Cathy Britt sliced apples on her kitchen counter and looked at an ironcast wood stove in an adjoining living room. It’s a Norwegian-made Jotul. The kind with a nostalgic swinging door and a black stove pipe. “We can’t imagine not having it,” she said. “It’s just so part of the house.” Cathy, a former Carbondale gift shop owner, lives with her husband Jeff in a cozy house tucked away in the woods past the Crystal River Ranch. Small cowpies greet visitors at the entrance while wild turkeys graze on the property. Massive piles of firewood also sit downhill from the Britts’ front porch. Not surprisingly, Jeff, 70, is busy swinging an axe over his head before each winter. The longtime contractor prepares kindling from either wood scraps he salvaged from construction sites or logs acquired from Xcel Energy, which recently cut down about 40 trees underneath powerlines in the Carbondale area. With snow in the forecast this week, Jeff’s goal on Wednesday, Nov. 12 was to whittle down the wood to about 12-14 inches in size. That way, it’ll be just small enough to fit in the Jotul wood stove and keep the Britts nice and warm as the Roaring Fork Valley reaches freezing temperatures. “When it gets cold out, we can raise the living room area 10 degrees,” Jeff said. “I don’t burn it all the time. But when my wife gets chilly, I make a fire for her.” Burning energy Heating costs are increasing in the Roaring Fork Valley. In March, the Colorado Public Utilities Commission approved Black Hills Energy to implement a 6. 7% electricity rate increase. Meanwhile, according to Holy Cross Energy, which wholesales natural gas from Xcel, it anticipates residential customers will see a 3-5% rate increase in 2026. But for any Carbondale residents interested in saving on energy costs, does indoor wood burning truly help? “Yes, it’s definitely a cost-saving measure,” said Jenna Weatherred, a Holy Cross Energy vice president and community relations department head. “But there are consequences for everything.” Indoor burning in Carbondale and the greater Garfield and Pitkin County areas is allowed under certain rules. Garfield County Community Development Director Glenn Hartmann said provisions limit one clean burning solid fuel device per home in new subdivisions, a restriction implemented in 1999. The device must also be approved by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Among Carbondale’s indoor fire burning restrictions, any new installations of fireplaces must adhere to Colorado Air Quality Control Commission or EPA standards, according to the Town. “It’s releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere,” Weatherred said. A tradition Kathy Strong estimates having about 200 regular clients from Carbondale. The longtime owner of K & K Lumber in Silt said customers either make the trek down Highway 82 and Interstate 70 with dump trailers and pickups or they simply get the firewood delivered. A delivery, made possible by a K & K’s 12-foot-by-12-foot dump truck, equates to about 2. 5 cords more simply, 128 cubic feet of stacked firewood. The 47-year-old lumberyard charges $620 per load, and typically Bonedalians refill twice yearly, Strong said. “They love it because they bring their dogs with them if they want, or they bring their kids,” she said. “When the snow flies, they’re going to be loading in here again.” For the Britts, their wood consumption is a little more modest. After a season of filling their kitchen and living room with scents of juniper and pinyon emanating from their trusty wood stove, it equates to about one cord of firewood, Jeff said. “You get warm three times,” he said. “Cutting it down, stacking it, then burning.”.
https://soprissun.com/as-winter-hits-carbondale-residents-stoke-their-fireplaces/