Progressive Wednesday

Corn, from Ascorbates to Zein: Install

May 9th, 2007 by Progressive Wednesday

I’ve been going on and on about how bad corn is for our economy, our bodies, our land, our air, our water, and even our politics. Hopefully it isn’t all starting to taste like corn-fed chicken by now, but in case it is, I’ll offer up a good thing that corn can be used for: heating your house.

Corn stoves and furnaces are becoming increasingly popular because they are cheap to run, clean burning, and über-efficient. Unlike with ethanol, the energy you save with a corn stove vastly outweighs the energy used to make that small amount of corn. In term of dollars and cents, a corn furnace can save you over $1,000 bucks a year, depending on where you live. But does it get hot enough? Well, they’re controlled by a thermostat, just like any other modern heater, and if you turn it up high enough it’ll get as cozy as a sauna.

I’m not just getting this information from the endless loop of internet articles with as much credibility as an Exxon-Mobile representative talking about the effects of fossil fuels on global warming. Our photo editor, James B. Robinson, swears by his corn stove. And he doesn’t exactly live in Texas. Try Lake Placid. My wife and I honeymooned there. It’s cold.

Here’s a good site with lots of information on corn stoves and furnaces, how much they cost, where you can get them, how much you’ll save, where you can get the corn… the whole nine yards acres. If we are going to contribute to the endless cycle of overproduction begets over-subsidization begets overproduction, we should at least do so in the smallest, most energy-efficient, and most progressive way.

Oh, I almost forgot. Installing that corn stove will get you a tax rebate, if that pushes you off the fence and into the corn field.