Though it isn't as cost effective as a pellet stove, I did a standard wood burner. In my early years we had two really nice fireplaces in a house my uncle built. After that I lived in apartments and eventually this fire-less house (we do have a big fire pit in the front yard, but it's not too useful in the winter). I had a strong urge to see the crackling logs again.
The stove is an Ironstrike Striker 160. Nothing super fancy but very clean burning a pretty efficient. New woodstoves are a lot more technically sophisticated than the 20 or 30 year old ones I am used to. The draft is awesome and you can easily get a burn that just shows steam coming out of the chimney. The 10 foot high doublewall stainless chimney poking out of our mossy, steeply pitched old roof cost a bundle and looks like an alien presence. The installer said, "it's a statement"
