Best option for heating in a mild climate

So my house currently has a wood burning stove in a corner of the house that uses electricity, and we have a propane central heating unit. Our climate is mild, it takes so long to get the wood stove to heat anything other than the room it's in, and then the heat is unbearable, to the extent that we have to open windows. On most days we can use the central heating for 5-10 minutes, just to take the chill off. I like a cold house, 55-65 is optimal. We are in zone 8a in a well insulated house.

The wood stove is in a stupid location and I would like to move our wood heating to the center of the house. I'm not sure that I want to move the existing wood stove as it uses electricity for efficiency, but we don't have extra power in the winter, we're off grid solar. I was thinking that a masonry stove would be better. I could light a fire and let it go out, but it would continue to keep the chill off. Is this accurate, or would it overheat the house even more?

I don't need to make a decision soon, just making plans for the future.

It's hard to comment without seeing the setup, but it sounds like your wood stove already has a fair bit of thermal mass, since it takes a long time to heat up -- and then it's way too hot for too long.

I think it's worth expermenting with small, quick, hot burns to manage the radiated heat. Basically, stick fires.

My first instinct is to find new ways to creatively use what you have, before expending resources in a completely different direction. My 2c.

I will take pictures tomorrow but some of the reasons to move it are because of bad home design. Actually originally it wasn’t a home, it was a farm hand bunk house. Changes have been made over the years and a lot of them don’t make much sense. I think that everyone was just trying to work with what was there. I’d rather make changes that make sense. The house is 40’x40’ and is currently set up as a 2 bedroom, when we bought it, it had 1 bedroom. I would like the wood heat in the middle of the house and am considering transom windows to circulate the heat.

Stacy Witscher wrote: I'm not sure that I want to move the existing wood stove as it uses electricity for efficiency, but we don't have extra power in the winter, we're off grid solar.

What's the electrons for?  Spinning a fan?  In which case a car battery might also do the job.

As Doug has suggested, it would be nice to have a drawing.  The windows would do no harm.  Check your insulation.  This might be one of those rare times that an electric space heater would make sense....assuming its use would be in minutes and not hours.