BDN offers heating cost comparison

BDN offers heating cost comparison
By Eric Russell
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News



The cost of heating a home this winter is expected to be higher than at any time in recent memory.

In preparation, many Mainers have tightened their homes through energy audits, and others have started using alternative heating methods, but the reality is that prices for oil, wood, wood pellets, kerosene and natural gas all have gone up.

Prices for No. 2 heating oil, still by far the most widely used heating source in Maine, climbed steeply last winter and into this summer, although they have dipped slightly in recent weeks.

The latest average of about $3.82 a gallon for No. 2 heating oil is down from a high of about $4.60 in June. At the beginning of this year, the average price was about $3.35, more than $1 a gallon higher than in the same month in 2007.

The surge in oil prices also has contributed to the rise in prices for other heating sources such as firewood and, more recently, wood pellets.

At this time last year, dealers were charging less than $200 a cord for green firewood. This year, prices can exceed $250. Similarly, wood pellets were selling for less than $200 a ton last year but the same amount can fetch more than $250 today.

The residential price for natural gas in Maine last January was $16.13 per 1,000 cubic feet, and in June was $21.49, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

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Market for pellets tightens
By Eric Russell
Staff Writer Bangor Daily News

BANGOR, Maine — Within the past couple of years, wood pellet stoves have emerged as a cheaper alternative to No. 2 heating oil and a less labor-intensive option than regular firewood.

But, while it’s still early in the season, finding pellets to feed these stoves is no easy task

A number of pellet purveyors in Greater Bangor reported this week that while they are selling pellets, they don’t have any at the moment.

“I think October 1st is our next shipment,” said Luke Waldron, a sales associate at Lowe’s in Ellsworth. “We usually get a truckload every two weeks, but they are gone within three days.”

Jeff Stein, assistant store manager at The Home Depot in Bangor, also said his pellet pallets are empty.

“We’re still trying to catch up to the people that we pre-sold to earlier this year,” he said. “We’ve been getting three trucks a week, but very few of those bags go to in-store customers.”

Because the demand is so high, Stein said, the Bangor store has stopped pre-selling.

At Aubuchon Hardware in Newport, a sales associate who identified himself only as Al, said he has had to turn down customers in recent weeks.

“If I had [wood pellets], it would be fantastic, because tons of people want them,” he said Wednesday by phone.

Aubuchon has consistently carried pellets, he said, but lately suppliers have not been delivering in a timely fashion.

“We have 80 tons on order from seven different suppliers, but they all have a different excuse for why they can’t deliver,” he said. “It’s too bad, though, because we have customers that have been coming for years, and we can’t give them a single bag.”

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