I'd like air circulation in the bedrooms. Something for ventilation in the baths. Possibly your primary HRV can participate in that. You have enough overall heating capacity without resistive heaters. A second low tech HRV type system that treats the bedrooms as the outside source and the main area as the input with return to the bedrooms may be more efficient.

Each of the bedrooms have one HRV duct and I’m assuming they are bringing fresh air into the room. There are exhaust fans in the laundry room and bathrooms, including the master bath which will help with circulation in the master bedroom.

Why do you need supplemental heat in the bedrooms? In western Washington, can't you mostly sleep outside (from a temperature only standpoint of course).

Why would you use propane for hot water? Heat pump is way cheaper. Only in CA with high tier pricing and a buddy in the propane business would it make financial sense. And it never makes environmental sense.

A Panasonic bathroom fan in the main room with 3 speeds up to 150cfm drawing warm air to distribute to the bedrooms seems like a possibility to me. The only question is return when doors are closed overnight.

I guess with the right gear you can sleep outside in any weather. Western WA may not have sub freezing average winter temps but it isn’t Maui. We’re in the mountains and loose power often, sometimes for 3-5+ days and on demand propane hot water is reliable. It also doesn’t take up valuable conditioned space and can be put in the attic.

Unless you have an uber-tight construction project, I can't imagine that 25K BTUs of mechanical heating will be anywhere near enough. I think double that would be a starting point but I hope you've had an honest load calc done.

Electric baseboard units (that are best avoided in most circumstances, very energy inefficient) might fill the bill in the bedrooms. Put them on walls where they won't be blocked. Better would be to have a ducted "ductless" minisplit system with warm air supplies in each of the rooms.

I think you're going to have a chilly house. Best wishes.

Here's the Panasonic fan I'm thinking about. FV-0511VKS2 - Panasonic FV-0511VKS2 - WhisperGreen Select Multi Speed Ceiling Ventilation Fan (50-80-110 CFM) (supplyhouse.com)

I have an Envi at the cabin. It takes the chill out of the bedroom, but for warmth, I use pajamas and blankets.

No fan.

Lot colder than I thought.

Also didn't realize ductless mini with no heads in the bedrooms.

Why not put heads in the bedrooms?

That being said - we don't run the heat upstairs with an average Jan low of 30 degrees. It is warmed by body heat and heat rising from downstairs. Helps to have thick window treatments, not massive windows, and good insulation. We do not have triple pane windows. Some people might like it warmer (maybe 63 on a really cold night with heat downstairs at 68) We do actually run the heat at times with elderly guests.

If the power was out for 5 days, I would be more worried about other things. 80 gallons goes a long way. Can't do laundry or dishwasher without power. In the dark, a 2 gallon shower is probably enough for me. I presume you are going to have batteries.

I have a heat pump hot water heater in the attic. Not everyone's risk tolerance of course.

What does Washington do to discourage propane? What will they do in the future? I just checked and NG is banned in new multi family dwellings starting next year - but you probably knew that.

Your best next improvement is not using propane to heat water. And it is financially better on day 1 - how many carbon cuts can say that?

Your new system should be designed to heat and cool all your rooms, but if you need supplemental heat, I like safe oil filled radiators.

https://steamexperts.com/myson_finesse.html

We’re not trying to do anything different. We will have 25k btu mini splits plus 48k btu wood heat. We prefer sleeping conditions of around 62 degrees. The heat pump is expandable and another 5k head could be added in the future if necessary. I think our system will supply our needs. We want the supplemental heat in the bedrooms for the very rare occasion that we get single digit temps for a couple of days. Happens once every few winters. Not sure if we’ll need it but seems like good insurance. My question was what is available for electric wall heaters besides a unit with a fan. Just looking for options that don’t have a fan because we don’t want the extra noise.

Thanks Beverly for the info on the Myson oil filled radiator wall units. They look great! I’ll have to look for a supplier in the US.

Have you considered infrared heaters? We put them in our garage apartment, and now in our main house remodel. They mount high on the wall and "shine" the heat out into the room. They're silent. Here's a picture of two of them, in our living area (but we have one in each bedroom too); I think they look pretty nice, and I like that they are off the floor.

I live just north and a bit east of you I rarely evenput the heat on in my bedroom. BTW heat pump HW is not as awesome as you might think since they require taking warmth from the space thay are in . We just priced them out for whole complex and went high efficiency instead after having all the tests done and being told certain areas would get very cold in winter.

If it is just every few years, there are plenty of portable units that don't make noise.

@gardengrl66 z5, Please share the manufacturer of your heaters. Thanks!

Comfort Cove heaters

They are in Nebraska, their website is very helpful, and a real person answers the phone when you call with questions. Who could ask for more?

Thank you @gardengrl66 z5!

I have a Mitsubishi ductless mini split. Just put one in your bedroom? It hangs on the wall near the ceiling (actually, it cools/heats the whole house). It's super efficient, and make no noise.

May I ask why your water heater isn't electric? Mine uses heat pump technology. My state incentivizes that particular unit.

Putting mini split heads in each of the 3 bedrooms wasn’t in the budget. The considerations for a water heater was that I wasn’t comfortable putting a tank in the attic, especially based on past experience where a water heater leaked and caused a lot of damage overnight. I didn’t want to use up room in the laundry room either. The garage is far detached. And we need to be prepared for frequent electric outages and potential road closures due to mudslides. Wood heat and propane hot water, as well as propane backup power generation seemed to fit this scenario.

You can use LFP battery backup. With or without solar. Without solar you charge the batteries during off-peak. Will Prowse has a YT channel that is very instructional.

This house has vintage radiant heat in the ceilings (natural gas). It's surprisingly efficient. Also Western Washington, but coastal.

The master bedroom in this one story stretched out length was an addition at some point. It has hydronic baseboard that is also in the vanity area and master bath. Our heating tech tells me its also efficient and economical. I don't have anything to compare it to (we came from a smaller home with elec heat pump). There is one long under the bedroom garden window, two short in the bathroom areas. All on the same one thermostat control.

My sister lives in an area of SE Seattle where there is no gas avail to their 5 acres. Her furnace, hot water, cook stove are all propane. I'm not really sure about her clothes dryer but believe its electric. And with their sometimes windy valley - a whole house generator that is almost whole house. Most all that's important will operate but she doesn't dare forget and try to use her microwave ;)

"Putting mini split heads in each of the 3 bedrooms wasn’t in the budget."

Maybe not now. But after 10 years of resistance electric heating bills (convection, radiant, oil-filled, whatever) you might regret the decision not to invest up front.

@Gabe Cascadia

I had those wall unit heaters 40 years ago. That was before desktop computers....

One had a fire while I was out.

I doubt the supplemental resistance heat is going to be a budget buster. Taking the chill of a room with resistance heat on rare nights is a really minor cost.

Interestingly, a well built modern structure can be cheaper to heat with electric resistance when you factor in the initial cost of the HVAC and depreciate/amortize and maintain the thing. There was one built in a cold area like the Dakotas - $150 a year.

My 2018 build has heat pumps and if I didn't need A/C...

I had 300 hours of runtime in Jan at 2 kw. So $70 to heat my house with a heat pump. My energy monitor (the other way of looking at it) comes out about the same - about 600kw. Most of the time a 3X savings is about right - assuming a COP of 3.0. So it would have been $210 to heat the house with electric resistance. So total winter is about 3 times January for an annual cost of about $500 give or take (ie guessing quite high).

The differential cost of convential HVAC vs a couple of heating strips was about $10k and more like $15k in todays environment. Then $100 a year to maintain. And figure $1000 repair every 5 years. And a life of 20 years with then a $5k cost. You can see that it isn't obvious from a financial standpoint which is the better choice.

Now - if I was building the house, knowing that I was going to use electric resistance, I would have insulated even better. You know, you can build a house that essentially is heated for free?

Now go back to my numbers $500 a year for a 3800 sqft house. Now OP is talking about 500 sqft in bedrooms that are kept colder. We are not talking $100 a year - probably more like $50. Solar panels would be a much better return than more heads with a lot less maintenance - and greater lifespan.