Anyone have a corn burning fireplace?

coasterqueen wrote: We live in the country so we have to use propane for heat. We don't like propane appliances/water heaters, etc so we use electric. Well propane went up $0.70 a gallon this year and most propane companies around here require 20% of what you lock in your rate as. Basically we lock in a per gallon rate guaranting that we are going to use so many gallons (about a 1,000) and then we pay a summer rate not to lose service. They called today wanting their $300 up front NOW (yesterday ) or else we can't lock in our rate, which is still like I said, 70 cents higher than last year.

Anyways, DH wants to put a corn burning insert in our fireplace. I'm not thrilled about it because they don't look as nice as a regular fireplace does, but he's gung-ho on doing this because the price of corn hasn't gone up for this whereas the price of propane has.

He's given me a bunch of mathmatical numbers to prove their worth, but I really don't want my livingroom looking a bit 'off' with this insert.

Anyone have one? Do you like the way it looks in your fireplace/livingroom?

C&K*s Mommie replied: Never have heard of that. Sounds interesting, I need to go and read about that.

mckayleesmom replied: I think Mollie (itsjustme)has one

Kaitlin'smom replied: neverheard of it.....do you just buy corn...like on the cob or something? thats probably funny but I honestly never heard of it. Now I want to go look it up.

holley79 replied: Heard of them but don't have one.

coasterqueen replied:
No, it's like grain corn, already off the cob. It has to be a certain type and moisture level, but it can save a lot of money versus propane. I just don't like the looks of them.

3_call_me_mama replied: We have a friend with one.... and it works great! They heat really well and smell liek popcorn! LOL
Seriouslky though, they save a lot of $$$ and they dont' look bad once they are inserted.

coasterqueen replied:
You wouldn't by chance to have a picture of their room w/the insert would you? We have NO time to make this decision and Dh really wants to do it and for me it's all about how it looks and that's why I can't take the plunge just yet. I think we are going to go look at them at lunch today but I can never tell till I see it in my livingroom. I also fear if it will really work or not. I know Dh said we'd have to put baseboard heating in the far rooms (bedrooms) just as a backup. I hear the savings can be pretty good each month. For us it wouldn't really be savings, it would be a "thank goodness we found another way or we'd have to look for a second job to pay the propane bill every month because there's no money to pay for it now".

Kaitlin'smom replied:
kinda a funny picture sticking corn on the cob in them I guess ten you might end up with popcorn sorry. I was tring to find them on-line and the one I saw were not bad looking and you really wont see much of it if you put it in your current fireplace.

coasterqueen replied:
Actually they do stand out a ways from the inside of the fireplace because the top is where you load it with corn pellets. BUT there are some nicer models, if you can even envision a nicer one, I can't , but I'm not sure how much DH wants to invest in this to get it started. He is wanting as cheap as possible, and so am I, but not at the expense of the look in my living room.

But yeah it took me a lot of reading to get over the feeling that it would be like popping corn

Kaitlin'smom replied: humm I guess I am with you. I need to see it befoe I can determind if I like it.

Did you ever see the movie Real Genius? pop corn anyone

3_call_me_mama replied: I'll have Dennis check his laptop and see (we actualyl might have a pic cause we were thinking of geting one and i was liek you.. all about the looks !:) and so we took a picture the kids at their house and the stove one day.. )
We have a wood pellet stove currently and it heats AWSOME! Pellets are 1/2 the price of fuel oil here adn you just dump them in teh top liek teh corn one. took a lot of convincing ot get em to get one though... as i thought they were ugly! But the're not bad. and my pocket book thanks them ! HEHE

coasterqueen replied:
My grandparents have a wood pellet one and we had thought about it but the corn pellet ones appear to be cheaper as we live in the Midwest and there's an abundance of corn. I don't know what the look of the new wood pellet stoves look like. The one my grandparents have is U G L Y, but I think it's old.

If you find a pic, that's great if not no biggie. Thanks

3_call_me_mama replied: He can't find it but this is the one they have (well it looks liek this one andthat's exactally how it looks in their living room) corn stove
scroll down to where it says fireplace insert (it has a brick hearht around it ) IMO it looks fine... They have a fence thing around theirs though cause they get HOT! and to keep teh kids away from the stove.

Kaitlin'smom replied: that does not look bad at all. We dont use our fireplace at all. How well does the heat distrubite thougth out a home?

coasterqueen replied:
I don't understand all the logisitics of it. I recall Dh mentioned something about the blower being big enough to distribute the heat, i.e. the blower on existing furnace. I dunno though.

I do know Dh said since our house is pretty big we'd need baseboard heating for "extra" in our bedrooms.

coasterqueen replied: The ones we are looking at are these: QuadraFire

I like the Castile and Santa Fe ones the best.

3_call_me_mama replied: OHH those are nice Karen. I think they would look great. I personally liketeh castile better ut that' s just more me. And they do distribute the heat really well. The blower is actually fairly quiet and works jus tliek your regular furnace. But your DH is right, a large house would need 2 of them or baseboard run off your propane to heat rooms liek bedrooms effectively, becasue of the doors etc. Good luck, and let us knwo if you do get one

coasterqueen replied: Yeah, I like the Castile one the best too, and then Sante Fe next. He spoke with some carriers here in town and basically they honestly came out and said that they didn't think the corn ones were "ready" just yet, i.e. meaning they still have a lot of glitches left in them and wouldn't spend the money just yet. So that has made Dh nervous. He hasn't decided what we are going to do yet. I've left the ball in his court since he does the finances.

CantWait replied:
Those are really nice.

gr33n3y3z replied: the house really smells like pop corn? If so I couldnt stand that smell

coasterqueen replied:
No, it doesn't really smell like popcorn. The fireplaces are enclosed .