Sales of stoves fueled by wood, wood pellets and feed corn are soaring across Maryland as families try to control one aspect of a failing economy within reach: the cost of heating their homes.
"People walk to the thermostat because they're cold, and they're so worried about what it's going to cost they don't set it where they want," said Mike Tyson, owner of Poor Boy's Garden & Hearth in Dundalk, which sells wood-pellet stoves. "We're the alternative to BGE and oil."
Interest in stoves, hearths and fireplace inserts - driven by variables such as the severity of winter, natural disasters and the whims of OPEC - began spiking in May, typically a month for cleaning and maintenance of heating sources, not sales.
In late spring, as the cost of home heating oil began moving toward a record $4.70 a gallon, pellet stoves began sailing out of Mark Mastrapolito's Masters Pellet Stoves store in Bowie.
"Normally, I don't even get a phone call in May," said Mastrapolito. "This year I think I sold five and five again in June."
Just before Thanksgiving, Monica Wong, a Montgomery County accountant living in Ashton, replaced her gas-fueled "fake logs" with a pellet-burning fireplace insert to heat her family's 5,000-square-foot home.
"Propane costs us about $2,000 a year for heat," said Wong, whose Enviro pellet insert cost approximately $4,100, including installation. "We've been thinking about this for a couple of years. If it's efficient, we might get a bigger one for the basement next year."
All Harold Cadle Jr. has to do to keep his Trappe Road home in Dundalk warm is load feed corn into a St. Croix Pellet & Corn Stove. "It's always well above 70 degrees - 75 and 76 sometimes - and I use ceiling fans and a pedestal fan in the hallway to move the heat around," said Cadle.
He gets the corn for free from a friend who owns a farm in Baltimore County. What doesn't fit in the silos helps to heat Cadle's 1,600-square-foot, three-bedroom home.
"Corn burns longer than pellets, and I only get half a cup of ashes from 90 pounds of corn," said Cadle, a crane operator. He bought his stove at Poor Boy's, which is not far from his house, and says that it is a beautiful piece of burnished metal, perfectly complementing his home.
When he does have to look beyond his friend's farm for fuel, he can get 90 pounds of corn for about $11 - enough to heat his house for five to six days.
