Dear Jim: I use my fireplace for extra heat, but it is a hassle. I am considering getting a corn or wood pellet stove instead. Are they energy-efficient and low-maintenance and what are my options? – Mike R.

Dear Mike: A wood pellet or corn stove is an excellent choice for heating a portion or all of your home. I tested many designs in my own home for the past 16 years and I have one running as I write this column. I burn a corn-wood pellet mixture in a corn stove. Corn and wood pellet stoves are nearly identical. Wood pellets are only 1 percent ash, so any pellet or corn stove will burn them.

Corn has a higher ash content and forms a clinker, so burning corn in a pellet-only stove will not work well. Most corn stoves include a wood pellet setting that changes the ash removal rate and air flow.

Both corn and wood pellet stoves are energy-efficient. This is because the combustion is nearly complete with almost no smoke. The small corn kernels or pellets have a high ratio of surface area to weight, as compared to a big log, so each piece gets bathed with combustion air.

Heating with wood pellets or corn is better for the environment than using fossil fuel furnaces or electric heat. When you burn corn in the stove, it produces primarily ash, water and carbon dioxide (a greenhouse gas). Next spring, when new corn grows, it uses the same amount of carbon dioxide the burning produced, so there are little net greenhouse gases.

These stoves are relatively maintenance-free. Every couple of days, depending upon the heat setting, pour a bag of corn or wood pellets into the hopper. With the low ash content, the ash drawer needs to be emptied only once a week. Corn is stickier than pellets, so each month, you may need to clean the draft fan and perhaps the auger. Even if you plan to burn wood pellets and don’t have nearby corn farms, consider a corn stove. Wood pellets are often in short supply and it is convenient to be able to stop at a pet store for a bag of feed corn if you run out of pellets.

Select a model with a battery-backup option. Corn and pellet stoves use electricity to operate the blower, combustion air fan and feed-ash augers. When the electric power goes off, as it recently did during the Buffalo snowstorms, the stove automatically switches to battery power.

The following companies offer corn and pellet stoves: American Energy Systems, (800) 495-3196, www.magnumfireplace.com; Country Flame, (417) 859-0990, www.countryflame.com; Dell-Point Technology, (877) 331-6212, www.pelletstove.com; England’s Stove Works, (800) 516-3636, www.englanderstoves.com; and Lennox Hearth Products, (800) 953-6669, www.lennoxhearthproducts.

com.