Friday, December 3, 2021

Firewood shortage

A couple weeks ago, I stumbled across an article entitled "Americans Panic-Buy Firewood And Stoves Amid Energy Crisis": "The global energy crisis has led to a spike in natural gas, heating oil, propane, and power prices, making the cost of heating a home this fall/winter very expensive. As a result, Americans are panic buying cords of wood and stoves to deflect soaring fossil fuel prices. ... 'Everyone is extremely concerned about how they are going to pay for the cost of home heating,' said Brian Pieck, the owner of House of Warmth Stove and Fireplace Shop in New Milford, a town in rural western Connecticut. He said that concern had led people to panic buying woodstoves, adding his sales for woodstoves over $2,800 are up 50%. 'Our manufacturer is working feverishly around the clock.'"

Curious, I reached out to my contact at Lehman's, Glenda Ervin, and asked if this if this is what she saw reflected in the store. She replied, "Yes, wood heating and cooking stoves are in great demand. One of our wood-cooking stoves has a year-long waiting list, but they are still being pre-ordered!"

I did a little more internet research and saw confirmation of this trend:

Firewood demand soars amid rising fuel costs:  "Americans' demand for firewood is on the rise thanks to surging fuel prices and firewood suppliers are struggling to keep up. ... Phil Clement, who has operated Phil's Firewood for nearly 30 years in Jefferson County, New York, [said] keeping up with the high demand has been a 'struggle.' 'It's been a lot busier than we've had in the past. It's just never-ending,' Clement said. 'It seems like as soon as you're getting caught up, the phone rings again and you get more orders.' Clement said high fuel prices are unquestionably to blame for the demand for firewood. 'Everybody's worried about (firewood) prices because firewood follows the price of oil,' Clement said. 'It takes diesel fuel to produce the firewood because logging and everything like that runs on diesel fuel.'"

Feeling the burn: Firewood sales, prices are blazing: "Amid the inflation surge that's rippled through the U.S. economy and touched thousands upon thousands of products, one of the more obscure items on the list is firewood. It's a fuel from earlier times, so niche an industry that no one appears to even try to track pricing on a national level. Talk to firewood vendors in state after state, though, and they'll all tell you the same thing: Sales are booming on the eve of winter, and prices are soaring."

Have others noticed this? Is anyone transitionng to wood heat this winter in response to energy prices?

26 comments:

  1. We are transitioning away from wood. We have just gotten to old to fill up the wood stove. I do have 1 year's worth of wood in case the power is off saved. I always liked the wood stove but we just can not do it anymore.

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  2. As someone living in Texas that struggled last February in the deep freeze, we are making sure to have sufficient fire wood on hand in case we lose power again.

    We had 30 minutes of power on a rolling 12 hour window for 3 days. We had 5 pipes burst, though fortunately we were able to shut off the water before extensive damage was done. We slept in the living room for those 3 days, closing off everything in the rest of the house. It got to -2*F overnight here (never happened before in my life) and it got down to 42*F in the living room with our fireplace going full time.

    Fortunately we have a propane stove, so I was able to prepare hot meals while we were home bound. Icy roads under 8" of snow meant even with our 4 wheel drive, we were not able to get down our driveway. Demand for firewood has skyrocketed here, with face cords running about $150.

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    1. Im not sure what type of fireplace you have, but we used this insertable grate in our Houston home...it was a gamechanger for those cold spells. Very efficient.

      https://www.texasfireframe.com/

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    2. Our power went out for a few days. We prayed for it one morning, to come on for 20 minutes to make coffee and it did so we made some coffee. Then it turned back off. Then we prayed: "Lord, turn on the power and keep it on." And the power came on and stayed on... We live in Texas but we had just moved here from Florida and had plenty of wood so we were okay and had a fireplace so we survived just great... We are used to hurricanes so we were prepared ahead of time. And also prayer works too...

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  3. I would love to be able to purchase a wood stove, but living on Social Security it is not in the budget. Heating costs last year ran between $300 and $350 dollars and expect it to be higher this year . We have ordered clear plastic to line the windows and have just completed installing new weather striping . Fire wood seems to be high and sells out very fast , although we do have a wealth of trees on our property , just no way to utilize it. We may just use our solar generator if electric costs are too high this year,

    Dee

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  4. I feel for those having to deal with this and understand the hassle experienced by others regarding the work involved and BTU's gained. Wood heat as compared to any other source, is by far a more comfortable heat, it seems to warm the bones and the heart when the other forms merely put out heat. There is nothing quite like wood heat, I think it's in our DNA. I would like to not use wood heat but the alternatives are not acceptable as is the case with so many. I'm lucky in that I have my own supply, so obtaining it is merely a trade off in labor. It is labor intensive. According to my calculations, for every stick of wood put into the stove or furnace of any kind that piece of wood, from standing tree to ashes, that stick of wood is handled no less that 10 times. If you hand split, the labor is even worse.

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  5. We are not new to wood, but I can see many new people scrambling to find wood. I see trucks with rounds heading to be split, so I guess lots of people will be trying to burn green wood.
    We are in East texas, so usually only need about 1 cord to get us through. Last year was an eye opener! But we survived and have fixed the gaps in our preps.
    For many years, we cut and split all our own wood, but advancing age has us buying some now. I still have the will, but the body does not!
    We love our buck stove, very efficient.
    I found an old wood stove at a garage sale for $20 this summer. I may eventually use it in our greenhouse, or my dream of having a steam sauna might come true.
    Love your column!

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  6. We have two woodstoves in our Alaska home - one up and one down. Also have Toyo heating oil stoves, but they can't keep up with the negative temps we have been experiencing for going on about 5 weeks. No let up in sight so far! We are so THANKFUL for our wood stoves. Someone mentioned green firewood. Yes, it needs to dry at least a year or more. Praying our fellow Americans don't freeze this winter!

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    1. If folks new to wood heating are burning a lot of green or other low-grade wood there may be a big demand for chimney sweeps, volunteer firemen and building contractors in the cards.

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  7. in my neck of the woods, ya can't buy a cord of fire wood...coal is scarce... even shipping pallets disappear over night.

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  8. I've mentioned getting a wood stove off and on for years but my husband has not felt the need. I'd sure would love the security of having one, though.

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  9. Ordered some spare parts for our Woodstock soapstone stove back in October and they are not taking any new orders for new stoves until Jan 2022. Heat that requires no power is priceless. Also anyone in the market for a new stove Uncle Sam will pay 26% of the cost of the stove piping and labor as a credit on new efficient stoves.

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  10. I have a fair amount of firewood, and access to downed logs I can scavage in a forest area near by. I am RATIONING my firewood. Right now, I have affordable electric heat..($100. or less per month.) As long as I have affordable electric, I will only light a fire when temp is 32 degrees or under,and let it go out as morning warms up a bit. I heat only my small living space and kitchen. Gone are the days of having a beautiful, luxurious fire day and night, I can run thru a cord of wood so easily, doing that, so...I will ration wood so that when I'm DEPENDING on wood, (and kerosene) I will have plenty cut wood on hand, and not have to go out into the strange new world scavaging, for as long as possible.

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  11. Oh the irony for us-we live on about 100 acres of mostly wooded land , but can’t heat with wood. I am VERY allergic to woodsmoke. When I taught school, the lingering smell on children’s coats would set off bad asthma. Just praying out propane deliveries can keep up.

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    1. You might look into an outdoor wood boiler - the fire/stove is not in your house. They work great!

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    2. You might look into an outdoor wood boiler. They work great, and no smoke/wood inside the house.

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    3. We considered that, but I can’t be anywhere near the smoke. I have problems driving down roads where people use that type of heat. It’s a pain, as I would like to be more self reliant in respect to heating. Oh well.

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  12. Just got 200 gals of propane and cost was $800. I use it for cooking and heating so it probably won't be enough, even though it rarely gets dangerously cold here in the deep South. But when it does, propane doesn't last long. Also my delivery was weeks past the date given at point of order. Need a wood stove, but, like others, aging body parts don't cooperate with harvesting wood. Thinking of adding my name to that year long list anyway.

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    1. After reading all the other comments, here a year away from earliest date I could get a (small) wood stove, it's time to start building a firewood stash! Great post! All these trees and oak limbs blowing down with storms this past year I've burned almost weekly, and some weeks daily just to clear wood debris near the house. Some is old wood and some green. And some logging is supposed to be done too so there will be plenty of usable debris from that. Without this post it wouldn't have occurred to me. Also, I've been looking for a very small battery powered chainsaw online and found several supposedly usable by women and elderly folks. You have to read all the lit and comments to find what's appropriate but sometimes, older means you just have to keep looking for for a doable approach.

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  13. Pellet stoves are right there with the wood stoves. My work sells both, as well as wood pellets, and (normally) single bundles of firewood for the folks who like to light a fire when they have company. This year we can't get firewood at all, and we keep running out of pellets, and we can't keep the stoves for either in stock at all.

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  14. We moved to a new property Oct. last year. We left behind our Hearthstone soapstone wood stove. After a year in the new house and with the fireplace doing nothing to heat the house, we looked into a fireplace insert or wood stove to vent out existing chimney. We finally found one that would fit and was in stock at a nearby store. It was only in stock because someone ordered it and then cancelled after in came in. There was nothing else available until March or later! Also because of moving and homestead set-up projects, we didn't get firewood cut so of the building projects required tree cutting but that wood is green so it won't be ready until next year. Called many firewood ads on CL but cords are going from $360-$460!!!. Wood stove will be installed in January and we're still looking for wood. Husband picked up free rounds nearby but they won't be ready until next year either. Still searching but may have to bite the bullet for a cord of expensive firewood just as an emergency backup. Expensive but peace of mind is important

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  15. I have heated with firewood all my life. My old Rebel stove is 35yo and needing some work. It'll get a tune up next summer. I'm in n-central FL and use it 5 months a year. But not daily... Usually about 3-5 nights a week then we get a warm up. About 6 years ago I bought a Fisher Baby Bear stove from a cl ad that is barely used for $150. Shocked I was, looking at eBay an seeing one in more used condition for $850. Omg!

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  16. I truly believe we haven't seen anything yet. As America crumbles under the weight if this extreme Marxist government we've allowed to exist, the rest of world is going right along with it! Do the best you can, it will only get worse, especially if you are among the unvaccinated. And that is anyone who hasn't had the latest jab. It makes no difference if you got the jab in the beginning. Now you are unvaccinated if you haven't had ALL the booster shots! So...this is just one area of things getting worse. Stay tuned as things heat up and more countries fall, there is absolutely nothing holding any of it in place. But then that's what is supposed to happen. There will be a NWO, but it's not what they think it is! No human invention or human intervention can stop what's coming!

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  17. You all just failed the test. Again! Wow! You'll never learn!

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    1. Ha! Thank you everyone for drawing "Unknown" out and into the open. Checkmate!

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