We have a newer grill with infrared. Brand is Blaze. To get that good smoky flavor, we use the traeger smoker. Sad that you have to own two methods of cooking outside. Our Traeger is a pellet smoker, so you do get that good wood flavor, but we use it for slow cooking. Steaks must go on the other grill. Nope! It doesn't have lava rocks. Our previous one did, was built in, and was far superior to the new one here at this house. Sometimes I just want a regular charcoal grill. Even a hibachi I remember at our other house where we did have lava rocks, I would soak wood chips, wrap them in heavy duty foil, poke small holes in the foil, and they would release a lot of smoke. I forgot about that trick. Might try it on our Blaze tonight.

I have the Weber Performer. It's an awesome grill. I used a Weber kettle for years with great success, but in a moment of weakness I retired it for a Weber Genesis gas grill. Gas grilling is convenient, but it's not the same. Last year I purchased the Weber Performer to get the convenience of gas starting, but the cooking flavor/performance of charcoal. First, the propane assist is just a charcoal starter. I stack the charcoal in a compact pile over the starter and ignite it. Of course the bottom vents are wide open and the lid is off at this point. After about 3 or 4 minutes, I can hear the charcoal snapping, popping, and smoking to indicate it's "lit." I turn off the propane and let the charcoal burn down until nearly all sides are covered with fine layer of ash. Then, I knock the pile down and spread it evenly across the bottom grate for cooking. Now, I put the top grate and the lid on and open the top vent wide open. I watch the temperature climb to >400 degrees, then open the lid and brush the top grate to clean it. Close the lid and use the upper and lower vents to control the airflow and thus the temperature. After some experience, I know just about how much to close them down to hit a temperature range I'm after. This assumes you're using good quality charcoal and not using too much of it. I prefer the hardwood "lump" charcoal. The old standard Kingston briquets don't seem as high quality as they once were. If, for instance, I'm cooking hamburgers, I'll have just enough charcoal to cover the bottom grate with the chunks spaced 1/2" to 1" apart. Hamburgers cook pretty quickly. Don't use the little half-round trays Weber includes to hold the charcoal for normal grilling. Those are for special circumstances when you want indirect heat. When I'm done cooking, I close all the upper and lower vent to extinguish the charcoal. I use the leftover charcoal from the previous grilling as the base of for the next cooking and add a little more from the bag to make the pile I want. If you aren't getting to the temperature you want, you may have crappy charcoal, inadequate airflow, or impatience.

IF you have vents you have the right idea with getting a heatpump instead of straight A/C. Get a good high efficient single stage heat pump with demand defrost. This will handle a big majority of your heating. 15 seer would be good. I would want one that is one the quiet side since it will be running alot. Having a compressor blanket is a must. The propane option sounds nice, but propane is not cheap either. You would probably be better off with straight electric element as backup (probably just as expensive as oil or propane). The nice thing about the water heat is it is very even, quiet, and produces no dust. But you won't be using it very often since you will have the heatpump. Its up to you if you want to keep the oil base-board, get rid of the base-board altogethor. I'm not sure what the point of switching from oil to propane would do for the baseboard.

A couple of good places to begin your quest: http://www.clagrills.com/ and http://www.bbqparts.com/