Well rmcfall I think an insert will be the one that will be able to most likely heat your house or offset your heating bill but isn't what you want. I think a ceiling fan would be just fine instead of the blower and was one of the top rated items to work with a stove. Don't think about an insert too much, sure they may be the best to heat a house but not the only units that can heat a house and Roospike points that out, there are other things involved. An inserts blowers sound like an AC on medium, a blower on a freestanding stove is smaller than an inserts and probably more like an AC on low. Do your research, I can tell you won't be happy with an insert, I think the soapstone stove is the way to go and forget the shield and blower since you have the ceiling fan. If you're looking at soapstone though, look at firebox size. I see a soapstone stove that's larger than the Pacific Energy Summit, is more efficient, has more surface area, holds and burns more wood, but only rated at 80,000 btu's the summit 97,000 btu's. You have to concern yourself with sustainability. My guess is if you get the summit to 97,000 btu's I bet it would put something like 50,000 btu's one hour, 97,000 btu's the next, 60,000 btu's the third for a total of 207,000 btu's over 3 hours. If you got the soapstone stove to 80,000 btu's I bet it would go something like 70,000 btu's one hour, 80,000 btu's the next, 70,000 btu's the third. In the end, the soapstone put out a little more btu's over the course of 3 hours and it should. It's more efficient and has a bigger firebox. So, there's more than just max btu's when looking at a soapstone stove, I like to often judge by firebox size, and good luck.