dvetter, I think that you can heat your area in your New Jersey location with a regular corn/grain-fired heating stove. I am a bit concerned about your 14 foot ceiling situation, but 60,000 BTU units can heat up to around 2,000 sq. ft. in the Great Lakes area, colder than your area, I think, if the residence has good circulation and insulation. There are a small number of companies in a cartel that run world grain, which make few reports, as most them are privately owned, not joint-stock companies like the oil companies, who have to publish much more of their information. The grain cartel has proven for many years that they are effective in keeping prices paid to farmers for their grains low. A number of users in this area find that they can heat using 150 - 200 bus. of corn per heating season. Not too shabby a price. But - you must operate it similarly to a wood stove, which needs managing oftener than once daily, so such a heater should be an alternative heat source - but you say that you have a furnace in place now, which can heat the place when you're away. They run somewhere around $2,500. in price, I think. Try www.grainstovesinc.com (or maybe ending ".ca"): my friend builds a high qualtiy stove. Good wishes as you seek an alternative heat source. joyful guy

The advice you have been given is very likely correct. Most fireplace flues are grossly oversized for a pellet stove, and a chimney liner to reduce that and properly vent the pellet stove is almost certainly specified in the installation standards for the stove. Your dealer should be happy to point that out to you in the manual for the stove if you ask. And it doesn't mattter how well your fireplace vents. Sorry --- there is a huge difference between your fireplace and the stove, and this is reflected in different requirements for venting the combustion products.

On line you can check out the cost of various fuels per million btu. Cut wood is one of the least expensive ways to heat a home. Growing up we never paid for wood, always sought out free junk wood and I just cleaned the chimney a few times a season. Now that I have a child with asthma and a home that is only served by electricity I have had to rely on heat pumps and a pellet stove. (Puffs of smoke from wood stove when opening the door to feed wood are a problem for asthma.) Cold days when the heat pumps start cutting in electric resistance heat we run the pellet stove. It was the largest I could find (E----o Maxx) and holds three bags of pellets. The fan is LOUD - similar to a window AC unit on high (moved the TV to another room). Having used a wood stove for many year (before child) I can give first hand benefits of a large pellet stove. 1. No smoke or dust in the house. 2. We leave it unattended all of the time, it can even be wired to a thermostat. 3. Simple operation - don't have to adjust or babysit the fire. 4. This year I bought 2 tons of pellets for about $360 stored in the garage. I am fine with spending the money for the convenience.

My pipes froze and burst twice. My basement flooded until the well went dry trying to replenish the water in the heating system. There is a product called ThermGuard which you attach to your thermostat and it will circulate hot water periodically. You can program it for whatever rate you want. I have mine set for 3 minutes every 3 hours. I live in Montana and it does the job. I am not worried about freezing pipes with my wood stove. It does not sense outdoor temperature, but you can easily turn it on and off when you want. It remembers all your settings even when powered off. Good luck! John