Your experience cooking with smokers.

It's hot outside and we are paying to cool our house.
At the same time, we have bread and cookies to bake for market, and dinner to make for the family.
Most of the year, our oven gets heavy use, because it doesn't need constant monitoring.
While I have been meaning to/trying to get a woodfire or solar oven set up outside, it hasn't happened yet.
Even when it does, my wife and kid may never want to use it.

Right now, I have a propane powered master built smoker  that's ready to go.
I cranked it up last night, it hits or exceeds 400 degrees easily.
That's enough to bake bread(which we readily sell for 4 dollars a loaf),and chicken, which we consume in vast quantities.

So I will certainly  be using this, but it is propane powered and has ZERO insulation.
I will want to modify it with thermal mass and insulation, in order to make it more useful.
I will also be trying it with and without water and of course , woodchips.
I'm concerned that water will keep the temperature from getting very high, even as it transfers the heat more efficiently and keeps meat moist.
I don't want to buy wood chips if  twigs from the pear tree and/or hardwood pellets will work instead.
I want attempt some dehydrating, taking advantage of smoker temperatures that may be lower than what my oven can maintain.
Lastly , I want to investigate an electric option.
Propane will ideally be the shtf option, eventually, with wood and electric being preferred options for every day use.

Any experience or ideas you might have would be welcome.
DIY is always my preference, but also my weakness, so I'm eager to hear off the shelf options.

I think if you could manage a brick oven, the bread would be so much better and fetch a little higher price, not to mention pizza! There should be plenty of hardwood around Cincinnati to be had cheap or free.

As far as smoking, you want to keep your temp below 200 anyway, so the water wont be a problem and pellets are very effective.

Dehydration is going to be difficult in a smoker without cooking the product, but you can try...

The key to good smoking is the low temperature and most especially in the brine...

At the farm, grandma had the summer kitchen, off the main house to avoid heating up her un-airconditioned house.

When she moved into town, she bought a 'nice' oven for the kitchen, and moved the old one into the garage and used it for baking during the summer.

Do you have a garage or some sort of semi-enclosed area you could put an old oven or two in?

When it gets really hot out, I cook in an instant pot on the front porch, and have a little induction cooktop we picked up used that works too.

Any experience or ideas you might have would be welcome

Yes indeed William, with temperatures soaring out here in the desert, nearly all summer cooking happens outdoors.
As a simple under-appreciated outdoor cooking tip; put whatever cook station you choose in the baking sun to take advantage of solar radiation to save fuel.
A quick search for outdoor kitchens turns up loads of images showing lovely shady cooking kitchens with shiny (reflective) stainless steel oven surfaces. Skip that.
Buy black, or spray the oven station with flat black paint to reduce reflecting the sun’s energy away from the smoker (or other cooking tool). Work with that black, cooking station in the sun during the heat-of-the-day then run inside to cool off while the sun and minimal fuel work their magic. Save fuel and the effort (and cost) of insulation, by harnessing the brutal summer sun instead of sheltering the smoker or outdoor oven from it.
P.S. To keep the heat when opening the lid, I put a layer of 1" thick brick inside the smoker or kettle grill for thermal mass

I really like the solar gain idea!
While I cant see smoking  food in a cabinet, because of the chemical nastiness, I have thought that black file cabinet would make a good dehydrator.

We already grill on our back porch,  so I'm adding a sink , and an oven of some sort.
Adding 240v or natural gas to the the porch takes materials I haven't wanted to spend on, but the ovens themselves are free for the taking.
I have two electric ovens in the basement, but my wife loves the 1930s chambers oven that came with the house.

We often cook indoors with an electric skillet, but I might as well grill if I'm doing it outside.

TLUD and rocket powered items are banished to just off the porch, and will probably stay there unless I can demonstrate their absolute tameness.
They are probably as safe or safer than propane, but they are diy and there fore not to be trusted.