Hi Bob,

Rachele and I have had a pellet stove since 2001 and it is installed in the living room. We had have excellent luck with it, but ran into a "problem" with a power loss about two years after it was installed. Smoke started to pour out of the stove as the pellets then in the small firebox burned out. Needless to say, it was probably the coldest night of the year and we had to open all the windows to clear the house. There are two ways to avoid that kind of problem: one is to purchase a heavy duty inverter made specifically for pellet stoves. (some are brand specific) This inverter also acts as a battery charger. I have two marine batteries hooked up in parallel which should power the stove for 8 plus hours. The second way to avoid filling the house with smoke is to install at least 9 feet of vent pipe vertically. This length provides a natural draft to exhaust the smoke when the blowers go off. Our exhaust vent pipe merely goes through the wall and sticks out perhaps 18 inches. I also see that you had questions regarding clearances. Our unit can be as close as two inches on sides and back to walls, furniture, etc. One other comment, our unit has a 3-position switch for the convection fan that blows the hot air into the room. The fan can be pretty loud when operated at the high position. Some stoves are now available that place the exhaust blower and convection blower in a separate compartment that be be mounted outside on the wall or below the floor such as in a garage or workshop, etc. Those units are quiet. As for pellet storage, we keep the majority on skids completely covered with heavy duty plastic sheet and tarps at the end of the driveway . We also keep about two or three dozen bags in garage to make it easy to get them. It simply saves having to untie the tarps every time a new bag of pellets is needed. Whatever you do, keep the pellet bags dry! Hope this helps you...

Bruce