Should not smell. Perhaps it needs a tuneup of sorts. It would be worth gettingit checked out. OTOH, some stoves and firelaces will give an odor the first time or two they are used for hte season if that is what you smell.
But how about a smaller tank and just use the propane for cooking? Mine are right next to the house against the foundation, not visible at all unless you are nearly on top of them.
Your local propane supplier will come and fill it from a truck mounted tank. Mine comes once every 14 to 16 months and fills it.
You've gotten some good ideas.
Battery and inverter: Get a big inverter, sometimes the starting current for the fan is larger than the inverter. I found this out with my last furnace. Never really needed it, but I did try my furnace on the inverter, and the inverter went off, "low battery". Mighta worked with larger 12 volt cables.
Generator: My favorite, to run the furnace. Problem is the gas engine is noisy, and won't be polite to run after dark or when kids are supposed to be sleeping. Chain it down, generators disappear during power cuts.
Vented heater: Well, same problem with your gas fireplace. Only heats one room.
Infared heater: They make gadgets that screw onto a propane bottle. Either a gas grill bottle, or a campstove size bottle. Lot better than nothing. And if the NG is off, too, you have some heat that doesn't depend on the gas company. I've used infared heaters, they do work.
Portable kerosene heater: These do work. Needs a new wick every year, or every other year.
Do the pellet stoves that you are looking at operate w/out electricity? My pellet stove knowledge is not current; the last time I knew about it, pellet stoves require electricity to feed the pellets into the burn chamber, as also to permit the operation of the blower. Ashoke - heating.products.bz
Lots of pellet stoves out there that have a spring-operated auger, at least as a backup. No such luck on the blower, but a blower is a nice-to-have, not a got-to-have.
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