Sales of Wood Stoves Triple

According to MyFoxCleveland, it looks as if the energy crisis has really hit home. The anticipated costs for heating this summer are driving record sales of wood ovens.

It looks like something out of the past, a gadget our grandmothers and great grandmothers once used in the kitchen. Surprisingly, the wood cooking stove is making a big comeback. Just ask Sharon Hershberger, a product specialist at Lehman's Hardware Store in Kidron, who says wood stoves are flying off the shelves.

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Lehman's Hardware Store is seeing wood stove sales double, if not triple, compared to this time last year. The marketing vice president, Glenda Lehman Ervin, says, "Typically our sales are very flat or almost, quite frankly, nonexistent this time of year and we're seeing the exact opposite trend."

Lehman's says there are two main reasons sales are doing unseasonably well -- the economy and the environment. Ervin explains it this way -- "People are looking for ways to save money and save the planet."

A wood cooking stove serves several purposes. It doesn't use electricity, just wood. It will heat your home, it will cook your food, and if you buy one with a water reservoir, it'll heat the water throughout your house. They cost between $4,000 and $7,000, but it's estimated they pay for themselves in four to six years.

Customers are trying to save energy in other ways as well:

Wood stoves aren't the only gadgets that are doing well. Sales have doubled for push mowers. Drying racks are also on the rise with customers who want to offset the cost of electric or gas dryers. . . .

More and more people are buying hand cranked grain mills to make flour to save on rising food prices and making healthier meals. . . . Sales on the grain mills have gone up ten times since last May.