Hot stoves High oil prices push Mainers to heating alternatives

If the sellers of wood stoves could harness heat from their sales the past couple of weeks, they’d be looking forward to a pretty toasty winter.

In other words, wood and wood pellet stoves are selling like hotcakes.

The recent sharp increase in oil prices has many Mainers investing in alternative sources of heat for the coming winter so they can more easily afford to stay warm through the colder months. Gas prices in Maine have fallen off a bit since they spiked early this month at more than $3 per gallon, but even as Gulf Coast oil refineries damaged or closed by Hurricane Katrina resume production, fuel prices remain relatively high.

A gallon of gas is nearly $3, or $1 more expensive than it was at this time last year. Heating oil prices have risen to around $2.50 per gallon, which is roughly half a dollar higher than what they were only a month or two ago, according to online oil price Web sites.

For wood stove dealers, this means they are busier than ever.

“We’re extremely busy,” Dave Dyer, owner of St. Albans Stove Shop in Palmyra, said last week. “We’ve hired an extra person for the fall and winter.”

Paul Carey, manager of Finest Hearth stores in Bangor and Ellsworth, said sales in both stores are going like “gangbusters.”

He said that even before the recent spike in gas prices, climbing oil costs prompted many people to look into alternative sources of heat. The heightened interest also is causing him to consider hiring additional help, he said.

“This [sales] season started well ahead of previous seasons,” Carey said. “People are concerned about fuel costs.”

John Dionne, manager of Sunrise Home and Hearth in Bangor, said last week that his store’s sales for the month of July were double what they were for the same month in 2004. He said that since then sales have remained brisk.

“People are real serious about [using wood stoves] as a lifestyle again,” Dionne said.

According to Dyer, wood pellet stoves, which burn manufactured pellets sold in 40-pound bags, are his store’s most popular item. For about $800 to $1,000, pellet stove owners can buy enough pellets to heat their house for an entire winter, he said.

The price is comparable to that of cut wood, which costs between $150 and $200 a cord, though Dyer said he’s heard of wood being sold at $250 per cord. A wood stove will go through three or four cords of wood to heat an average-sized house in Maine over the course of a winter, he said.

Pellet stoves have the advantage of being easier to deal with than regular wood stoves, Dyer said. A pellet stove has to be loaded only once or twice a day, whereas a regular wood stove needs to be filled several times a day in order to keep generating heat.

According to Carey, wood requires more preparation than pellets because, unlike pellets, it has to be dried and stacked. Pellet stoves also are the most popular items at the stores he manages, he said.

“Wood is more work,” Carey said. “It’s a different lifestyle decision.”

Prices for pellet and regular wood stoves also are comparable, though higher-end pellet stoves tend to be more expensive, according to the dealers. Pellet stoves start around $1,600 or $1,800 and go up to $3,100, they said, while a regular wood stove is more in the $1,000-to-$2,000 range.

Carey said pellet stoves also are easier to install. Because the pellets burn so cleanly, the stoves can be vented through an exterior wall, similar to a gas heater, instead of through a chimney. Wood pellet stoves may be slightly more expensive than regular wood stoves, but their installation may be cheaper because they do not require chimneys, he said.

Dyer and Carey each estimated that their separate sales figures for this time of year are 50 percent higher than they were a year ago. Dyer said he has been able to keep up with demand so far but he anticipates pellet stoves soon will be back-ordered as manufacturers try to keep up.

“We do installations and the whole shooting match,” Dyer said of his store’s services. “We’re booked out about one month right now.”

Dionne said the inventory at the two Sunrise stores in Bangor and Ellsworth has not been affected by the demand because the company anticipated increased consumer interest. Like Dyer, he said the store’s installation staff is booked solid for the next month.

According to Carey, it is not too early for people to start shopping for stoves. The sooner buyers start looking, the more options they will have and the easier it will be to make sure everything is in place by the time the weather gets cold, he said.

“This [sales] season started well ahead of previous seasons,” Carey said. “We certainly are at least 50 percent ahead of previous years.”

It is not just the wood stove retailers that have been busy. Sheldon Hartstone, owner of Fairmount True Value Hardware in Bangor, said last week that he has been busy selling insulated chimney pipe and even uninsulated stove pipe at his business. Normally, he doesn’t get customers buying these products until October of each year, but this year he has received inquiries much earlier.

“There have been a lot of calls,” Hartstone said. “There’s no question about it. People are concerned.”