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Serving Northern St. Louis County, Minnesota

Lamppa stoves now more affordable

Federal stimulus package includes a 26-percent tax credit for the efficient wood furnaces

Marshall Helmberger
Posted 1/15/21

TOWER— Business has been booming at Lamppa Manufacturing here, but it could soon get even better. Tucked within the thousands of pages in the most recent federal stimulus package, approved in …

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Lamppa stoves now more affordable

Federal stimulus package includes a 26-percent tax credit for the efficient wood furnaces

Posted

TOWER— Business has been booming at Lamppa Manufacturing here, but it could soon get even better. Tucked within the thousands of pages in the most recent federal stimulus package, approved in Washington last month, is a lucrative tax credit that will effectively knock 26 percent off the price of a new Lamppa-built wood furnace beginning this year.
The tax credit is intended to encourage those who burn wood to heat their homes to upgrade to cleaner and more efficient wood furnaces. And that has Lamppa Manufacturing sitting in a sweet spot as the producer of the cleanest-burning and most efficient wood furnace built anywhere in the world. With very few of their competitors able to qualify for the tax credit, the latest federal incentive could be enough to launch Lamppa’s newly patented Vapor-Fire line of furnaces into a much more prominent position in the wood furnace market.
“It’s a very big deal,” said Garrett Lamppa, the son of company owner Daryl Lamppa.

Good timing
The tax incentive comes at the perfect time for Lamppa Manufacturing. While the company’s wood furnaces are the only ones in the U.S. to have fully met strict new federal standards for emissions, sales of the furnaces have been slower than anticipated. The company’s growth has, to date, been fueled primarily by demand for its top-quality sauna stoves, which has boomed during the recent coronavirus pandemic. Sauna is well known for its healthful properties, after all.
But the price of its wood furnaces, which are designed to connect to a forced air system and are capable of heating an entire home, can be a bit steep for some at a list price of $5,695, according to their website. Plant manager Dale Horihan notes that folks who consider heating their homes with wood are usually a bit more price-sensitive than others, and that may have contributed to the relatively slack demand for the company’s wood furnaces, despite the widespread recognition that the devices are the best wood furnaces built in the world today.
The new tax incentives, which are set at 26 percent of the installed cost of a wood furnace for 2021 and 2022, are likely to change that calculation for many who had, to date, shied away from a new wood furnace. That knocks about $1,500 off the price tag for the furnace itself and offers even more savings once the cost of installation is included.
At the same time, Lamppa Manufacturing has introduced a financing program that makes the purchase of a wood furnace an easier lift for many potential buyers. Combined with the tax credit, Lamppa is optimistic that the company is poised for even more growth than it’s already seen in the past couple years.
The company, which operated with just five employees as recently as a year and a half ago, is now up to 14 workers, including 12 in the shop. That includes five new workers brought on just since September. “It made us nervous bringing all those new people on board, but the orders just keep coming in,” said Horihan.