Is the Red Store still doing business? We bought a quadrafire free standing woodstove in 1992 when we built our log cabin. Really considered going to propane at the time, but we made the wise decision to go wood burning. We also originally put a propane wall heater downstairs on a thermostat, and a pilot-controlled instant propane water heater. Power goes out we have virtually unlimited heat and hot water. Add in 1 to 3 bars of Verizon cell phone coverage, and the only thing we need is food, if we survive cabin fever! By the way, the Quadrafire woodstove we installed was and still is perhaps the most efficient wood stove on the market. Back then, it was 1/3 to 1/4 of the cost of a new one now.

I second, or third, keeping the wood-burner. It goes together with a mountain home like bread and…something…

..and for heating, it’s all about “thermal mass”….the stove heats up all the “mass” around it…especially it’s own iron mass…consider it as a “battery for heat” which keeps the place warm, long after the fire has gone out… and there’s an abundance of free fuel in them, thar woods…. 😉

I recommend Paul Bertini in Avery:
https://www.yelp.com/biz/bertini-mechanical-avery-2

He did our 2-zone furnace a couple years ago and still stops by occasionally. Great guy.

Although I love our gas furnace, it does need electricity to run the fan. It’s great that we can turn it up remotely from our phone. It’s super convenient, and yet…

We still use our wood stoves a lot, and I recommend keeping yours, too. The stove is a different kind of heat, a nice radiative cozy heat that makes you warm when you stand in front of it, makes all the surfaces like floors and counters warm in the room, and dries off all the wet clothes around it. We’ve cooked on it once in awhile. And of course, as others mentioned, it is absolutely vital during a power outage.

Warm air is convenient, but a real wood burning fire feels amazing.

Angels sheet metal or ebbetts. Good luck