High energy prices stoking toasty demand for wood stoves.

Byline: Tim Christie The Register-Guard

Steadily rising fuel prices have made pellet and wood stoves a hot commodity this fall.

Manufacturers can't build stoves fast enough. Retailers can't keep stoves in their stores. Customers are finding they may have to wait weeks or months to get their hands on stoves.

Rich Muller, manager of Orley's Craft Stove Center in Eugene, said he has lots of customers looking for wood and pellet stoves but not a lot of product.

"Every manufacturer that I've got is telling me they're 12 to 15 weeks out on delivery now," he said. "No one was ready for the demand this year."

Pellet stoves, which run between $1,800 and $3,000, use small wood pellets sold in 40-pound bags for a few dollars each. Depending on the weather, a bag will last a day to two days. While the initial cost of buying the stove and pellets won't save money, the savings come in the long run, said Leslie Wheeler, spokeswoman for the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association.

But good luck trying to get one anytime soon: Manufacturers are already weeks, even months behind in orders.

"It's wacky," said Trevor Hussey, head salesman at Emerald Patio & Pool in Eugene, which also sells stoves. He's hoping one supplier will deliver four pellet stoves to his store next week. "If not, I'm out 'til the end of January."

Breckwell Hearth Products, which manufactures its pellet stoves in Eugene, is having "a record year," Don Jackson, national sales manager, said from the company's Dallas, Texas, headquarters.

"It's the best year in the history of the company," he said. "Our production is working feverishly to meet the demand. It's a great situation to be in, but it's frustrating because we've got greater demand than we have the ability to supply."

The company has boosted employment and the number of shifts at its Eugene plant, "but it's still not adequate," Jackson said. He declined to disclose sales figures, or the number of employees at the Eugene facility.

"It's just insane," said Lori Pitman, spokeswoman for Country Stoves of Auburn, Wash. ``We weren't prepared for it, frankly. I don't think anyone was in the industry."

The rising energy prices are blamed largely on hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which damaged oil and natural gas installations and disrupted production. Demand for pellet stoves has been particularly high in the East, and that's made it harder for dealers in the West to get their hands on stoves.

"Because of that demand in the East and Midwest, where there were true shortages of fuel oil and natural gas, that siphoned off a lot of manufacturers' stocks," said Linda Ommen of Midgley's Stove & Fireplace Center in Eugene.

The Energy Department predicts winter heating bills will be a third to a half higher this winter than last for most families across the country - an average of $350 more for natural gas users and $378 more for fuel oil users.

In Oregon, regulators approved double digit increases in the price of natural gas in October, citing higher demand and a shortage of natural gas. Northwest Natural Gas residential customers saw the biggest increase at 15.2 percent.

In October, heating oil prices averaged $2.62 a gallon in Oregon for a 200-gallon delivery - about 49 percent higher than in September 2004, when prices averaged $1.76 a gallon, according to the state Department of Energy.

Bucking the trend is the price of electricity, at least in Eugene, where many homes still rely on electric heat: The Eugene Water & Electric Board lowered rates twice this year, by 1.6 percent in May and 2.5 percent in November, spokesman Lance Robertson said.

But the rising price of natural gas and oil is sending consumers out in droves for wood stoves and, especially, wood pellet stoves.

"People are just ready to get out of that rat race for rising prices all around," Muller said.

Muller said Orley's has some stock on hand, but also empty spaces all over his store where he's sold floor models. Hussey said even if he had a pellet stove to sell, installers are backed up about a month.

Wood stoves aren't as popular, but still are being sold at a steady pace. Firewood sales are experiencing a ``phenomenal increase,'' according to Stan Dykstra, owner of S&D Firewood in Belgrade, Mont. And national forests are seeing a jump in the number of permits issued to individuals to cut their own firewood.

``Oh my goodness, yes,'' said Jim Maxwell, spokesman for the Forest Service's regional office in Denver. ``It's gone through the ceiling this year because of those rising costs. It's definitely impacting the behavior of folks and how they're heating.''

Environmental groups caution homeowners to use heat source efficiently. Brendan Bell, Sierra Club energy analyst, said people need to make sure stoves don't leak and that they aren't using moldy wood.

``The money you invest in a new wood stove would probably be better spent in buying a new gas furnace that is more efficient,'' Bell said. ``That's what's best for the environment and your pocketbook.''

In Alaska, one official voices a different concern: Ernie Misewicz, Fairbanks deputy fire marshal, predicts all the new wood stoves in homes will lead to more fires, as they did in the late 1970s when the price of fuel skyrocketed.

``There was an abundance of wood out there. In a year or so, we started seeing a spike in the number of fires related to wood stoves,'' he said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

CAPTION(S):

Rich Muller, (right) general manager of Orley's Craft Stove Center, says pellet stoves are selling so quickly that the store has even sold display models, leaving empty holes within the showroom. Chris Pietsch / The Register-Guard