BAR HARBOR — With the price of home heating oil nearing $4.80 a gallon, many residents here are looking into alternative methods to heat their houses.

Plumber and heating contractor Randy Sprague of Bar Harbor has been swamped with inquiries about wood pellet furnaces.—ROB LEVIN PHOTO

“I can’t begin to keep up,” Mr. Sprague said.

As an advocate of energy alternatives for the past 15 years, including solar hot water heating and highly efficient European furnaces, Mr. Sprague sees a silver lining in today’s oil crunch.

“I’m kind of excited by our current energy crisis, because it’s making people green by default,” he said.

While there might be many benefits to lessening one’s reliance on oil, adding a wood pellet boiler onto an oil boiler system is no simple task. Not only has strong demand for furnaces outstripped current supply, but the price tag, upward of $15,000 for many homes, may seem out of reach for many.

There are steps people can take to lower their oil consumption this winter, without making any drastic changes, notes Tremont plumber and heating oil technician Jon Gray.

“You can’t spend a fortune to save a little bit. There’s no magical way right now,” Mr. Gray said. For starters, he said, people should look at what they have for insulation in their walls and roofs, take a look at their doors and windows, and even think about insulating around the electric outlets in their houses.

“I’m kind of excited by our current energy crisis, because it’s making people green by default.” —Randy Sprague

People should also seriously consider turning their thermostats down from where they might usually be set, he said. “Once you get used to 68 degrees, now try to get used to 66 or 65…every degree helps out a lot.”

Many people have been switching to gas-fired boilers, said Carrie McKay, who works in the office for plumber and heating technician Harold Lynk. The efficiency of the units is a lot better than oil, and the price of gas is lower than oil at this time, she said.

For homeowners who are considering a new system altogether, the most important step to take is to have a heat loss test done, she said.

“If you’re looking to make a change … what I do is, we’ll go in and measure the house, all of the windows and door openings, plug the information in, and produce what the BTU need is for each room. Once we can compile that, we can determine what size boiler to put into each home,” she said.

Historically, Mr. Lynk has been involved solely with oil and gas heat, but this fall he and his crew are going to become certified to market and install solar hot water systems. The move seems to make sense in today’s energy climate, Ms. McKay said.

“I really see the future of people looking for renewable types of energy to heat their homes.”

The technology involved with generating domestic hot water with solar heat has greatly improved over recent years, Mr. Sprague said, and installing such a system can greatly reduce oil bills. However, the expense of the system will realistically take the average homeowner a decade to pay back.

One technology that people may want to look into is a control that can be retrofitted to many boilers to modulate the temperature they fire at based on the temperature outside. This causes the boiler to work less during all but the coldest times of year.

At $1,000, these aftermarket items did not appear to be cost-effective in the past, Mr. Sprague said. But at today’s oil prices, the price tag seems a lot more palatable.

For those interested in wood pellet boilers, Mr. Sprague suggests taking a peek at Maine Energy Systems, a new company that he is very excited about. At its Web site, maineenergysystems.com, a user-friendly financial calculator lets users compare their potential annual costs for oil, pellets, and the financing they would need to fund such a system.

For anyone interested in doing what they can this winter without spending thousands of dollars, there are many heating and insulation tips available at a Web site set up by the state, efficiencymaine.com.

Whatever the choice, for homeowners in a position to think about making big changes, the key is to get a reliable professional on site who will provide an honest assessment of the situation,” Mr. Sprague said.

“The first step is to find a contractor that you trust that really has no vested interest in how much fuel you burn,” he said.