Oil prices drop but stoves still hot

Jack Prior (from left), Eric Rudolph, and Jamie Prescott at Wolf Hill in Ipswich load wood for delivery. Oil prices have dropped, but sales of alternative fuels are brisk. (David Kamerman/Globe Staff)

While the price of heating oil in Massachusetts may be plummeting, sales of alternative fuels, such as cordwood, wood pellets, and wood and gas stoves have remained brisk, leaving some local retailers short on supplies and long on orders.

According to recent surveys conducted by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources, the average price for heating oil for October was $2.93 per gallon, down from a high average of $4.71 in July, when crude oil was trading at $145 a barrel.

But at Yankee Fireplace & Grill City in Middleton, business is booming. And this merchant is not alone. North Shore stove retailers are booked solid for installations through December, and some cordwood vendors are sold out of seasoned hardwood and wood pellets.

"Our stove crews are out in force," said Robin Golub, a retail specialist at Yankee, where the inventory includes outdoor grills and sacks of wood pellets, plus gas and wood stoves that sell for as much as $5,000 after installation.

While there are many formulas for calculating the efficiency and cost-effectiveness for wood and gas stoves, Golub shies away from them. She argues that stove performance numbers can be deceiving because products are tested under controlled conditions that fail to account for variables like the quality of wood burned, insulation, home layout, and air circulation.

"You always have to be careful and take the numbers with a grain of salt," Golub said. "Most customers are using stoves to supplement heating systems."

And while some consumers may expect an alternative fuel product to work miracles, Golub has observed that the mentality sometimes seems at odds with the lineup of Escalades and Suburbans idling out front. While people shop for energy savings inside, common sense sometimes appears to be missing outside.

At Fireplace Systems in Georgetown, gas stove installations are booked for the next three to four weeks, and if you want a woodstove, you'll have to wait up to 12 weeks depending the model. Fireplace inserts that improve wood-burning efficiency are also a hot item.

"As oil has come down, typically interest in gas stoves increases," said shop owner Paul Bateman. "Stove choices come down to the variables like home insulation, convenience, and cleanliness."

Bateman has also noticed increased interest in firewood and wood pellets, which are currently back-ordered at his small shop in a Georgetown strip mall.

At Danvers Home and Supply, hardwood pellets are in. But demand is so high, the store's entire inventory has been spoken for since June. According to owner Dan Wildes Jr., two 40-pound bags of wood pellets will heat 1,000 square feet for a whole day at a cost of $6.79 a bag.

The manufacturer of the pellets, Dry Creek, says that one bag of wood pellets is the equivalent of 2.5 gallons of heating oil. With oil at $2.93 per gallon and the typical New England homeowner using 800 gallons of heating oil per year, wood pellets are slightly more economical.

Relatively low prices for heating oil of late have not affected sales of cordwood, said Wildes. His business harvests oak for firewood from local sources, keeping costs down. "You would think sales would be off, but orders for seasoned cordwood have been steady at $380 per cord, plus delivery," he said.

For Jim McKechnie, owner of Wolf Hill Home & Garden Center, with locations in Ipswich and Gloucester, it's a different story. His inventory of seasoned cordwood is running low, and he is back-ordered for wood pellets for the next two months.

McKechnie purchased his wood at the end of last winter from suppliers throughout New England when wholesale prices were high. Today's retail prices at Wolf Hill reflect that.

According to McKechnie, prices are determined as much by the paper and pulp industry as they are by heating oil costs.

"When paper mills can't get enough logs, the price goes up," he said.

When buying wood, McKechnie advises consumers to "know what to get. Make sure you ask for your wood to be hand-loaded and not scooped, in order to avoid bark and dirt scraps."

For fireplaces that do not have a lot of draft, McKechnie recommends kiln-dried wood, which has the lowest moisture content, but also comes at a premium - about $100 more per cord than seasoned wood.

McKechnie said one cord of green wood is the equivalent of 150 gallons of heating oil. His website provides a daily calculation of potential savings based on current average prices for oil and cordwood.

At today's prices, wood appears to be winning the battle, at least at Wolf Hill. At $2.93, 150 gallons of heating oil will run $440. A cord of green wood at Wolf Hill is $398.

Even though wood sales are down and supplies are low at Wolf Hill, McKechnie is poised for potentially lower wholesale prices after the holidays.

"I'm hoping the price for wholesale cordwood will come down, so retail won't be so high," he said. "I'm holding off on replenishing my supplies until after Christmas to see what's going to happen with oil and the economy."