I love your analogy! True that!
That beasty stove was turned on, on Labor Day and burned 24/7 until Memorial day...helped heat a wing on a 17 room, 19th century farmhouse.
Power outages were common.....and at least, we had hot coffee for all the farm employees, looking to warm-up for a few minutes. Good times.
Wow, 17 rooms — that is a true estate. It reminds me of twenty years ago when I worked for a guy who did vintage home restorations. We were doing a place in Tennessee, a plantation mansion owned by one of the confederate generals, I forget the name, and it had lots and lots of rooms and massive fireplaces. Could easily imagine them having kept an iron workhorse like that stoked for months on end to help keep the place warm.