Corn Vac Makes Furnace Feeding Easy

Corn Vac Makes Furnace Feeding Easy ENERGY Corn Burning Soves 28-3-18 Feeding "fuel" to the corn furnace in his basement is easy for Myron Tietz, thanks to his shop-vac powered pipeline. "I've used it for two winters now, and it works great. As a carpenter, I have dealt with whole house vacuum systems, and I couldn't see why this wouldn't work," says Tietz. Tietz harvests five acres of corn each year for wildlife feed and house fuel. His Traeger furnace was built to burn corn. The only hassle was getting the corn to it. Tietz solved the problem by building a small grain bin just outside his house and running a 1 1/2-in. dia. pipeline from the bin to his furnace. A shop vac is plumbed into the end of the pipe inside the house. The shop vac hangs from the ceiling, directly over the furnace. He turns on the vac to suck grain in from the bin. When the vacuum is full, he opens the drain valve at the bottom of the vac and the corn flows out into the furnace. To build the bin, he used treated 4 by 4's for corner posts and treated plywood for the bin sides. Tietz then wrapped five sets of 2 by 4's around the outside of the bin, bolting them together at corners to reinforce the sides. The first length of pipe runs at an angle from the bottom of the bin into the house. Once in the basement, the pipe fastens to a T-connector. A plug in it allows air in. "Without air movement through the pipe, the corn won't flow," explains Tietz. "The T-connector also allows me to run a snake up and into the bin if a plug should occur." The internal pipe system runs parallel to the floor for a few feet before making a right angle to the ceiling joists. The pvc then runs along the ceiling to the 18-gal. shop vac above the furnace hopper. "The shop vac moves the corn about 30 ft.," says Tietz. "The canister hangs at an angle so it doesn't fill completely full." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Myron Tietz, 18645 376th St., Montgomery, Minn. 56069 (ph 507 364-8689).

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