About the heat: is your ceiling insulated well? Do you have curtains or blinds? If not those things will help of course.
The complicated part of electrical usage is called load management. You might use say 2kW per day, but half of that may occur in a brief time when the well pump starts up once per day (these aren't realistic numbers). A generator big enough to start your well pump is too big 99% of the time.
One solution is battery banks and inverters. People with solar and wind power often have these. Inverters convert DC power to AC. They can also help with load management. You could run a tiny generator and/or solar to charge batteries, and draw all your power from the inverters. Since you have cheap propane you might buy or make a propane generator. Any gas engine can be converted to propane.
Another strategy is something called 'grid-tie' or net metering. This is where you maintain your electrical service, but sell some of your power back to the utility. With this system you don't need a battery bank, but you might need an inverter for syncronizing with the grid AC. Failing to do so can be catastrophic. If you burn waste oils or have solar you can save money this way, you might even make money. The programs vary from state to state. There's a guy on this forum who was talking about doing this in Connecticut:
http://listerengine.com/smf/index.php?topic=145.msg3457#msg3457The downside of this is that you're still dependent on the grid, unless you do set up the battery bank too.
Beware of the consumer grade generators. They aren't engineered to last very long, and would be a disaster for off grid use. The ST heads that everyone here buys are far larger and heavier than what you see on the cheap units. Also these run at 3,600 rpm and are very loud. Two doors down they have a 3,600 rpm genny. It's at least 150 yards away and still annoys me to no end. The Lister 6/1 turns at 650 rpm for 60 hertz, and is by most accounts a pleasant sound. Engines wear at the square of their RPM.
Good luck!
