Wood Stove sales report on Alaskan Public Radio podcast

[rockreid]

be sure to hit the "Play" button to hear the podcast. This report is from Alaska, but should be a good indicator of wood stove sales in most cold weather areas of the country as well like here in Connecticut.

http://aprn.org/2008/07/08/sales-of-wood-stoves-grow-as-fuel-oil-prices-climb/

It's scary that extreme concern for freezing families is already starting to hit the newswires, and it is the middle of July. Just think what is going to happen in November. I'm glad my new Jotul in sitting here ready to be fired up. I have accumulated 4 split cords in 3 months and am looking to hoard more.

 

[Tfin]

Nice little report. Yup, its been discussed here many times as I'm sure it will continue to be...........its going to be some tough for people who haven't planned ahead for the coming heating season.

 

[glacialhills]

I think there are going to be a lot of desperate people this winter. And those that have questional morals will go looking to prey on the weak. We just had the police out at our place chasing a guy that was at a nearby farm stealing scrap. Have been seeing on news people even stealing aluminumum benches and playground equipment from local parks for scrape. Drive offs are at an all time high at gas stations. I think things will only get worse once winter hits.

 

[Andy99]

Its getting to the point where im wondering if I should lock up the gate to the back yard to make it harder for a truck to back in a steal my wood!

 

[BrotherBart]

Its getting to the point where im wondering if I should lock up the gate to the back yard to make it harder for a truck to back in a steal my wood!

For sure don't stack it along the back fence. In college when we wanted to fire up the fireplace we would drive down alleys with two guys in the back of a pickup truck and snatch a few splits off the top of each woodpile.

 

[Noah]

It hasn't exactly been a warm summer up here (Alaska) either, it might have past 70 twice but it's usually in the high 50s. I hope to have my stove ready to burn next month and I have a few cords stacked up ready to go. I'm not exactly off the grid and I don't heat with oil, I have natural gas , but it will be nice to take the edge off the winter bill a little.

I was just reading a cragslist add for a guy wanting a chain saw so he can start cutting wood. Start cutting? He should have been doing that a long time ago. I started staking wood before the snow even fell this past winter.

 

[Carl]

Its getting to the point where im wondering if I should lock up the gate to the back yard to make it harder for a truck to back in a steal my wood!

For sure don't stack it along the back fence. In college when we wanted to fire up the fireplace we would drive down alleys with two guys in the back of a pickup truck and snatch a few splits off the top of each woodpile.

ROTF........did you learn anything else there????

I think a lot of this is normal growing up fun........but when they take the whole pile, become destructive, or more obknoxious then it is criminal.

 

[gibson]

I have no idea what oil is going to cost this year. Say for the sake of argument that it is $5/gallon. Fortunately I have the resources financially, physically, time-wise, and resource-wise to make a transition to wood burning. What about those that don't have $3000 to get a stove, install, wood, etc. Oil was $3/ gallon last year. That's a 67% increase! In the winter, in the Northeast, heat is your second highest bill behind your mortgage or rent. What if your mortgage went up 67%? My choice was based on not being screwed by the culture of the oil companies and bad energy policy...that and I really like burning things..but in a good way. What if you have no choice but to pay the oil bill? If you are living paycheck to paycheck, the mortgage, car payment, grocery bill, etc, ain't going down. Scary. What I see is a government bailout of some kind, which will result in higher taxes, because that is the easy way out.

 

[skamp]

That was pretty scary to listen to. My Lopi Revere is due to be installed on Aug. 14th. Also have 3 cord well seasoned ordered a month ago to be delivered next month. Have to replace a starter in my Toyota pickup, sell that and buy a full size older truck for scrounging. Already have my chainsaw Husky 350 but will need a splitter. Dam this is a life changing experience for me, luckily I adapt well to different type situations and have always been an avid outdoors-man.

 

[esh21167]

Thoughts on fuel costs for this year. Our local oil company sent out letters nearly requiring everyone to go on a budget plan with auto delivery. For 1000 gallons of oil annually the budget price was $600/month. Doing the math that's over $7/gallon! Do they know something the average consumer doesn't or are they just playing it safe? Either way, that is pretty scary. And as mentioned, there may be a lot of people in big trouble this winter.

 

[Cluttermagnet]

I've had a couple of conversations with our oil supplier. First of all, the present delivered price is over 5.00/gal. If you want 'demand only' service, they have a minimum 154 gallon delivery. That's about 770 dollars for roughly half a 275gal tank. I had a nice chat with someone in that company and we agreed between us that I would drop our service contract and make service 'demand only' as well. They had already unilaterally cut off deliveries due to the unpaid and unwanted service contract, but my tank is mostly full, and "...frankly, Scarlet, I don't give a (hoot)..." But then came a series of incessant phone calls on my machine, to the effect that everything I had discussed with the previous rep was 'invalid' and I had to talk to them yet again. They hammered away with daily phone messages for several weeks before they gave up. I didn't return calls. I suppose I might eventually find myself in a 'contract dispute' over the service contract I chose not to renew and we agreed between us would be terminated. I think they are having a hard time letting go, as customers desert them in droves.

My sense of it is that this is one of those bigger (interstate) companies. It gobbled up a bunch of smaller, regional oil companies over the past 10-20 years. Looks like this descendent company (we did business with its predecessor companies continuously since the 1960's) must be feeling a bit desperate about now.

Well, so are we. Five dollar a gallon no. 2 fuel oil is not going to fly in this household. So my ceaseless, rookie firewood accumulation is in one sense forced upon me. But at the same time, I'm enjoying it and getting some good exercise I no doubt need. I'm glad I have the option. Most of my nation is held hostage by fuel supply extortionists.

We still have about 3/4 tank of oil. I'm going to use as little as I possibly can. Last two years, it's been lowest possible settings on the old Honeywell thermostats, and a little supplemental electric space heating, and a lot of sweater wearing. By my calculations, it's now cheaper to heat my home by electric resistance heating than by oil. Yikes! What a ripoff! Fortunately, I'm still strong enough and healthy enough to scavenge free wood. I'm a beginner, but I think I can hack it for a year or two, then I'll know for sure if it is sustainable for me. In part, the present extortion has simply got my dander up. I'm a stubborn cuss. My ancestors were too.

We put the wood stove in late last winter. Even with conservative (small loads) burning, it made a huge impact in our ~1500 ft sq rambler. The oil burner pretty much stopped coming on for the rest of the remaining season. I don't remember hearing it at all, and hope to not hear it much in the coming seasons either. And no more misery. The sweaters had to come off- too warm in the room. Heh! I continue to work on upgrading the house insulation, a little at a time- especially in the attic. That's helping too.