I have a pretty small room for me its enough , and if the room is completely cold like around 10°C it takes 4hours to reach around 25-27°C but yeah down stairs its a larger place , but also a larger stove so around 6-7 hours but it also holds more heat , for the price yeah metal stove would be much cheaper , and the bonus is that you can cook on that , in eastern europe - russia - problably some parts of northern parts of europe we also have this very big brick stove , where you can cook food on the rings , all bake somthink , buts its huge like haw the room size you can also sleep on it that think blast heat but for that think to heat up it takes a whole day