PORTLAND (AP) – As home heating oil prices continue to rise, demand and prices for firewood are increasing as well.

The orders are already coming in at Atlantic Firewood in Cumberland, where residents usually wait until the cool days of autumn before ordering their wood supply. Mark Killinger, the company’s owner, said he’s had a dozen or so messages each day on his answering machine.

“Now it’s just unbelievable,” he said. “I can’t keep up with it.”

High oil prices have Mainers searching for cheaper alternatives, and firewood is at the top of the list. Heating oil prices at many dealers jumped from about $2.15 a gallon to more than $2.60 in some cases following the havoc wreaked by Hurricane Katrina.

When burned in an efficient stove, seasoned wood is much less expensive than fuel oil, propane or natural gas per unit of heat.

But homeowners who haven’t bought firewood recently should be prepared for sticker shock. Like oil, firewood is now hitting record prices.

A cord of freshly cut wood is going for $200 at some dealers in southern Maine. Seasoned wood, which has been dried enough to give off maximum heat, is selling for $225.

These prices are $75 or so above the typical price two years ago.

At Atlantic Firewood, Killinger said he needed to raise his price for green wood from $175 a month ago to $195 today. He blamed escalating oil prices and hikes in what loggers are charging him for supply.

More than half of Maine homes got some of their heat from firewood in 1980, a period of peak oil prices. But declining oil prices and the inconvenience of burning wood led many people to disconnect their stove pipes.

The 2000 U.S. Census found only about 6 percent of Maine homes heat primarily with wood. Seventy percent of Maine households use oil as their primary heating source, with 10 percent using kerosene, 5 percent using propane, 5 percent using natural gas and 4 percent using electric heat.

Stove dealers are reporting a renewed interest in wood heat, especially in stoves that burn hardwood pellets. These stoves feature an automatic feed system to accept the pellets, and the heat output is regulated with a thermostat.

Justin Knudsen, a sales associate at Frost & Flame in Gorham, said customers are interested in the pellet heaters because they are highly efficient and there’s no need to haul logs.

But heating with wood pellets is still more work than oil or gas, so it’s probably too soon to say whether Mainers are moving back to wood heat in substantial numbers.

Knudsen said his store continues to sell more propane-fueled stoves and fireplace inserts than wood or pellet stoves combined.

Information from: Portland Press Herald, http://www.pressherald.com

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