OXFORD – When the cost of home heating oil spiked this summer, many residents who relied on the fuel decided to search for more economical options to heat their homes this winter.
Even as the price of heating oil has dropped, consumers continue to pursue these alternative methods of home heating.
Pete Faber of Oxford admits he is one of the few people around who didn’t mind the steep increase in the price of fuel oil.
“It didn’t bother me at all,” he joked. The proprietor of Countryside Stove and Chimney has seen his business skyrocket as people look to him for home heating alternatives.
“Most definitely, I think alternative fuels are the future,” said Faber. He especially encourages the use of local fuel sources which reduce the country’s dependence on foreign sources. And if they are a renewable resource, it’s even better.
“Our biggest sellers this year are wood, pellet and coal stoves,” said Faber. According to the home heating professional, each fuel source has its own benefits.
Wood stoves and fireplaces have always been popular in the area because the abundance of woodlands makes it readily available. They are even more attractive when you look at the costs associated with them.
“Wood is your least expensive to heat with,” he explained, whether you are cutting the wood yourself or purchasing it by the face cord. While efficiency ratings are lower with wood, he said it doesn’t really matter since it is so much less expensive than other options.
Pollution can be a concern though, and today’s wood stoves have to meet strict emissions guidelines, Faber explained.
Wood fires add not only heat, but ambiance, he added. “Psychologically we see fire, and we feel warmer.”
This is also one of the reasons that pellet stoves have increased in popularity, Faber explained. These stoves are significantly less work than a wood stove and produce very little ash. They can also be vented directly outside, rather than with a chimney.
The increased demand has caused problems on the supply side, for both the stoves themselves and the fuel they require.
2007 was the worst year in over ten years for sales of pellet stoves, Faber explained, and manufacturers slowed down production.
“No one forecasted fuel prices going up like they did. They got caught with their pants down.”
Supply shortages and increased demand drove the price of pellets up from around $200 per ton in the Spring, to over $300. And locally, people struggled to find suppliers.
Pellet Fuel Supply of Oxford is one of the few suppliers in the area. “There has been a huge spike in the number of appliances that have been sold,” said Owner Joe Spence. “My phone hasn’t stopped ringing.”
Spence said he got into the business about 10 years ago when he had a hard time getting pellets for his own stove.
“It’s a pretty green fuel source,” said Spence. The hardwood pellets he sells are made from scrap wood and saw dust, which is part of the supply problem. Those raw materials come from hardwood flooring manufacturers, who have scaled back production because of slowdowns in the construction industry.
“They couldn’t keep up this year,” he said. But that will change as new capacity is being added in response to the increasing demand. He anticipates that pellet prices in the spring will be back in the $200 a ton range.
The lack of availability of the wood pellets have caused some homeowners to look beyond burning pellets. Some of these stoves are capable of burning up to a 50 percent mix of pellets and other fuels like corn. But biomass stoves specially designed for these mulitgrains are on the market and gaining in popularity.
One of the fuels that can be burned in these biomass stoves is corn, which is readily available locally.
“It’s home grown fuel,” said Faber. Of course it’s not as simple as just throwing corn kernels into the stove.
“Stove corn is corn that has been cleaned extra and has the proper moisture content.”
Corn burns differently than wood or pellets, Faber explained. It requires a hotter ignitor and has a higher sugar and moisture content, which can be a problem. The biomass stoves are designed to accommodate those differences.
And corn isn’t the only thing they will burn. Faber said that people burn whatever waste products they have available. In Michigan, cherry pits are a common source of fuel. Traditional wood pellets will also burn in the stove.
At Countryside, Faber and his staff are currently testing out a new pellet, one made from grass and hay. They are made locally from excess round hay bales.
“It’s still in the experimental phase,” explained Faber. The producer hopes to have the kinks worked out by next winter.
There are also gas, electric and coal stoves on display at Countryside’s showroom on Warn Pond Road in Oxford.
Faber said his coal stove sales have quadrupled this year. They sell anthracite coal, which he said is cleaner burning. It is mined in the Scranton area, which he described as the “Saudi Arabia of anthracite coal.”
“Coal is much cheaper to heat with than pellets,” Faber said. One ton of coal is the equivalent of roughly 1.5 tons of pellets, he explained, and the fossil fuel is about $50 less per ton.
According to Faber, that same ton of coal or 1.5 tons of pellets is the equivalent of 180 gallons of fuel oil, 298 gallons of propane or 7,325 kilowatts of electricity.