I am looking into the possibility of purchasing a pellet stove for our cabin. I am trying to determine how long a 80 lb pellet hopper will last before it requires refilling. I know this is not an easy answer but I'm hoping some of the folks with pellet stoves can tell me how often they need to reload their stoves (daily, weekly, etc). I'm also curious as to how long it takes to get a pellet stove started and putting out significant heat from a cold condition. We currently have a propane stove (35K BTU) that works marginally at keeping our cabin warm in winter (with a reasonable duty cycle). I'm hoping to get a bigger pellet stove (~50K BTU for example) with a blower. I was hoping that I could run it continuosuly at a low temperature while we are away for a week, and then crank the temp up and have the place warmed up in a fairly reasonable time. Anyone with experience have any thoughts to share? Also, any recommendations on the brand?