@Lahna0
By far the cheapest form of heating to run (unless you have an unlimited supply of free firewood) is a 3.5Kw (1.5hp) wall split inverter air conditioning unit. Not only do you get cheap heating you get the added bonus of cooling in the summer.
The average cost of 1 kw of electricity in Portland Oregon is 8.45c. An inverter unit of the size I described above will use electricity at the rate of 1/3 of a Kw per hour, once it has the temperature under control! And in a 23Ms (250Sq ft) space a unit this size will have your temperature close to your set point within 7-8 minutes of initial startup! This means that you will be able to run an aircon of this type for three hours on 8c of electricity.
With an inverter unit for every Kw of electricity you put in you will get 4Kws of heat back out! With your electric resistance heater for every 1 Kw of electricity you put in you get the same back out...1 Kw! So your inverter unit is 4 times as efficient as an electric radiator!
I know these things Lahna because all my life I was a mechanical services contractor (Air conditioning company).
I can't tell you precisely what the cost of such a unit is in the USA but here in Australia a good quality unit Daikin, Panasonic, Mitsubishi would have a retale cost of around $450.00 and the install would amount to about the same again so you should be able to achieve this for less than $1,000 and you will benefit many times over by going down this path!
All the best Lahna.
Cheers.....Rob
