MARK NANCE/Sun-Gazette Dan Stabler, owner of R.R. Smith Company shows off an Alaska coal stoker stove at the store Thursday. A large number of alternative fuel stoves sold by R.E. Smith are coal stoves due to the high amount of heat produced by rice coal. This stove will burn all day on a single bag of coal.

The soaring price of home heating oil has many people who rely on it scrambling for affordable alternatives, and at least one of those alternatives reportedly has produced a 22-week backlog of orders. The backlog is for pellet or bio stoves, among the cheapest forms of home heating. Other alternatives range from geothermal heat pumps to electric heat pumps and gas furnaces. Geothermal heat pumps, once installed, offer the most economical cost of operation. The downside: installation of that type of system costs in excess of $40,000. Aside from geothermal systems, operating an electric heat pump system may be the cheapest way to heat a home, according to Mel Johnson, owner of Carl & Dan Heating & Wiring Co. “I try to talk most people into heat pumps,” Johnson said, considering the moderately priced installation and operating costs. Installing an electric heat pump system in an existing home costs between $5,200 and $6,000, according to Johnson.