I have a buddy who put in a fireplace insert and pellet stove. Besides the fact that he picked up very modern implementations of these two devices, he lives on a 10 acre property that's mostly Cherry Trees, so an electric log splitter was purchased along-side the fireplace insert.
He put them in after discovering that heating his house on LP (the only fuel source outside of electric available where he lives) cost about $650/mo to keep his home as warm as he wanted it. IIRC, he was basically keeping his house at 85 on those two devices, alone. He added geothermal a few years later.
His home is in the middle of the windiest parts of the thumb -- very, very cold in the winter with a lot of snow.
He put them in after discovering that heating his house on LP (the only fuel source outside of electric available where he lives) cost about $650/mo to keep his home as warm as he wanted it. IIRC, he was basically keeping his house at 85 on those two devices, alone. He added geothermal a few years later.
His home is in the middle of the windiest parts of the thumb -- very, very cold in the winter with a lot of snow.