Older home - no fireplace - want efficient wood fireplace insert

[bholler]

Umm... yes, exactly. If you have to burn the princess on medium and high all the time, you really might as well have a tube stove (although the princess will be much better in shoulder season unless you insist on burning it like a tube stove then, too).

You had a carbeurated Camero that got 25mpg at 30mph and 20mpg at 80mph, and switched to a Honda Fit that gets 50mpg at 30mph and 25mpg at 80mph. You're driving the Fit at 80 and you don't like it because you want the 35mpg that is advertised in the brochure.

That's fine; the Honda isn't for every driver, but lots of us really are getting 40mpg out of it because we don't drive it like we used to drive the Camaro.

(That analogy doesn't quite work because the honda in the example has an efficiency sweet spot at 30, and it's actually about 60, but that is artistic license for the sake of the comparison to stoves.)

How exactly am I burning it like a tube stove?