This was my plan...
The woodstove is built in, no way to replace it without major renovations. My idea was simply idle the woodstove, use the pellet stove most of the time and only lite the woodstove when its super cold or the electric was out.
I don't think I could ever get away from having a woodstove...anything I buy will be in addition to the woodstove. But after seeing the quantity and cost for pellets, I could buy almost four year's worth of logs for the same price as a year's worth of pellets.
Pellets are that expensive where you are in Pennsylvania?
I'm getting mine at Home Depot for $4.31(CAD) a bag and at that price I'm buying 200 bags which should do me two years. They will match and beat other retailers by 10%.
Although last year I burned 40% more than previous years. It was EXTRA cold, snowy and windy here.
I do have a big open basement for storage and my main living space is an ideal open concept area for easy pellet heat distribution so that helps. I could see if a house that was long and divided up into lots of closed rooms where a pellet stove wouldn't be as effective. You have to move that air around to get good, even heating.
Wood stoves and wood fireplaces are the cheapest heating for sure, but next is wood pellets. I have saved over $20,000 in fuel costs over ten years compared to natural gas, oil, or electricity. That's a lot of dough.
I will always do firewood and like heating up the house with my wood stove, but the pellet stove is more convenient and longer lasting burn times between filling. So using both in different seasons give me the best of both worlds.