But there is a lot more maintenance with something like this. I have to have about 6 cords of wood to make it through winter (which mostly comes off my property) but that also means handling the fuel (bucking and then splitting the wood as well as having the space to let it season for a year to dry it). Filling up the furnace once or twice a day depending on the weather. Cleaning out the ash once a month. And now that it's getting older (8 years) I have to fix up some of the welds inside the main chamber.
I don't mind the extra work as it saves a lot of money in electricity bills and all that splitting of wood has been good exercise. But I wouldn't recommend it unless you have the time and energy to do the work.
I also live in a very rural area on a 1 hectare lot surrounded by other 1 and 2 hectare lots. I would not want to run this in a typical suburb and I agree with most the other comments that wood burning really shouldn't be a thing in densely populated areas.
Unfortunately for me my only other real option is electricity which can be relatively intermittent where I am and also expensive. It would end up costing $700-$1000 extra during winter months. I'm heating two homes with it. A newer one with walls at an R40+ rating and an older one with walls at a recently upgraded from nothing to an R20 rating. The money I'm saving on electricity will be going into add more insulation into the older home for even better long term benefits.
Check out the below site if you'd like to learn a bit more about what the typical issues are and what's trying to be done to help reduce the problems. https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/documents/strateg...
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PL0yBdvSxA
12 minute video from an owner:
* https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQc8p-roy-E
Popular for off-grid situations.