Corn as a Fuel, and it is a Bad Thing?

Recently, I was re-reading the Laura Ingalls Wilder books about life on the prairie. I find the whole series fascinating, but one line in particular jumped out at me: about farmers burning their corn to stay warm. I had heard that it was also done during the Great Depression, but it isn't something that I researched. It was just a little nugget thrown out there when I began seeking information on corn burners a few years back.

I just thought it was interesting that corn as a fuel is not a new concept. Although reading "The Long Winter" again, and how Pa and Laura make hay sticks to burn for heat, it made me realize that desperate times do call for desperate measures. Thankfully mine are not so labor intensive or time consuming!

The path that led me to burning to corn for heat is a long and windy one. It began with my utility bill being sky high for natural gas. Then the discovery that my current furnace was nearly forty years old and running at about fifty percent efficiency. I could have guessed both bits of knowledge, but having them confirmed was a bit upsetting. The realization that the foam insulation we had installed could only do so much with an ancient and inefficient furnace made us realize action had to be taken.

This is when my grandma read about corn burners in her AARP magazine. You burn corn, and with corn being about $80 a ton, it was pretty inexpensive to heat a home even in cold climates like our own. We did a lot of research and shopping around until we found ones we felt suited us. We put our money down, and installed them last winter.

Unfortunately, something else happened in the interim: ethanol. Corn to run automobiles. The price shot up drastically, and I can say that I never did pay $80 for a ton of corn. Fortunately my stove also burns wood pellets, though the price of those isn't much better. Still better than natural gas, yes, but not the savings I had hoped for.