While we're talking heating costs, I'll throw mine into the set:

Maryland, close to Chesapeake, which moderates things a bit wrt North Va.
1800sqft Colonial w/ finished walkup basement. 8' ceilings, cathedral in 11x13 family room.
R30 attic, R19 walls, builder spec doublepane windows
SEER10 2.5 ton (maybe 2?) heat pump w/ 15KW aux resistance heat.
Propane fireplace w/ blower (heats rear living area)
electric 50gal H20 heater, R20
Tstat set to 67 day/60 night (10pm-7am)

avg winter usage: ~53kWh/day (Dec-Feb)
avg spring/fall usage (no heat/cool): ~30kWh/day
12 month avg: ~43kWh/day
propane usage: 150gal/year

avg Dec-Feb temp: ~32F

So I use 23kWh and about 1 gal propane per day to heat my house during the peak heat season.

Adding in the tails of the heating season on each side, we' re talking about $600 for heating overall. Elec price varies with time of day, but avg is 6.5cents. Propane is a wild card- that's the one I want to replace with corn.

I uploaded an image of charted usage and temp since 2002 and the file itself. The summer dips are due to vacations- setting the air at 80 and H20 heater off. The winter killer is aux heat.

https://www.greenhybrid.com/share/fi...elec_usage.GIF

 

That breakdown is way cool gonavy. I'm not as up to specs on my house as you are, but I found that the builder forgot to insulate an entire wall next to our bedroom! We have a small attic space next to the bedroom. I decided to check it out just before I got the stove, and I was shocked to see plywood, and 2x4's with no insulation between them. I got the R19 that is 23 inches wide to fit between the 2x4's. I have since inspected the rest of the house, and it looks ok, but I think I could use a bit of spray in insulation in my regular attic. This house was built in 2001 by Ryan Homes. We originally tried to get them to fix problems we found in the first year, but they did terrible work, so we have been fixing the problems as we find them ourselves. A good example of how bad there work is:

Just after we got the house, my wife went into the spare bathroom on the second floor to turn on the water in the bathtub. When she pulled the lever up on top of the spicket, the spicket came out about 3 inches! We called the builder, and they sent out a repairman. Thank god my wife speaks spainish. The guy wasn't a plumber at all. He was one of there day laborers. He had no idea how to fix it. My wife politely asked him to leave. The builder kept trying to avoid fixing the problem, but sent a plumber about a month into the ordeal. The house seems very sound, but it is the details that are lacking.

 

Seems like the most efficient thing would be to have power plants that burn this corn just like coal.

 

Ouch. Our house was spec built in 98, so I go to choose the 2x6 walls for R19, etc., and was able to check much of the work. We've got a cold spot next to a few windows- I think insul. gaps are there.

Be careful about squeezing R19 into a 3.5 inch space- you're compressing it a lot, losing insulating value. It may even fall below the usual R11 that fits between 2x4 walls. Your attic should be R30- 12 inches of fiberglass. R50 is better, but a few hundred $, and the improvement over 30 is incremental in comparison.

Now that you have a nice radiant heat source in addition to the convection blower, look into low-E films on the windows to trap the IR in the house (reflect it off in the summer). Lowe's and HD have them. They make a world of difference, and you can do the entire house in 1/2 day. It ran me about $80 total for the film- lots cheaper than new windows, and I can replace easily it if it gets damaged, unlike a low-E window.

We're probably going to add on in a year or 2. While we're spending that cash anyway, plans include replacing the heatpump with geothermal (new federal tax credit), about 3KW PV solar on the beautifully South-facing-perfectly-angled roof (Federal and state credits), and maybe the corn stove...if I can convince my wife (That's getting a little crunchy for her). The geothermal is non-negotiable- free hot H20 in the summer as a byproduct of the AC, and it is a lot cheaper to buy than the PV. About $8k new vs $20k. So the PV may not happen either.

I wonder if I can go dumpster diving behind the BPSolar factory up in Frederick and grab some damaged PV panels...

 

Corn: $175/ton
Coal: $5.40/ton

As long as you don't mind your electric bill going from $200/month to $6,500/month, then no problem.

 

Ok I have to ask this, whats it smell like?Kevin

 

The smell is nice. It isn't sweet, and I don't quite know how to describe it. It is a nice aroma. not strong. sort of like butter on hot corn? that is the only way I can describe it. It is interesting, I've woke up every morning hungry since I've put this thing in.

Good luck on the search for solar stuff gonavy.

Check this link out for mixing corn with coal.

http://www.cwlp.com/electric_divisio...nting_coal.htm

 

I just got home, and that thing has the house thermostat reading 78 degrees . My wife is loving it. It is currently 45 degrees out, and the machine is set on 2 0f 10. It is way to hot for me. It was set at 4 of 10 when I left for work at 5am, so it is now just after 11pm. According to the brochure, 115 pounds of corn should last me 44 hours set at 1. Set at 4 is will last about 20 hours. My calcs have found that at 3 it has been lasting an average of 24 hours per hundred pounds at this point. I'll start tracking this in an excel file next week.

 

Where did you get that price? I see $20/ton which is still much cheaper than the corn. Of course if farmers began growing corn for energy it could become much cheaper than the current one grown for consumption. There could be hardier, more productive varieties that don't taste good. Or have a higher energy output so that less is needed.

There are possibilities.

 

I just did a quick internet search and the $5.40 was the first thing that came up. If $20 is the national average, then maybe $20 is a better number. At any rate, it sounds like the corn furnace is working great and much cheaper than electric/heating oil, that's the important part!