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We live in Maine, we use firewood for home heating. We have a freestanding woodstove, and a fire cookstove.
We consume 4 cords of mixed firewood each year.
My only other comment is that I suggest you to avoid trying to use any masonry fireplace [since most of the masonry mass is usually outhouse of the home].
great suggestion, and a diesel heater can run on a variety of 'free' fuels (including Jet A, if you have a friend as a mechanic (fuel is sometimes offloaded before maint for safety)). Discarded heating oil is also free and available when people retire oil heat units in their homes. or Bio-fuel (Appleseed processor), or Peanut / algae oil.
If you go with wood or fossil fuel, be sure to have a CO detector. Even so, I would not use an unvented heater.
I have used unvented heaters for many years in North FL and now use one in my basement in CT.I have monoxide detectors in two places in home,no worry.
On sunday 1/24/21 my furnace went out and I used my Buddy Heater,unvented,9000 btu with a 20 lb propane tank,we have a small home,in 20 degree temp the home was 72 degrees.
They replaced gas igniter on gas furnace,today.
This Buddy Heater would run for 4 days on 20 gal. tank.I am 87.
You can use kerosene, fuel oil, or diesel either onroad or offroad. Thats all I know. No idea how things like used motor oil would work. Might work ok, might plug it up. Would think you would need to filter dirty oil. This isnt like those old non-electric "carburetor" style fuel oil heaters from 50 to 70 years ago. Those put out lot heat and people use them in old uninsulated houses but back then fuel oil was near give away and they werent super efficient.
Look on youtube, whole lot videos on these Chinese diesel heaters. It will depend lot on size of building and how tight and well insulated it is. Ebay probably cheapest place to buy them, Amazon has them too. They come in two or three different styles. One is bare bones, one has its own cabinet (like in the video I posted link).
There is the 2KW version and the 5KW version. Some debate whether the 8KW is just a relabeled 5KW. As cheap as they are, if you needed two, big whoop. And personally I would put barrel up on stilts outside the building with the fuel, and run fuel line into the heater. Want fuel pump below the barrel so its always primed. The ones with cabinet come with little fuel tank built into the cabinet. Again like in the video link I posted.
Oh one other thing. Most are same design despite any branding, and parts interchange. Some are different design and parts rare. You want the one with cheap available parts.
The house I bought after my last divorce was a little over 400 sq. ft. House had a Warm Morning heater but it took up space so I took it out and heated my house with one burner on my gas cook stove. Kept me comfortable and didn't run my gas bill up. Folks said it was dangerous but with this old house there were enough places for the fumes to get out so I never had a bit of problems in the 8 years I lived there.
The house I bought after my last divorce was a little over 400 sq. ft. House had a Warm Morning heater but it took up space so I took it out and heated my house with one burner on my gas cook stove. Kept me comfortable and didn't run my gas bill up. Folks said it was dangerous but with this old house there were enough places for the fumes to get out so I never had a bit of problems in the 8 years I lived there.
Some older houses you stand near the window and feel the breeze, with the window shut. Probably no problem lighting oven to try and keep it warm. But any seriously tight house and you better have a CO detector, cause you are begging for a long dirt nap.
The diesel heater I mentioned draws its combustion air from outside, and exhausts combustion products back outside. Its pretty safe. Same with any vented propane heater. there are small wall mounted ones that use outside air for combustion and vent combustion products back outside. Of course they arent as efficient or as cheap as the unvented kind. You do lose some of heat with those combustion products vented back outside.
Unvented kerosene or propane and we get back to how fast fresh air infiltrates into the house. In old drafty house you will get away with it. In a tight house, really not a good idea. If you just gotta do unvented, PLEASE use a CO detector.
I had a lot of fun with the coal stove in CT. It took a little while to get the hang of it.
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