Are there any "Recommended" Smart TRV Valves for large houses?

[prburkis]

Hi All,

I thought I'd come to the experts and see if anyone is installing and/or recommending the use of any Smart TRV valves? Particularly in large(ish) solid wall houses.

I live in a 1920's arts and crafts house - it's about 2000sqft, not massive, but it's approx 25% larger on the downstairs, which means the distance from the rads to the boiler can be quite far on the ground floor.

I'm about to replace all the rads and I was going to go with a new Tado Smart system - but then had a closer look at the specs for it and noticed that you get a single "receiver" for the smart TRV's to talk through. There's quite a few forum threads on other forums with people complaining about the range and that their rads just "disconnect" which would make it pretty useless for me. It doesn't look like they have a concept of additional booster stations, so I'm concerned about going with this solution and trying to find somewhere in the house to place the receiver.

Anyway - so, there are other options out there from honeywell, etcp and drayton - I was wondering if anyone has installed and and would recommend them on a largish scale - driving around 18 rads or more - across 14 rooms.

Did you install room thermostats too? Or did you just use the sensors on the TRV's?

All help and advice appreicated

My end goal is to be able to control the heating on a "per room" level - as most of the time it's just me in the house while my wife is at work and the kids are at school.

 

[Chuck]

When you're on your own in the house, how many rooms do you use?

It's easy to spend far more on 'smart' controls than they'll ever pay back. Compare your smart system with, for example, this simple alternative approach:

Use a programmer-thermostat on a conventional system to keep the house at, say, 17°C during the day and then have a small radiant heater as a booster in your home office or wherever you're spending time sitting. Ramp the house temperature up to something more comfortable, say 20 or 21°C in the late afternoon so everybody is comfortable in the evening. Use traditional TRV's to keep the temperatures of bedrooms and unused rooms a bit lower than the rest of the house.

I'm not prejudging the conclusion of this bake-off, just recommend that you consider all your options.

 

[EvilDrPorkChop]

Evohome might be a better option. They still all talk to a single controller, but the controller is the the 'receiver' for the TRVs. Then the controller talks to the boiler relay. You can then place the controller in a central spot to be an equal distance between all the TRVs. I've fitted Honeywell controls for a long time and I can't recall where I've once had an issue with their radio coms, other than the Hot Water kit for Evohome.

Not 100% how Tado works, but I believe it talks to the little receiver that plugs in your internet. So the position of this maybe governed where your router is.

 

[Ben-gee]

Or spend 1 minute to turn all the rads down in the unoccupied rooms , then 1 minute to turn them back up again mid afternoon.

I expect you’ll be wanting a remote control for the telly next!

 

[Murdoch]

Probably be cheaper to have standard TRVs on the radiators, turn the heating down during the day and have a small electric heater in the room you use

 

[Brambles]

Evohome is not the latest technology, but it has stood the test of time and rock solid. A single controller will give you 12 zones, if you need more, you can pair further units with repeaters. It is not cheap ( the system provides convenience, but has a payback of 8+ years) but will allow you to control each room as a single zone.

If the property is more than 20 rooms you are probably better looking at an integrated BMS system.

We instal a lot in Oxon / Gloucestershire, but as a nice to have not as an energy saving measure