Wood heating with its big savings and bigger pollution is making a comeback in North Jersey as homeowners cope with the soaring costs of other fuels.
In 2006, use of wood stoves in the counties of Bergen, Hudson, Morris, Passaic and Sussex rose by 25 percent from 2000, but to only seven out of every 10,000 homes, according to census surveys. Wood and stove retailers, however, note that there's clearly something more afoot this cold season.
"This year it's the craziest it's ever been for firewood," said Vito Scarvaglione of Vito's Tree Service in South Hackensack, who also sells the fuel.
"Last year was a really big boom and this year as well," chimed in Gina Kensler, business manager at James Maloney and Sons Tree Service in West Milford.
That might have to do with the fact that good burning wood will, in some cases, produce the same amount of heat as other fuels for less than half the cost.
Wood prices have remained relatively stable in recent years and supplies can even be obtained for free. Meanwhile, the cost of home heating oil alone has jumped 117 percent since 2000, according to federal records. But wood smoke pollutes at dozens of times the intensity of other heating options, scientists say, with ash residue and wafted smoke particles affecting air quality and water supplies. The industry continues in its effort to get consumers to switch to cleaner-burning wood stove technology. But until then, the dirtiness of wood burning has led some parts of the country to heavily regulate it, with temporary bans in times of bad air quality.
New Jersey has no such restrictions on the use of fireplaces or indoor stoves, said Karen Hershey, spokeswoman for the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Robert Lynn, 39, of Ringwood is a veteran of wood heating, although an oil furnace kicks in on especially cold mornings. Two wood stoves and a fireplace warm the house most of the day and "keep it a nice temperature," he said.
Lynn began heating mostly with wood "last year when oil prices starting getting high."
He used to pay $800 to $900 to fill his oil tank, but hasn't paid a dime for the wood he's been burning for two years: It's the remains of a tree removed by a neighbor, Lynn said. He's also had success scouring the Internet.
That's how Saddle River general contractor William Jimenez planned to get rid of fallen trees at a client's home.
"I expected maybe five calls," he said. Instead, his Craigslist posting drew inquiries from 30 people from across North Jersey.
Besides such windfalls, stove users can cut up deadfall timber for a small permit fee at five state parks or forests, including Stokes State Forest and High Point State Park in Sussex County.
A cord is a pile of wood 8-by-4-by-4-feet in size or 128 cubic feet. That fills about two full-sized pickup trucks. Retailers say it could heat a home for the winter.
Scarvaglione of the South Hackensack-based tree service said that, with more calls coming in, "Most customers that burn wood are doubling up their order to stay on the safe side."
The rising interest also applies to wood pellets, made of sawdust.
"Right now if you placed an order for a pallet of pellets, it wouldn't be filled [for a month], and that pretty much has to do with the high price of oil, propane," said John Wurdemann Jr., manager at Marshall Hill Materials in West Milford, which sells the fuel. A pallet is equivalent to a ton.
Installing wood heating isn't cheap. The cost can run from $3,000 to $5,000 for a pellet or wood stove, Wurdemann said.
"It's not a decision made overnight," he said. But consumers would recoup that cost in a few years of wood heating.
Cost savings aside, scientists still point to the environmental price of wood heating.
The typical wood stove releases about 354 times more particles than an oil furnace for every million BTUs, according to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. BTUs, or British thermal units, are a measure of heat energy. Cleaner stoves that follow federal guidelines still release 108 times more than their oil equivalent, while wood pellet stoves are the lowest at about 38 times.
"We've got very low-tech combustion systems at this point, and that's the problem," said Monica Mazurek, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering at Rutgers University. Mazurek studies air quality and airborne pollution.
She said particulates in wood smoke also affect cloud formation, rain and regional temperatures.
"So wood or any biomass is a less efficient fuel in terms of the burning process," she said. "You produce more particles and the particles tend to have more hazardous conditions."
For a better burn and maximum heating, the industry has been pushing for consumers to replace older fireplaces and stoves.
"It's better for you and your home to have the new technology, and it's better for your community," said Deidra Darsa, spokeswoman for the Virginia-based Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association, which represents the stove industry.
Changing heating devices can cut particulate emissions by 70 percent, Darsa said.
For now, though, concerns about pollution don't seem to be affecting the renewing popularity of wood heat.
"We have trouble keeping up now," said Kensler of the James Maloney and Sons Tree Service in West Milford. "Last year we sold out of our wood in October."
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By the numbers
* About 23 percent of all households nationwide used wood for heating in 1940. That number dipped to 1.3 percent in 1970, rising to 1.8 percent in 2006.
* Sales of fireplaces, wood stoves, pellet stoves and related products increased from 2000 to 2006 by 3 percent, to 658,202. Pellet appliances were more popular by far and experienced a threefold increase. Cordwood appliances, which includes wood stoves, dropped 13 percent.
Sources: U.S. Census Bureau, 2006 American Community Survey, Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association
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Learn to burn
Where to get firewood:
* Area tree service companies and firewood retailers offer home delivery. They'll drop it off or stack it, which costs extra.
* Residents also can cut and haul their own home heating fuel from one of five state parks. A permit to chop a cord of deadfall trees that have toppled which can fill two pickup trucks, costs $20. More information about the Homeowner Firewood Program is available from the Web site of the state Department of Environmental Protection, state.nj.us/dep.
* Surf the Internet. There's free wood out there, but be prepared to bring a chain saw and truck.
Tips on getting the best burn for the buck:
* Pick hardwoods such as oak. Softwoods such as pine don't produce as much heat energy, plus they will coat a chimney with creosote, a flammable residue that is the culprit in many chimney fires.
* Dry firewood. Stack it so that air can pass through the pile. Keep it there for six to eight months to reduce the moisture in the wood. If it's not dry, then the energy is wasted evaporating the water inside the wood.
Sources: New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, area firewood and stove retailers
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Comparing fuels
Looking to pick a home heating fuel? Here's how much it'll cost to produce the same amount of heat as one cord of wood.
Number
Residential fuel Unit of units Cost
Wood cord 1 $200
Home heating oil gallon 122 $421
Electricity kilowatt/hour 4,072 $636
Propane gallon 185 $598
Natural gas therm 169 $251
Note: The amount of heat released by burning wood varies depending upon the tree species. Other factors such as the type of stove used and environmental conditions also play a role. A cord is 128 cubic feet and fills two full-sized pickup trucks. A therm is about 100 cubic feet.
Sources: Heating fuel comparison calculator and recent residential fuel prices from the U.S. Energy Information Administration
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E-mail: yoo@northjersey.com and feeney@northjersey.com
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(c) 2008 Record, The; Bergen County, N.J.. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.