Wood and Energy in Rhode Island

Telephone surveys of Rhode Island households conducted in 1979 indicate a transition to wood heating in response to a series of conventional energy price increases and uncertainty in conventional energy supplies. Rhode Island households consumed 108,000 cords of wood in the winter of 1978-79. The airtight wood stove is becoming the most commonly used wood-burning apparatus. Survey data of residential wood cutting, purchasing, and burning were analyzed by household tenure, wood-burning apparatus, and county. Residential use of wood for energy constitutes a new demand on the forest resource, increases local income and employment, displaces fuel oil and electricity, but may compromise household safety.