PALATINE, ILLINOIS

According to the 24th annual Weber GrillWatch Survey,* the top three must-have items among grill owners for a proper tailgating party are a grill (82 percent), food (80 percent) and a cooler (80 percent). Chairs (76 percent) and alcoholic beverages (66 percent) round out the top five. Just half of grill owners (50 percent) consider tickets to the game a must-have item.

The grill of choice among tailgaters is a portable model (65 percent) versus 29 percent who opt to bring full-size models to their tailgate parties.

Overall, grilling away from home has increased in popularity over the past two years, with tailgate parties ranking as the fourth most popular location to grill away from home (22 percent).  Camping is ranked as the top spot (44 percent), followed by the park (37 percent) and the beach (23 percent).

Nearly one-half (48 percent) of grill owners report they place their grill on the ground when tailgating or grilling away from home in general; approximately one-third (32 percent) of those surveyed bring a table to use as a grill stand, and 17 percent use their truck beds. 

Other Tailgating Trends from the study include:

• Twenty percent of U.S. grill owners have attended a tailgate party during the past 12 months, up from 14 percent last year.  
• Sixty-seven percent of grill owners who tailgate say that grilling is always a part of their tailgating activities.                  
   
• The top five foods to grill when tailgating are hamburgers (71 percent), hot dogs (47 percent), brats (40 percent), chicken (29 percent) and steak (25 percent).                   
   
• On average, grill owners spend a hefty $122 for food and drinks at a tailgating party.                 
   
• Attending the game is secondary to many tailgaters, with 57 percent revealing they have attended a tailgate in the past 12 months without going into the game. This number jumped 13 percent from last year.

*Weber-Stephen Products LLC commissioned Toluna (formerly Greenfield Online), a leading online survey panel provider, to field the 24th annual Weber GrillWatch Survey. A total of 1,000 grill owners throughout the United States completed the online survey. All respondents were 21 years of age or older and owned a charcoal, gas or electric outdoor grill or smoker. The sample was divided between 50 percent males and 50 percent females and was balanced demographically to represent households across the U.S. 

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Pelletco Sells the Heat

ORONO, MAINE

By Mainetoday.com

A startup company in Orono is trying to convince midsize businesses and institutions in New England that they can save money by converting from heating oil to wood pellets without buying any fuel or equipment.

The concept is intriguing, but some observers in the pellet-fuel industry say Pelletco LLC faces challenges to perform on a large scale over time.

High and volatile oil prices have commercial users looking for alternatives. The next year or so will help show whether selling just heat, rather than fuel and equipment, is a viable option in Maine.

Pelletco brings a wood-pellet boiler and a storage building, called a HeatPod, to a client's business, sets it up outdoors and connects it to the heating system. Pelletco operates and maintains the unit.

The client pays only for heat, buying Btus at a price that's nearly 20 percent below the cost of oil. Pelletco says it has 11 HeatPods installed.

The three-year-old company has an ambitious growth plan. Financial material obtained by the Portland Press Herald shows that Pelletco, which expects to lose $366,125 this year, is seeking investors to transform it into a break-even, energy-services provider with $3.5 million in earnings. That would require hooking up about 80 new customers by 2016, the company acknowledges.

The company has the support of a key lender for renewable energy that sees enough potential in the plan to provide seed capital. But its business plan has drawn a cautious response from more established members of the state's pellet-fuels industry.

They remember when a California company, International Wood Fuels, opened an office in Portland in 2009, selling the same kind of pellet heat service to schools and large workspaces in New England.

Financial troubles forced the company to close in Maine two years later.

International Wood Fuels left behind disappointed customers and a broken promise to build a $20 million pellet mill in Burnham. The episode gave pellet heat a black eye, say industry veterans, at a time when it was struggling to gain acceptance as a viable alternative to heating oil.

No one is suggesting that Pelletco is destined to be another International Wood Fuels. But William Strauss, an economist and president of the FutureMetrics biomass consulting firm in Bethel, said both business models assume oil prices will stay high and wood prices will remain stable.

"There is a good target market for Pelletco to go after," Strauss said. "Maybe they can pull it off. But banking on the spread between what you're paying for energy and charging for heat has inherent risks."

Strauss is a partner in Maine Energy Systems, which sells a European-designed pellet boiler and distributes pellets.

Pelletco faces other challenges, Strauss said, including the rapid penetration of natural gas lines in Maine and the logistics of operating and maintaining HeatPods on a large scale.

- Tux Turkel

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