Feeling Winter's Chill



At a time normally set aside for carefree vacations on the beach, thoughts have turned to cold winter days and the specter of escalating heating oil bills.

Motorists can, and already have, cut down on gasoline consumption by driving more slowly and shorter distances, carpooling, walking or riding bikes and scooters. But there's no simple solution to keeping one's house toasty when oil costs twice what it did last winter.

Some homeowners living in modest-sized dwellings are predicting heating bills of $5,000 or more. That's enough to induce chills, especially for those whose hot water runs off the furnace instead of through a separate water heater. Cold showers, anyone?

Not since the Carter administration have water-cooler conversations been so dominated by the subject of heating alternatives such as pellet stoves, wood stoves, coal stoves and solar panels. Those options beat cranking up the thermostat and burning oil that's becoming as precious as gold.

Pellet stoves are so popular that some stove shops are telling customers they can't get them until January. The compressed sawdust pellets that fuel the stoves are also back-ordered. One New Hampshire dealer reported that sales of pellet stoves increased as much as 500 percent. Furnaces that burn wood or coal also are selling far more vigorously than usual.

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