If you do not want to cook with propane then you should consider a heat pump. It could be either air sourced or ground sourced.

@mike_home - I think someone just mentioned this to me, but I have no idea what it is. Have any insight before I look it up? I like to hear it from actual people first haha

"We currently live in a small 750sqft house that had electric heat the first two years we were there. It was a $530/MONTH (yep, you heard that right) nightmare all winter long and we will NEVER EVER have electric heat again, so this is off the table."

Sounds like you were using electric resistance heat which costs about 3x as much as a heat pump/propane/oil. Oil and propane are relatively cheap right now but as soon as oil prices go up, they will skyrocket. Get an electric heat pump and don't mess with oil/propane tanks. You'll have A/C also which will be nice on those few weeks in the summer when it gets hot and sticky.

Also, make sure your house is well insulated and tight and your heating bills will be quite reasonable.

Heat pump is probably for you. Consider hiring a local energy rater to help you with your choices of heating and cooling equipment and construction details. They can also set standards for air leakage that your contractor needs to meet and test for air leakage.

If you are building a small home with super insulation. This article may help you:

Long-Term Monitoring of Mini-Split Ductless Heat Pumps in the Northeast

Building America Report - 1407

December 2014

Kohta Ueno and Honorata Loomis

I've cooked on a lot of stoves. There are two basic kinds of stoves, good stoves and bad stoves. I've used both kinds powered by gas and electricity. Right now, I think that induction is the way to go, but I live in a predominantly cooling environment where waste heat escaping into the house is bad. If I had my dream kitchen, it would have a couple of induction hobs and one electric resistance hob for simmering.

Agree with above posters. Your ridiculous energy bills were the result of lack of air tightness as measured by a blower door and poor insulation. Some super performance homes in colder climates than yours, use electric resistance but they are beyond code built for airightness and insulation.

Our current house was re-insulated and renovated a bit. We had Mass Save come and do an energy audit after our second winter of high bills like that and while the house could do with some improvements, it was an area wide increase in pricing. Eversource increased their prices 30-100% in MA for recent winters and continue to do so (then lower them in the summer). We were not the only ones with astronomical bills.

I will never do electric heat again.

Liking the heat pump though - that's not the same as geothermal heating right? Guess it's like $65k to install geothermal here....no thanks.

then pay for superior insulation qualities and go straight conventional air source HP and consider propane fired backup generator when power goes out. Still think long term Geothermal Heat pump is the way to go as long as Fed Tax Credit is still in force and your property is suitable for such a system.

IMO

Historically, "geothermal" referred to harvesting volcanic heat from the earth, usually to generate steam. Unfortunately the term was stolen for other use. The preferred term for what you are thinking about is ground-source heat pump. That contrasts to air-source heat pump. The former is more expensive to install, but since the ground is a moderate temperature compared to the air, it is way more efficient in the long run. Indications are the the equipment has a longer lifetime as well. Lifetime costs should be lower for the ground source system. There may be incentives other then Federal for going that route. (Maybe a highly subsidized loan program that would go with your mortgage. That would allow you to pay as you save rather than totally upfront.) A local energy expert (rater) should know all about them.

+1 Ionized

6-acres of land? Perhaps GSHP with horizontal loop – no drilling.
Are you drilling a water well; are you on a lake or pond?

Educate yourself; explore all options!

SR

Haha that's why I'm here! To educate and explore :)

We will have a well, no lake/pond nearby. We have "wetlands" (I say that because it's not marshy or wet, it's like specific plants and a brook) in one area of the property that is somewhat close to our whole building area.

When we built our house two years in Northern New York, we had the same questions as you. We wanted a superinsulated, tight home, so wood stove or fireplace were out of the question. So we were left with three possible sources of energy: electricity (from the grid or from the sun), propane, or oil. Oil delivery to our site would be difficult in the winter plus it's messy. Propane and electricity were roughly the same cost per therm, so we went with electricity. Electricity can be used to drive a heat pump, a geothermal system, or resistance heat. We opted for resistance heat initially, because installation cost was the lowest (about $800 for the electric boiler) and it's simplest (no moving parts). We plan to install solar panels to defray the cost of the electricity, but last year, our electric cost was $1700 for the year. A solar system sized to provide that much electricity costs $43000 before rebates, about half that after rebates, so our return on investment (ROI) is very long, so we may rethink that. Our heat transfer system is hydronic, so anything which will heat the water is on the list. I am looking for a cold-climate air-water heat pump, to heat the water. I think a ground sourced heat pump would cost more than the solar system. So, what we have works, but we are looking for improvement, for both financial and "green" reasons.

@mtvhike - Great info, thank you. So the $1700 was it? You had no other costs for heating/cooling that year like gas, propane, etc? And that included your regular usage (TVs, appliances, etc)? How big is your home?

Based on other info I found, I heard heat pumps stop working after it gets below 10 degrees or so right? I'm considering oil as a backup for the heat pump in that case, plus they can apparently use the same duct work/floor vents.

Sort of. We do have a propane cooktop, but everything else is on our electric meter. However, I don't have any cooling (and after this last month, I wish I did). Also, for a description of low temperature performance, see http://www.efficiencymaine.com/heat-pumps/).

Our home is 1800 square feet on one story, plus a full walk-out basement.