ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Peter H. Joy is a resident of Springvale.
The article "Pellet panic hits stove stores," excerpted from The Ellsworth American in the Oct. 26 Maine Sunday Telegram, seemingly points to the consumer of pellet stoves and pellets as being selfish, non-thinking and discourteous.
On one hand, the oil futures market of early in the year of 2008 caused oil prices to jump sharply, in effect causing home heating oil dealers in the colder climates to bid on "future" home heating oil purchases based on estimated sales, cash or budget programs.
Pellet stoves have been around for a good while, and for us, one has been in our home since the fall of 2003.
We find our stove to be extraordinarily efficient, saving us many dollars in home heating oil costs, and in particular, reducing home heating oil consumption by almost 60 percent over the winter heating cycle.
So, let's examine, briefly, why there was a big rush on pellet stoves and pellets. Economics most likely is the base cause.
In year 2007, home heating oil for us was $2.779 per gallon, as opposed to a half-bag of pellets at $2.26 for a moderate winter's day of heating.
On a day where hot water was consumed from our oil furnace heater tank for multiple domestic uses, oil consumption was approximately at a cost of $5.02 per day for hot water, and home heating was not more than $4.46 per day (cost of one bag of pellets).
This spring, thinking on the lines the New Media at all levels were putting out ("High costs of home fuel expected"), I purchased my stockpile of pellets as well as locking in to a fuel contract with a minimum purchase of 600 gallons.
Last year, total oil consumed at our home was 590 gallons for the full year, April 2007 to April 2008, and for the 100 of the coldest days between Dec. 17, 2007, to March 23, 2008, 100 bags of pellets meant my average home heating came to $10 per day.
For the entire heating season, we used 150 bags of pellets (3 tons), leaving one ton on hand for 2008.
As oil prices climbed, so did pellet stoves and pellets, due to supply and demand. Oh, transportation costs caused the elevated prices of both commodities, sorry, I didn't intend to be alarming on that issue.
So, as in buying "futures" in pellets, with the cost of living endlessly rising and us on a limited income with a strict budget, investing was key for the next three years.
With the economic stimulus package of 2008 coupled with savings, our purchase of 8 tons of pellets was not hoarding, nor was it buying "much more" than we needed for the future, the future being three heating seasons, '08, '09 and '10.
We "needed" to invest in home heating "futures" and we did just that.
What went awry in the manufacturing of pellet stoves and pellets? Not watching the ever-increasing oil prices over the past five years, nor the oil-producing strategies of all oil extracting companies, domestic and foreign.
Wood-burning stoves of high quality, cord wood, pellets, as well as petroleum based heating systems, transportation and electrical energy systems have all increased.
As go oil prices, so go utility packages of all sorts, including wood-burning products. I do not intend to leave out the cost of labor and medical insurance coverage, nor other integral basic needs to support life -- food and housing.
The cost of living is always on the rise, and mostly affects those on limited incomes.
Now, to the root of the issue of increased sales of wood-burning devices and products used in generating heat, who in the world started this hype?
Could it be the media distributing news?
The Blethen Maine Newspapers and its predecessors, along with radio and television broadcasting, all carried stories projected to draw attention to a perceived crisis, shortfall or other malady.
An investor buys stock at low prices, hopefully in order to see financial gain.
And an investor of home-heating sources buys low to...
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