"Dave Lyon" wrote in message
news:3pApf.631698$x96.497631@attbi_s72...

No they don't. Corn stoves are not like normal wood stoves. Most burn
at
around 85% efficiency.

How do they burn at such a high efficiency, Dave? I've never looked into
those things.

--
Ed Huntress



They are a sealed unit. They don't use a traditional chimney, so you're
not
wasting all that heat up your flue. Instead, they use a blower that
controls
the amount of air that is introduced into the fire. Then, the waste gasses
are blown out through a vent in the wall. They also have a series of tubes
inside the burn box that air is blown through to transfer the heat to the
house.

Forcing air into the burn box makes for a very hot flame. My stove has
"fingers" that stir the corn while it's burning that are made from 1/2"
cold
rolled steel. When my stove is on it's highest setting, those fingers glow
red. I get 55,000 btu from a burn box about the size of a half loaf of
bread.

That's interesting. I'll have to take a look sometime. The exhaust sounds
like some of the modern gas furnaces. And stirring the corn sounds almost
like burning in a fuidized bed. Does the air blow through the burning corn,
or over it?

--
Ed Huntress