I am learning so much from all you wonderfully helpful folks on this forum.
Perhaps it's time to summarize what I've learned at this point:
I can't be absolutely sure how comfortably the Vermont Castings Radiance will heat *all* zones in my home until I actually try it. Expect a learning curve. Expect to tinker with fans, portable heat sources, occasional use of the old gas furnace.
I'm optimistic I can expect to save some costs on lowered BTU usage, but as one contributor pointed out: if the house needs nnnK BTU's to heat it comfortably, I will still be using nnnK BTU's. Luckily, all things will not be equal. I will be saving on electricity by not using the furnace blower. I will be saving on BTU usage by no longer losing heat to cold leaky ducts in the crawl space under the house. And at around 80% efficiency in the Radiance, versus unknown but poor efficiency in my 33-34 year old gas furnace, I'm counting on savings there too.
I'll be really surprised if the stove will comfortably heat the two bedrooms at the far end of the hallway. And the Master Bathroom which is a second right turn off the hallway will probably be pretty cold. (We didn't talk about this, but I assume that warmer air doesn't turn corners that effectively, especially when at such a distance from the heat source.) So I do expect I'll need to find a way to economically supplement the temperatures in those distant rooms on an "as needed" basis during the daytime. Perhaps I'll be lucky and find a way to use fans to good effect. Otherwise, it'll get more expensive.....
I can't expect to completely retire the central forced air gas furnace. I'd like to(!), but I will almost certainly want to use it to initially warm up a cold house in the wintertime. Then let the stove take over. Hopefully, I'll figure a way to manage the Radiance so this will be seldom. Or here's another situation where the central furnace might be preferred: It's been a really cold spring here. Lots of mornings I've had to turn on the furnace to take the chill off, and then turn it off. I expect the central furnace will do a better job of providing quick temporary heat than the VC Radiance.
Now I'm in the process of checking prices. I'm already discovering significant savings can be had by looking outside my area (San Francisco Bay Area). One store in the Reno area is $300 lower than my SF area quote of $2890. (We have relatives in Reno, so that'd work out for us.) An Oregon store quotes prices around $600.00 lower. And Oregon doesn't charge sales tax either. We'll be traveling to Vancouver, BC this July in my old full sized station wagon, so I have some homework to do here, but I'm pretty sure we can stuff the stove into its 4' x 8' cargo space and save on shipping costs.
I think the thing I am MOST hoping is that the Radiance will provide a MUCH more comfortable heat in most areas of my house compared to the old forced air furnace. So even if the costs savings prove disappointing, this alone will make it worthwhile.
As for the weather in my area: As I said earlier, I live in a particularly cold microclimate of the San Francisco Bay Area. For example, my MinMax thermometer, as well as my neighbor's, measured 17 degrees on one unusually cold December night last year, while less than a half-mile away an amateur weather station in our local area recorded 24 degrees (the difference: I live in a low spot, the weather station was on a ridgetop). In San Francisco itself, it was well above freezing on that same night. So talking about weather in the San Francisco Bay Area is complicated
Jan
