We had a similar solution in Afghanistan. Winters in the mountains there are...well, bad, and the HVAC units for our huts were notoriously ill-tempered (how else were those maintenance contractors gonna get paid? 🙄). So we bought an ancient British-made wood/coal stove off one of the locals when their headman died and his house needed to be demolished. I had the engineers rig it up with a vent fan and bam: no heating problems all winter. Popped a pinch of C4 and a log in there when the HVAC failed and we stayed toasty enough to have to douse it once in a while. Say what you want about Victorian England, but those assholes knew how to make a heater!