Wood Stoves - Self Sufficiency

[Challenges of Heating an old New Englander ]

Long have I wished for owning a wood stove (or multiple wood stoves) and now that I have one I'm worried it isn't quite right for our house. In an oblong and quite frankly uniquely laid-out house heating is a big challenge.  The original 1858 house, was much smaller and simpler, but since then multiple add-ons (including the addition of a second floor about a hundred years ago) have made this house quite odd. The front room is a long, slightly narrow living room with 4 windows where we spend most of our time either relaxing, reading or watching TV. Quite frankly it's the perfect room to plop down a hearth and wood stove to cut oil usage during the winter, but... there lies a number of challenges. 

First and foremost the positioning of the wood stove would be a challenge due to the placement of the windows and existing baseboard heating AND on top of that (or rather, below that) the oil tank sits under this room. Second, there's two entrances to the living room - one on either end and I don't want to block or obstruct an exit. Third, the floor would need major reinforcing in order to support a 300+ lb. wood stove as well as a brick or stone hearth. Fourth, just the pure cost of the chimney that would have to be ported through the exterior wall.
  
Other than that it should be easy? Right? Ugh...

Besides the wood stove placement in our living we do have an existing fireplace on the opposite end of the house in a den-like room that is on a slab, rather than the house's original stone foundation. It's a small fireplace and hearth and it's cozy, but the chimney itself is built on the outside of the house, which is inherently inefficient due to the loss of heat outside of exterior walls. What would help mitigate this? A wood fireplace insert and the internal chimney that comes with it. What it comes down to these days is just pure cost effectiveness versus efficiency of the end product. Will a wood stove and wood fireplace insert eventually be worth the initial costs in the long run? Hard to say. More on this very soon...

Cozy, but sadly inefficient fireplace