Al Dykes wrote:

In article G2Apf.638816$_o.438027@attbi_s71,
Dave Lyon wrote:

The only other maintenance is a weekly clean of the small amount of fine
ash
and an annual cleaning of the heat exchanger. Good quality pellets only
have
about 1% ash.


My stove burns corn, or wood pellets, but doesn't self ignite. I get corn
for $80.00 per ton, while local wood pellets started the season at $150. per
ton. I burnt a ton of wood pellets 1st because they were easy to handle in
40 pound bags. I'm now burning corn in bulk because it's cheaper. Corn and
wood pellets have nearly the same BTU's per pound, but the corn is much
dirtier to burn. With wood pellets, I cleaned the ashes about every 4 days.
With corn, it's every day.



How dry is that ton of corn? Water costs, twice, you pay for of on
delivery and you pay for it in the lowered process efficiency, right?

There's lots of woodchips around but they're wet, too. I assume
pellets are a byproduct of some manufacturering process that has
already dried the wood.

It's *real* hard to compare processes accurately. That's important at
a policy level but if you live in a woodlot or have access to corn,
national energy policy takes a back seat.

--
a d y k e s @ p a n i x . c o m

Don't blame me. I voted for Gore.

Believe it or not a couple of corn stoves I looked at required at least
a 15 % moisture content to function properly. It was right in the
brochure. ?? Doesn't really make sense but...


John