As far as how much the stoves can go down in the "off-season" depends on many factors. If there is a discontinued model, it will go cheaper. On others, it just depends on how motivated the dealer is or maybe there is a stove in a particular color that they want to clear out. Mostly, the off-season is best for scheduling the installation and ordering any parts. That's probably where you will save the most money. Maybe they can even throw in installation for free if they don't discount the stove. There is more bargaining room on everything when they have more time. As far as the motor and boards on the Harman, I only ever replaced one board, but I am convinced the owner of the stove messed it up (there were other issues with this guy). I never replaced a motor or even a blower, even on my own stove. There is fan noise with all pellet stoves and I would always recommend to people that it not be put in the TV room. It seems to bother some people more than others. If you are sensitive to sounds it will bother you. It is kind of like a range hood fan on low all the time.

I used a Harman P68 pellet stove to heat my entire home last year. Its about 2,600 sq ft. It heated the main house and upstairs easily. The family room we added on is 46 feet from the stove and has 11' ceilings. When its cold we use the oil to warm it up at night then turn it off when we go to bed. I used very little oil. I still heat hot water with the boiler. We run are stove 24/7 with no problems. Its designed for that. The harman has a large ash pan and you can burn about a ton before you have to empty it. I would think you could heat your whole house with the stove depending on the layout. I used about 4.5 tons last year. I bought 5 tons this year at $219.00 a ton. I have to pay a delivery charge but don't have the bill yet. Probably end up being around $235 with delivery. My oil dealer said I use about 1,100 gallons a year. some is used for the hot water but not much i have found. I figure it costs me about $1,200 less a year to heat with the pellets pepending on the price of oil. I figure the stove will pay for its self in 2-3 years. There are other benefits. Not using foreign oil, non polluting, burns a waste product etc that I like. the heat is very comfortable and does not seem to dry out the house like a wood stove. I wish the pellets were around 200 a ton but demand has increased them. Hopefully they won't go higher.

Going on my 2nd year with the Quadrafire 7100. Although the weather has been mild so far this year, I've already learned some things in regards to heating with the 7100 the previous year that I know will benefit me this year. First, as some have already pointed out, the fan kicking on randomly appears to be a feature in most of the units. So... when I sense that the unit is hot enough, I just kick on the manual fan switch and let it run. Although we have 3 floors including our basement, the upper floors have about 3100 sqft. The first floor has 9 ft ceilings and the foyer is open space (2 story). The system does a great job of raising the temperature a good 6 to 7 degrees in a few hours if you run it with the fan. Letting the fan come on randomly (which it seems to do) it takes much longer. Before installing the 7100, primary heat on the main floor was propane with a heat pump upstairs. Unless the temp dips into the teens, the quad heats both upper floors - a savings on propane and electric. The quad is in a great room. When the fan is running and the heat has been distributed well, you can walk around some on the end opposite of the quad and pass through, what I call, little hot pockets. It would be interesting to somehow be able to follow the air flow (like with a colored spray). I have noticed that if a little bit of smoke escapes when I open the doors, just a few moments later, I can smell the smoke the most at the top of the stairs and that's on the other side of the house. So it rises quickly. Oh, that reminds me - I've learned to open the doors slowly and let the draft settle the light ashe first before opening all the way. That keeps it a bit more clean. Other tips: - Burning good seasoned hard wood with bigger splits (as others have suggested) is a really good thing. I don't have to damp it down all the way and still have good coals left in the morning up to 8 hours. Like others, I don't know where this "up to 16 hours" burn time came from. Not having to damp it down as much saves on glass cleaning as well. I used to spend a lot of time cleaning the glass. I've cleaned it once this year. If there is not much of a coating on the glass, a good hot fire burns it off anyway. - To get a fire going from coals in the morning, I just crack the door a little (leave the handle in the down position and let the draft pull it closed) and a fire kicks up in less than a minute in most cases. - The timer does a decent job most of the time, but there are times when it seems to hang. That might be due to the air intake lever being a little too far to the right. - I do take up ashes every two to three days. I'm thinking of buying an ashe vac, but don't know if it's worth the cost. - I still feel a little uncomfortable about leaving a fire going when we're not home, but the more I learn about the system, the more comfortable I am. And as long as I have the chimney inspected and cleaned every year, I think we'll be fine. Overall, I'm happy with the 7100. I am thinking of buying a humidifier. Burning does dry the air out quite a bit. Happy heating to all out there.

I recently got a 'rough' estimate for a Tulikivi masonry heater. It was for their smallest model, which retailed for around $4K. Install with pipe was in the neighborhood of $2K. Additionally, I would have to contract with someone to reinforce the floor (we have a basement). The distributor thought this would cost between $1 and $2K based on his past experience with similar projects. Tulikivi provides the requirments, and you can go to their website to do some research. Bottom line is that it cost between $7-8K. I am seriously considering this product, as it is exactly what I want, but it is about double some of the other products I was looking into. Here is a link that might be useful: Tulikivi masonry heaters