Rising Energy Costs and Slow Economy Fuels Firewood Sales

By EMILY BAZAR • January 2, 2009 The Hattiesburg American:

Americans are stoking their fires, shifting to wood-generated heat to save money.
"People are going back to the older days of living," says Mel Barley of Fired Up Firewood in Lubbock and Amarillo, Texas. Sales of pinon, mesquite and oak firewood in October were double the same month a year ago, owner Randy Hair says.

"They're trying to ... save all the money they can," Barley says. "The more they save on fuel, the more money they have to buy other things."

Fuel costs initially drove some consumers to firewood, but now home heating costs are down. In August, the Energy Department's Energy Information Administration predicted it would cost an average of $1,059 to heat a home this winter using natural gas and $2,644 using heating oil. Now, the EIA predicts that households will pay less: an average of $889 for natural gas and $1,694 for heating oil.

Tom Dayon, owner of Dayon Tree Service in Petal, didn't start off offering cut firewood for sale but he saw a spike in inquiries and figured it would be extra money.

"We usually market wood to local pulp mills," he said. "This year we had such an increase in phone calls on firewood we decided to step up and do a little bit of it."

He provides a small truckload of oak wood for $60 per load.

Still, demand for fireplaces and wood stoves is high despite lower fuel prices, says Guy Hanson, owner of Axmen, which sells heating equipment in Missoula, Mont. People are spooked by the volatile economy, he says. "Even if they're safer now, they don't trust the fact that they'll be safer in the future," he says.

Shipments of wood stoves and fireplace inserts, which can be installed in fireplaces to burn wood more efficiently, were up 54 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the same period last year, says Leslie Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association. Final figures aren't available, but the group's analysis of recent sales show that demand remains high, she says.

Blaze King Industries, which makes wood stoves and fireplace inserts, had five times as many wood stoves on back order at the end of October as it had the previous year, vice president Chris Neufeld says.

"Every citizen is now looking at their overall household costs and trying to figure out a way to save a little here or there," Wheeler says.

Half of Michael Mainka's customers tell him they'll be using their fireplaces more. Mainka, owner of Firewood Farm in Pewaukee, Wis., says he expects to sell out of his oak, ash, cherry and other hardwood before Christmas. "This year, the demand is definitely up a lot more," he says.

Dave Hall, 45, is contributing to the demand. Hall, who owns a five-bedroom, ranch-style home in Colorado Springs, paid about $300 a month last winter for natural-gas heat.

This year, the customer service representative for Comcast says he plans to burn as much wood as he can get his hands on and will leave his thermostat at 66 degrees. He will search Craigslist.com for deals on wood and use scrap wood such as pallets.

He hopes to save up to $150 a month. "You go to the grocery store and everything costs more," he says. "It's definitely a way to save and have some money for extras."