You will find a world of information about wood stoves, chimneys, hearths, and any other related issues at www.hearth.com. It's impossible to give even a general dollar estimate. You can pay anywhere from several hundred dollars for a stove to 4000+ dollars. Local and state fire codes will have a lot to do with hearths, chimney, heat shields.

I have two fireplace inserts (wood burning). I bought Regency units. They are terrific. Because the door is closed, you will not get smoke in the room. I have a 4000+ sq, ft. home and heat exclusively with wood - however our winter temps never drop below freezing at worst. Good Luck!

I agree, I'd go with the freestanding stove in the great room. My theory is if you heat the larger mass of air, you'll have more convection to the rest of the house. Whether that actually works or not, beats me. And remember, if your power is out for any length of time, a lot of the heat that insert would recover is going up the chimney because your fan is off. Also, what's the coal situation like in Utah? A coal stove is better for prolonged heat, in my opinion, but you can't run them like a wood stove.

Ummm. The bottom line is that you need to install the stove according to the manufacturer's installation instructions. You ought to have a copy of those instructions, and you need to read and follow them carefully. I notice that "someone told you" that you could install a regular woodstove in your fireplace. Unfortunately, that may or may not be true, and it's more of an open question as to whether you have the skills, ecperience and judgement to do that if it can be done. Nhyankee's comment about your oversized flue illustrates the fact that you don't have the experience and judgement to do this job. There are plenty of other pitfalls as well that can trip you up. By contrast, a good installer will have his wily ways of doing the job properly and leaving you with a safe and secure installation. So I would add an additional vote to spending your time shopping around for am honest and competent installer. They are probably going to want to install 6" all fuel chimney up to the top of your chimney and install a new cap and seal the oversized existing flue. That would be well worth paying for based on my understanding of the facts you have posted.