Info on NEW BIN in Mt Rainier

Takoma Park Bin - since 2002 Mt Rainier Bin - since 2009

Corn Burning Stoves: Save Our Sky and Protect Our Planet Home-Heating Cooperatives help you save money, protect the environment, support local farmers and reduce dependence on fossil fuels!   Corn burning stoves are a great way to reduce your gas, oil and/or electricity use and reduce your home's greenhouse gas emissions. Burning corn reduces carbon emissions because it only releases as much CO2 is it absorbed when it was grown. Thus, when corn is harvested sustainably, it can be used as a great, climate-friendly fuel source.   In our cooperative, about 70 households heat their homes using corn-burning stoves, and the corn is supplied through a community corn coop in Takoma Park, MD with a new location opened Oct 09 in Mt Rainier, MD (both DC suburbs). These families are saving a couple to several hundred dollars per year on heating in addition to greatly reducing how much global warming CO2 is released.   For more on Fighting Global Warming and Mike Tidwell's clean energy home, visit the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.   For more information on corn burning stoves and the corn cooperative, please explore this website.   Have a great day!   -- Save Our Sky and Protect Our Planet Home-Heating Cooperatives

Some basics about corn stoves and the corn cooperative... (more on the About Us page)
 
Why would I want to burn corn to heat my home?
Here’s just 3 main reasons:  By burning corn, you can save money, protect the environment, and support a local farmer and sustainable agriculture. And there are many more…

What is the corn coop?
The corn coop, also known as the “Save Our Sky & Protect our Planet Home-Heating Cooperatives”, are organizations of DC-area households which purchases and stores corn in an urban grain bin to make it more convenient and affordable to burn corn as a primary heating source.

How can I save money by burning corn?
Members spend from $200 – $1000 per heating season.  Depending on the other heating system in your house and how much you burn, you can save anywhere from a couple hundred to several hundred dollars per year, especially compared with the rising cost of natural gas, oil and electricity.  Many of our members use a corn stove (or two) as their primary or only heat source, and can expect to spend about $3-8 a day to heat their homes (depending on size & efficiency of the home.)

How can I help protect the environment by burning corn?
Pretty much any type of fuel that you burn to heat your home releases carbon dioxide (CO2), the most common green house gas that contributes to global warming.  When you burn corn, it releases no more CO2 than it absorbed while it was growing.  In fact, it releases LESS CO2 than it absorbed because much of it is still stored in the plant stalk and the roots in the ground.  Compare that to burning fossil fuels, where you are releasing all the stored up CO2 and creating more global warming pollution.

How can I support a local farmer & sustainable agriculture by burning corn?
While much of the corn grown in the US using conventional methods is very energy, fertilizer, herbicide and pesticide intensive, the corn we purchase for the corn coop comes farmers in the local area using “sustainable” growing techniques: non-GMO, organically fertilized, minimal nitrogen fertilizer, herbicide and pesticides, and grown using a “low/no-till” method which minimizes soil erosion and keeps more climate-warming carbon dioxide locked in the soil.