Sky-guy,

I have a Fireplace Extraordinaire. It looks like a regular fireplace with glass doors that are "almost" airtight. It pulls in outside air for combustion, and it has an adjustable speed blower fan that turns on automatically when the firebox heats up to 600*. So it puts out more than enough to heat my 1275 sq. ft. main floor, and I don't really want to heat the master bedroom anyway. The rest of the main floor is one big open area for entry, kitchen, living, dining, home office. The basement really isn't an issue; the hot water floor heat I have down there never turned on once last winter except when I turned the thermostat high enough to test it out. I'm gonna' unplug that water heater and stop paying to heat water that just sits on standby all year. We just use the basement for storage and laundry room and could turn the heat on for the guest bedrooms if a guest wanted more heat.

Chuck,

Thanks for that info! Interesting range of prices; I may have to bypass the local dealer if I get a Honda.

Stlhead,

Not skeered of the dark. Just don't want the food in the fridge and freezer to spoil if the power is out for more than a couple days.

Sg