Heating costs lead to surge in demand for wood-burning stoves

Call it an Old World solution to today’s energy crisis. Motivated by the high cost of home heating oil, many homeowners are using wood-burning stoves to heat their homes. Building inspectors have seen a sharp rise in wood-stove permit requests, and retailers are struggling to meet the demand for stoves. Scituate Building Inspector Neil Duggan said he started getting requests for stove permits during the summer, and he has issued twice as many stove permits this year as he did in 2007. Building inspectors also reported a doubling of permits in Quincy and a 15 percent increase in Weymouth. In Norwell, the building department has been issuing three to five permits a week; last year it was about three per month. Angela Russo, owner of Russo Products, a hearth distributor in Randolph, said keeping wood-burning stoves in stock has... [read full story]