With winter approaching, some Massachusetts homeowners are looking beyond traditional heating oil and considering alternatives including firewood, pellet stoves, gas, electric, and wood-burning fireplaces.
Well, many folks are finding alternative ways to heat
their homes to avoid those high energy costs.
Boston 25 news reporter Ellie Murillo is live in Canton.
Ellie, there are some pros and some cons when it comes to these some
of these other options you're watching. Yeah, that's right.
From traditional firewood to pellet stoves, homeowners have options,
but each one of these alternatives, well, they come with a price tag.
So before you think about making the switch to save some cash,
experts want you to know it's not that simple.
We're definitely seeing people looking for wood
as an alternative to oil to heat their home.
Meet Larry Golub, store manager at New England Hearth and Home.
The local South Shore business is already flooded with calls,
with homeowners looking to options like gas,
electric, and wood-burning fireplaces,
even pellet stoves, to avoid those hefty heating bills.
Larry says it might save you,
but installation costs and ongoing maintenance can still cost you.
You will get a payback in like two, three,
four years on the cost of the appliance and the labor.
But it will take two, three, four years for you to get your money back.
But clearly, oil at $6.50 a gallon, this is a lot better alternative.
Larry's advice, get ahead now.
Do it as soon as possible.
Expect to be keeping this appliance running
as you would your oil furnace or your gas furnace.
Okay, it's not something for occasional use.
It's meant to replace and save you money as an alternative fuel.
yeah there's definitely been a bit
of an uptick operations manager at Beach Hill Firewood Ian
Kalinsky says they've already put in about 45 hours
of manpower a week with much more expected
in the coming weeks moving more wood is how much wood comes
into this yard so on average right now
we're receiving three to four tractor trailer loads
a week of product and every single week
we're completely clearing this out Ian says homeowners looking
to use firewood should also
note it's more of a localized alternative.
If you know you're going to be in one space
absolutely get a fire going turn thermostat nice
and low but come the end of the day you don't want
to leave a fire going in your fireplace you want
to make sure you're safe you put it out. Now a tip
you may hear often is track your usage right that's
because it might actually help when it
comes to narrowing down if any of these alternatives actually work
for you. If you are struggling
there is heating assistance available for more information
on that visit our website boston25news.com
for now we are live in Canton I'm Ellie Morillo
for your local station Boston 25 News. All right
something a lot of folks are thinking about right now Ellie thank you.
