Wood stoves and asthmatics?

I originally planed on having a dry cabin but I have asthma and I found a lot of information online on the negative effects it can have on the respiratory system. Im considering alternatives for heating and cooking. I thought about propane but even though it's a clean burning fuel I am hesitant about the hazards of propane stoves and heaters. My last option is electric but I wanted to know how difficult it would be to put electricity in a cabin. Also, what form of electricity is more reliable? Solar, wind powered, or just having an electric line set up?

conney marshall wrote:My last option is electric but I wanted to know how difficult it would be to put electricity in a cabin. Also, what form of electricity is more reliable? Solar, wind powered, or just having an electric line set up?

Welcome to permies.  To have a electric line set up you would need to talk to the electric company that services the area where your land is.  How far is the nearest property that has electric?  Electric companies charge by the foot to install electric to your property so it could cost thousands of dollars to install electric.

So having solar or wind might be the best option for you.  Or there might be other options that might be available to you.

Giving a little more information about your situation might get some response from others that are more knowledgeable then I am.  

hey....

welcome to the forums.

forget about using photovoltaic or wind for heating purposes. storing enough energy would be extremely expensive.

have you looked into passive solar? also there are DIY solar panels that heat air and pump warm air into the building.

what exactly is causing your concerns with asthma? air humidity? dust that would be moved into the air through heating sources? the "cooking" of the air?

radiant heat should be most healthy. maybe a rocket mass heater would be the best solution? along with insulation and thermal mass inside the house to store heat,

edit: propane is very convenient for cooking. there are these small protable cookers that run on 220gram cartridges. you could try one of these. i think, many of these can be hooked to a gasbottle later. or you can try ethanol-cookers.

I agree with the above. You can't really heat with electricity that you generate from solar panels. Passive solar design is where you use the sun's light and heat and turn it directly as heat, rather than turning it into electricity inefficiently, storing it inefficiently and then turning it back into heat, which ends up giving a small fraction of the heat that passive solar would give from the same sun-collecting area.

What kind of climate are you in? And is your location sunny, south facing, or shaded, or what? How many months do houses normally need to use a heating system there? Is your cabin already well insulated? That would help you get an idea what might be the best source of heat for you.