Another thing,
With the wheat you do not need to clean it. We burn ours directly off the header, combine for youse, just make sure it is not rubbish quality. If it is feed quality it will be fine. Our motto is "If you wouldn't feed it to the chooks (chickens) don't feed it to the stove. We say minimum test weight of 68 (I have no idea how that translates to Yanky) and max moisture of 13%. Both of which are easy to get.
Try the pits though, they are the bomb!!
We have found one thing better though, a 50/50 mix of wheat and brown coal briquette chips. It does not burn any hotter but it does last 3x as long which is pretty amazing. Next week we are getting a sample of high oil canola pressings left over from the biodiesel process. The ash levels will be the problem I reckon and it won't flow so we will have to mix with a carrier. I think the wheat will be better than the pits for this.
I will report later if I don't burn the place down!

Hi,
I just noticed a question in all the post from a few weeks ago, it was addressed to me but I never got it.
We have had no problems burning wheat and it does not jump out of the pot but the stove has a deflector rod just under the auger tube which slows down the drop.
We are new to burning so have been trying all sorts of stuff. After spruiking the benefits of wheat we have found something even better!!
Crushed olive pits. They are fantastic. Super easy to handle. Can be stored damp, the mice don't like them so you can just heap it up. Talk to large olive oil processors they have mountains of the stuff they they can't get rid of. Out here we get resistence from the public regarding the burning of a fuel stuff, ie wheat or corn, these pits solve that problem. Try them out they are great. With wheat we clean out the clinker every 24hrs, the pit last for 48hrs and leaves a fine ash which is easily cleaned out. It restarts no worries.
Cheers,
Darron.

Have you guys tried burning wheat?

That is all we use in Australia as it is everywhere, pellets are ridiculously expensive, $800 per tonne and corn is nonexistent after harvest in March. Even then corn is $60 per tonne dearer than wheat so we dont bother with it.

Infact we have never tried corn!

Wheat is an international commodity so the price is the same, pretty much, around the world and you dont have to worry about some knob trying to turn it into biofuel.

We largely use feed grade wheat which costs around $200 per tonne but for next season we are investigating using screenings which are only $50-100 per tonne. Screenings are the small and broken grains that the harvester rejects and sprays back on the ground. As long as the sample is free of dirt and debris it works fine as screenings generally have a higher test weight than standard grain. The higher the test weight the better it goes through the stove.

We sell corn stoves out here and are get some resistance from buyers because we are using a feed source. Using screenings completely ends the argument as it is a waste product. Buying it from the farmer you are giving them a bit of a financial bonus and by them collecting it rather than leaving it on the ground you are taking away a food source for mouse plagues. I dont know how bad your mice get but it is a major problem here with some yields being reduced by up to 30% from mouse damage.

I would suggest you visit a local farmer or feed/flour mill and get some wheat to try. Being a poultry farmer myself I know that waving a bit of cash will get you ample supply of wheat.

A bonus with burning wheat is that when you take out the clinker and a bit of smoke gets out your house smells like you are toasting bread, yum......

Hi Again Guys,

It just astounds us how you all cope with such extreme temperature variations. And humidity... I hate humidity! We probably get temps up to 110 F for 15 days over summer but the humidity never goes over 35% so evap cooling works fine.
I am writing this at 1.30PM Saturday arvo and our current temp, mind you it is the most pleasant day we have had for a week or so, is 60 F bang in the middle of winter. They dont call Australia "the lucky country" for nothing you know.
As you may suspect "Chickenman" is in reference to the fact that I am a free range egg farmer so we actually grow 500 tonne and buy in another 500tonne of wheat per year at harvest. Our price this year was around $196US per metric tonne which is up a little. Our biggest price risk is when idiot Americans (present company excepted of course!) waste perfectly good corn on stupid ethanol. The other problem is when Wall St. hedge funds play funny buggers with world grain markets. People really do not realize what a detrimental effect these parasites have on the living standards of poorer nations around the world.
There is a saying that "when America sneezes the rest of the world catches a cold". Well the US influence is waning and China is rising but Wall St. can still stuff things up for everyone!
Anyway dont tell the tax man but actually we sneak our wheat for the corn burner from one of our 100 tonne wheat silos..free heat woo hoo.
So now we are importing 10 more corn stoves which will arrive at the end of winter (unfortunately) and we are going to try and spread the corn stove love around Oz. You never know you might be facing a "I love corn" invasion from downunder in a year or two.
Cheers,
Darron.

Hi Brian and TF,

We are in central Victoria which is the cooler part of Australia except for the Alpine (Snowy Mountains etc) area.
We are in mid winter at the moment so average max temperature is 48 F. Not real cold by US standards I guess but cold in Australia. Many northern Australian places do not get below 68 F all year! They do have bad humidity in summer though which is awful.
Your insulation question is good (look out - you have got me on my hobby horse!) as I reckon that is the most important part of any heating/cooling system. We built our new house 3 years ago and used the following insulating tips:
The house is 32' x 120' and is located East-West to best capture winter sun and (with extended eaves) block out summer sun.
All window are double glazed Upvc.
The North facing living area has 40' of roof to floor glazing to capture winter sun on the internal 6" thermal mass polished concrete floor.
The floor is built on insulated waffle pods to aid thermal mass.
The house's stud frame has R2.5 fibreglass batts inside, the ceiling has 2 layers of R3.5 batts which I think brings the ceiling to about R5 or so.
Evap air con.
All fluoro lighting, no down lights.
Finally, and this is the biggest one of all, the external cladding is rendered 4" polystyrene which is a fantastic product to work with and provides unparalleled insulation.
I guess by now you are thinking," who is this tree hunger?" But not so. I am all for looking after the environment but if I cant get a 5 year payback then it is not on. It is very difficult to do all this stuff in an existing home and after crunching all the numbers we worked out it was cheaper to demolish our old home and build a new one on the same site, which is what we did. We transfered all the electric heatbank heating from the old house to the new and this fact tells the tale of insulation: Our new house is twice as big as the old house and requires 1/2 the energy to heat. Therefore 4x as efficient. We are still amazed. Now we dont even use the heatbanks as the corn stove is doing the job easily.
So in my opinion while the corn stove is a prince, insulation is king!!
I would be interested in your comments and how people view energy efficiency in the US.
Cheers,
Darron.