More than a million households heat with wood. The prices vary greatly depending on the type of heating, the type of wood and the quantity supplied. The delivery time also plays a role.
There are big differences in the current prices for ready-to-use firewood. For example, an online retailer charges 259 euros for one cubic meter of firewood, including delivery. DIY chains, for example, charge 299 euros for a hardwood mixture for one cubic meter delivered.
For several years, the Technology and Promotion Center (TFZ) of the Bavarian Ministry of Agriculture has been collecting average firewood prices for Germany twice a year. In the most recent survey of 28 suppliers in July, a cubic meter of firewood (hardwood) ready for the stove cost between 72 and 211 euros including delivery, the average was 152 euros.
“The strong price increases of the past year can no longer be observed,” the analysis said. The demand for firewood is still high, but not as high as in the summer of 2022. According to the August survey by the German Pellet Institute (DEPI), wood pellets cost 404 euros per ton for a purchase of six tons. In August 2022, this price was still 683 euros.
Hamster purchases in the past year
According to institute spokeswoman Anna Katharina Sievers, pellet prices are expected to fall slightly in September. In winter, the price will then remain at about this level, she told the German Press Agency. Precise forecasts are difficult because you don’t know how many pellets customers still have in stock after buying hamsters last year. In this respect, 2022 and 2023 are not typical years for price developments. “Usually the price goes up towards the winter because there are more orders,” she said.
There is also a slightly falling price trend for wood chips, which are mainly used by commercial enterprises to generate heat, Sievers continued. Supporters of the DEPI are, for example, boiler and stove manufacturers, pellet producers and trading companies.
According to the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, around 1.1 million households in Germany use logs, wood pellets or wood chips as the primary energy source for heating their entire living space. In addition, there are around 11.2 million so-called single-room fireplaces as supplementary wood heating systems, mostly wood-burning stoves and tiled stoves. At the end of 2022 there were around 43.4 million apartments in Germany. Almost half of them are heated with gas and almost a quarter with heating oil.
Source: Stern
