I stopped at Home Depot and talked to one of the lumber guys. I had been looking at a fiber board that was a little cheaper and claimed to be lighter, but he was definitely opposed to it. He claimed that it was not like MDF, which is reasonably rigid, it was more like a cheap press board, which would not have the lateral strength that I was looking for, so I went with a 3/8 CDX T1-11 instead. It is a bit heavier, but I know T1-11 is strong enough, even at only 3/8 thick. Going with the thinner stuff is still about 600lbs, but at least it won't fall apart if the wind blows or I tow it.
I also found a beefier heat pump tonight that should suffice for what I need. It is an Amana 9,000 BTU unit. It has a 3.5kW strip heat built in, which is sufficient for winter. The only downside is that it is larger (though I hadn't built the framing for the other one yet) and it requires a 240V circuit, though only a 20A so I can use the same wire I bought for the rest of the house (though I have already bought a spool of heavier wire for the other one...). All this being said, I do still intend to put in the outlets for the space heater that I was going to supplement the other one with, just in case. It isn't a new circuit, I was going to put it on the lights circuit, so it isn't a big cost adder, and if the heat pump heats very unevenly, I might be glad I have it.
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