Bay of Plenty firewood suppliers are experiencing a rush in demand as people move towards more traditional heating methods in the face of rising power bills.

With temperatures beginning to drop firewood and fireplace outlets have been inundated with phone calls and sales, and some customers now face an eight week wait for installation of fireplaces.

The Fireman Limited sales consultant Darren Porter says fireplaces have been the hot item in the lead up to winter.

The Fireman Limited sales consultant Darren Porter says the company, primarily selling and installing fireplaces, has seen a resurgence in the traditional method of heating to combat the recent spike in energy prices for many homes.

'We are having a lot of interest this year and people have been booking up with a whole lot of jobs even back into January and February with the long hot summer.

'There is a trend back to open wood burners and people seem to realise it's still the best value to heat your whole home.”

Darren has been blown away by the interest in fireplaces this year, after setting an 'unrealistic” goal of selling 250 fire places in 2013.

'So far I'm on track and last year we sold 150.”

Darren says he has to deal with a number of frustrated customers who are having to join the eight week queue for the installation of their fireplace as the company continues to be run off its feet.

'We have suppliers going out of stock in some certain fireplaces and it's only the start of winter.

In response the company has been looking for extra staff to cater for the demand, but this has been problematic, says Steve.

'We have had to [employ more] but we are hard pressed to find people qualified at what we do. We only install them with a building permit in place and are telling people there is about an eight week wait.”

Fraser Street Firewood manager Val Baker says they still have a pile of firewood after recovering from their busy rush between September and January when they delivered 90 truckloads of wood – or 270 cubic metres.

'We have a stock pile of wood but we haven't had a rush of orders because a lot of our customers get their wood like they should do between September and January.

'It's not cold enough yet and people don't have much money.”