Thanks for the information! I know what it's like to have a regular fireplace, and I have to admit that I wasn't crazy about going without a wood stove because the last house I lived in had a fireplace and it had a ventilation system where you'd just flip the switch and the fan would come on. It did a great job with pulling all the smoke and soot up, but the heat went with it as well. I've got someone coming to inspect the chimney and clean it out, and I've already found a replacement stove that I'm hoping to have put in within the next few weeks. This particular situation just threw me for a loop because I've never had a fireplace or wood stove in a basement before. If everything works as planned, I'll keep my fingers crossed for lower electric bills this winter!

Drolet Escape 1400i is an Ul and EPA certified stove. If this is the model you are looking for. Almost all installed in exterior exposed fireplaces /chimneys require a full stainless stell UL 1777 aproved liner systems. The problem with mail order or Northern tools is installation they do not schedule it. Aufull hard to get warranty issues solved with a 3oo lb beast to move and ship All these factors have to be considered not just price. the Drolet is what it, is a lower cost plate steel insert, that will provide. suplemental heating In a month the big box stores will have simmilar stoves called Englanders plus sell venting material For more detailed responses you should post on Hearth.com and detail your existing fireplace flue size and setup there you will get advice from a lot of experienced users dealers

I did research on the GW and based on the posts selected the Fireplace Xtrordinair FPX44. It is a wood burner and will serve as part of my backup heat source. I have a geothermal heat pump system and a backup power generator to run the electrical emergency heat for these units was cost prohibitive - so I upgraded a wood burning insert to the FPX 44 and a gas insert to the FPX 864. I have not turned these on yet (house is near completion) but here is why I picked the FPX 44: can handle 36 inch logs, has a 10-12 hour burn time on a full load of logs, can generate 76K BTUs/hr (1/2 of what I need for the entire house) , and it looks nice. The down sides of the FPX 44 are: it is expensive, the hook up is complicated - it requires a fan with exterior vent to suck in air for combustion and that drives extra duct work and electrical work and it has two other 8 inch flex ducts for air intake as well, it is weighs a ton. I call it "the beast". I also upgraded a gas firplace to the FPX 864 TRV for similar reasons as above. The 864 has two settings - one for ambience and one for backup heat. In the backup heat mode, it can generate 31K BTU's per hour. It also has an output vent that you can use to throw heat into another room besides the one that the fireplace is in - and I wanted that feature to heat my master bedroom and bath area when in backup heat mode. It also looks nice too. Between the two FPX units, I can heat my entire house with no power. I will have a small power generator to run the fans for both fireplace units. Hope this helps

If you aim for a serious amount of heat, you need to get a direct vent insert. These cost at least $2K. They are energy efficient in that most of the heat does not go up the chimney like the typical gas logs that look nice but do not give out real heat. And stay away from unvented systems which are a safey hazard and outlawed in many places. Do a search of direct vent on this forum to find out more.