Corn burner

A solid fuel burner having variable energy output responsive to a variable demand, comprising:

• a combustion chamber;
• a means for supplying oxygen to said combustion chamber;
• a means for introducing solid fuel into said combustion chamber;
• a means for variably controlling at least one of said oxygen supply means and said solid fuel introducing means;
• a means for detecting a threshold magnitude of said variable demand;
• a means responsive to said threshold magnitude detection to cause said variable control means to vary at least one of said oxygen supply means and said solid fuel means;
• an agitator having an agitator drive for moving said agitator relative to said combustion chamber;
• an ignitor position detector;
• and
• an interlock responsive to said ignitor position detector disabling said agitator drive.

An agitated solid fuel burner comprising:

• a combustion chamber having a trough shaped fire pot;
• a solid fuel inlet;
• an agitator longitudinally extending along a length within said combustion chamber and rotatable thereabout having a plurality of teeth extending from a central agitator axis, said teeth having longitudinal separations less than the cross-sectional dimension of an average solid fuel pellet;
• and
• a drive operatively rotating said agitator relative to said fire pot.

A pellet fuel burner operative to combust pellet fuel and thereby produce thermal energy, comprising:

• a fire pot operative to contain said pellet fuel during combustion;
• an agitator operative in said fire pot and having a shaft;
• a fuel auger for introducing said pellet fuel into said fire pot;
• a variable gas stream coupled to said fuel auger and receiving said pellet fuel therein and transporting said pellet fuel through a distance within said fire pot which varies responsive to a variance of said variable gas stream;
• and
• a flow rate controller coupled to said agitator shaft and operating cyclically.

A solid fuel burner having variable energy output responsive to a variable demand, comprising:

• a combustion chamber;
• a means for supplying oxygen to said combustion chamber;
• a means for introducing solid fuel into said combustion chamber;
• a means for variably controlling at least one of said oxygen supply means and said solid fuel introducing means;
• a means for detecting a threshold magnitude of said variable demand comprising a temperature sensitive switch which, when activated, provides a low resistance shunt about a control resistor;
• and
• a means responsive to said threshold magnitude detection to cause said variable control means to vary at least one of said oxygen supply means and said solid fuel means.

An agitated solid fuel burner comprising:

• a combustion chamber having a trough shaped fire pot;
• a solid fuel inlet;
• an agitator longitudinally extending along a length within said combustion chamber and rotatable thereabout having a plurality of teeth extending from and creating a generally helical pattern about a central agitator axis;
• and
• a drive operatively rotating said agitator relative to said fire pot;
• wherein a subset of said plurality of teeth located more nearly adjacent said solid fuel inlet than a remainder of said plurality of teeth form a helical pattern of rotation in a first direction about said central agitator axis tending to urge solid fuel towards said solid fuel inlet, and said remainder of said plurality of teeth form a helical pattern of rotation in a second direction about said central agitator axis tending to urge said solid fuel away from said solid fuel inlet.