heat source. My little tiny cast iron box stove gives me most of my heat for nearly free other than elbow grease and some two stroke gas/oil.

Buying pellets and what not seems counter-intuitive. Now, if you can make pellets or use chips or grains, that's a different idea that I could get on board with if the blowers didn't run up the electric too much.

Typical Pellet stove consumes about 70 watts of juice. If you cannot afford that, you better go live in a tent......

I've been burning a corn pellet mixture for years but we only use the stove as an additional heat source the last few winters as out main heat source is a plus 90 condensing furnace running on cheap propane (cheap here), much lees expensive than pellets or corn per BTU yield an no mess other than changing furnace filters monthly.

This year however, I will be using the stove a lot more (despite new crop corn prices of $4.00+ per bushel). I'm getting my field corn, dried to less than 15% RM for FREE, as much as I want. Planning on filling a couple totes as well as a 500 bushel grain tank.

Corn is nice heat.

 

[Diggin It]

70 watts in continuous use over a period of weeks can add up.

 

[Oaktree]

I did the math on that, and what little bit it would take to grow your own corn, would really make pellet heat affordable. If a person had an all-corn stove, they could even get their cost down more. I mean if people are going to have a woodlots for firewood, why not dedicate an acre or two for corn to heat their home instead? While you got the tractor out tilling ye ole garden, make a spot for some corn!

I researched making your own wood pellets and that seemed insanely expensive and time consuming, but processing corn in Do It Yourself machinery looked really easy. My thinking was pretty simple: instead of forcing wood into a convenient pellet, burn something that is already at the size needed. Corn and sunflower seeds fit that bill.

Sounds like an awful lot of work, even more than cutting/splitting wood for a conventional woodstove. I'd imagine storage would present challenges too...seems like it would be a rodent magnet.