I'm cheap, I use a Hotblast 1400 to heat 2000 basement and 2000sq ft on 1'st floor. It cooks us out if we want to. It's in the middle of the basement with one 8' duct into the middle of kitchen and livingroom. The other 8' duct is split up and runs to corner of living room, one to bathroom, and one in the 30' hallway. It also has a diverter on it to open it to the basement because the upstairs gets too hot. My wife has clotheslines in the basement and dries clothes there, duct blows on them. I also use it to heat a 24x24 insulated attached garage for a fair amount of the winter ( snowmobiles) also have propane in there. We use about 5 to 6 cord of wood a season (I like it hot) and no one ever says our house is cold. Hotblast was $1300 before taxes, new chimney was $800. In my opinion, for me it was the cheapest way to go and we're happy. I would like a better stove but for the dollars I don't see any that are worth it. I have an old OWB that I can have for free and I'm still trying to decide if I will even bother with it. I'm putting in a 24x 54' shop right now and it's a tough call between another Hotblast or the OWB. PS, there is almost always someone home or closeby so burn times close to a OWB aren't a concern. We do easily get overnight burns and if I did abit of tweaking I'm sure we could get even longer burn times. Been at least 3 years since electric heat was used.