Before we moved to Arizona, we lived in a 2000 SF rancher in northeast Maryland. We installed a pellet stove in the basement. We would set the feed rate and the blower rate at a 'middle' level and about 85% of the house would be heated. On colder days, we would raise the settings. The master bedroom was on the other side of the house and would not get as toasty as the rest of the house. During a cold winter day, the heater would not even fire up. During the night, the heater would fire up very infrequently. Never did the math, but the pellet stove did save on our heating bills.
We would burn about 1.5 tons of pellets a winter. At the time, premium pellets were $170/ton delivered to our door. So every other year, we had to buy two tons.
You do have to clean the pellet stove. Not a full detail, just remove the ash and clean the glass.