Lots of noise here about high heating bills, but that is the case in may places. In New England, I know people that pay well over $1,000 a month to heat their houses. Even in cheap cheap cheap 7 cents a kWhr Oregon, we paid $300 a month to heat the ex's house where winters are far milder. We installed an OWB there, as she has all the wood she can burn in 12 lifetimes there for free. That unit cost $8k to install. The payback when I installed it was figured at 5 years. Now the break even is down to 4 years, as the winters here have been unusually colder than average in the past 4 years, and the price of electricity has gone up about 20% since the install.
As for getting an OWB, they are not for the romantically inclined. But neither are indoor stoves. Both require a lot of wook hauling wood around and feeding the fire. A stove requires the right setup in the house. Otherwise you heat one room and the rest of the house is freezing, like the house I live in now. I liked having an OWB. Even whole-house radiant heating, easy to feed and maintain, simple to operate, and reliable. Contrary to all the negative press about them, they simply do not smoke that much. And the wood stays outside, with the fire. After we installed the OWB at the ex's, we had no need or desire for a fire in the house any more. We used it when the power went out, and that was about it. We also kept the house wearmer than we did when the electric boiler was in use, so the confort level was greatly improved there in winter.