Wifi TRV's

[KC01342]

Hi,
I'm looking for some advice please.
We live in a bungalow with essentially 2 ends. 1 end with 2 bedrooms, hallway & bathroom. The other end lounge, dining room and kitchen. These 3 are seperate rooms but interconnected. There are 7 rads. The combi boiler has a normal 7 day on/off timer and room stat.
I'd like to have wifi TRV's fitted to all the rads so as to have better control on the temps in the rooms being used, like the bedroom end not being heated all day. But the lounge end being warm all day. I figured I could leave the boiler on 24/7 set to 24 degress and use the TRV's to control the on/off of individual rads.
Do you guys see any problems with that idea?
Also, any recomendations on wifi TRV's? I've seen Tado, Curv, Hive, Nest etc etc.
Thanks,

Keith.

 

[Ric2013]

The only problem you might experience is that once the lounge is warm (even at 24°C), the bathroom might get unacceptably cool when the lounge is not calling for heat if your only thermostat controlling the system were in the lounge.

However, if you are using Wi-fi TRVs, I'm assuming they will link back to a central control (which is the point of wireless, after all) that will know which rooms require heat and switch the boiler and pump on and off accordingly, and this kind of system would work well.

 

[gmartine]

They are all much of muchness tbh having some features better than others and most work very well indeed. Hive probably tips it in terms of useability/cost and I like the Tado system but it does lock some advanced features behind a paywall. You can easily offset the temperature of a smart TRV as it is often not in the best location to read the temp which is why I've ended up usually having a room stat working in conjunction with one. A bit OTT perhaps but it does offer ultimate temperature control. If cost is no object Evohome is probably the most comprehensive and easy to use if you're a technophobe.

The other thing to consider with all these control systems is your boiler probably wont like it if it only has to heat up a couple of rads because the others are trimmed down or off. I do it with my elderly mums place so IF you're going to have the heating on 24/7 consider lowering the CH flow temperature as low as you can so it won't cycle as often.

 

[gmartine]

BTW if you like the temp being at 24 deg I'm assuming you're of a certain age. The Tado system has an air quality monitoring panel which was a bit of a revelation to me as the air can be incredibly dry during the winter and spring months (as the heating is on all the time). Something to consider if you have or are prone to certain health issues.

 

[Murdoch]

Any particular reason you use 24 degrees ? That’s quite high and your bills will be high too

 

[KC01342]

BTW if you like the temp being at 24 deg I'm assuming you're of a certain age. The Tado system has an air quality monitoring panel which was a bit of a revelation to me as the air can be incredibly dry during the winter and spring months (as the heating is on all the time). Something to consider if you have or are prone to certain health issues.

PMSL. Mate, delicatley put I'm 58 but my wife is African - she likes it hot
I only said 24 just so the boiler would keep kicking in as and when the TRV's called for it. I thought if the boiler was set to 20 it wouldn't matter what the TRV called for. I've a lot to learn.

 

[KC01342]

Any particular reason you use 24 degrees ? That’s quite high and your bills will be high too

I only said 24 just so the boiler would keep kicking in as and when the TRV's called for it. I thought if the boiler was set to 20 it wouldn't matter what the TRV called for. I've a lot to learn.

 

[KC01342]

The only problem you might experience is that once the lounge is warm (even at 24°C), the bathroom might get unacceptably cool when the lounge is not calling for heat if your only thermostat controlling the system were in the lounge.

However, if you are using Wi-fi TRVs, I'm assuming they will link back to a central control (which is the point of wireless, after all) that will know which rooms require heat and switch the boiler and pump on and off accordingly, and this kind of system would work well.

That's what I was thinking/hoping. I'm thinking, probably wrongly, that why is a room stat even needed anymore if a wifi TRV can control each room?

 

[fronty]

I've added evohome trvs to most of my rads for similar reasons. They work really well and I love having a central controller that doesn't rely on Internet access or another bloody app.

One thing to watch for is the noise when the motor inside the trv is opening or closing the valve, some cheaper WiFi heads are really noisy. Even evohome is not silent but I can live with it, eg in the bedroom when it opens the valve at 6.30am I am already stirring anyway.

 

[Ric2013]

That's what I was thinking/hoping. I'm thinking, probably wrongly, that why is a room stat even needed anymore if a wifi TRV can control each room?

I'm not sure it is needed. It depends how the system is set up, and some of the systems have a central control that is very modifiable and in which you can change the setup just by altering the programming rather than actually having to make physical changes, but - in short - I can't really see why you'd need to have one room dictating when other rooms are coming on. Having a room thermostat that switches the entire system on and off only makes sense if you have mechanical TRVs that have no way of telling the boiler that the room they are in is a bit cold and can it please send some hot water their way, which, in my opinion, doesn't really make for a very good system.

As gmartine has said, the disadvantage of having an all-wireless-TRV system in which any single TRV can fire up the boiler, is that the boiler might not like working under, potentially, extreme part-load. That said, as long as the installer fits a bypass valve, I suspect the boiler may run happily enough albeit at reduced efficiency, but the fact that none of your house is ever overheated may result in a lower overall fuel consumption than a boiler running efficiently and overheating parts of the house will. System efficiency vs. boiler efficiency is an interesting topic, in my opinion.

 

[gmartine]

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[Knappers]

If not heating bedrooms is your main desire then I'd recommend starting with plain trv's in bedrooms (you'll need them fitted either way) set to no2 to keep rooms cooler.
Have thermostat in main room and boiler set to around 60degC or maybe a bit lower in spring say 50deg and balance rads (see any balancing thread)
If that's not doing the job then could look at evohome or tado as the better options. For your needs just having actuators in bedrooms should be adequate.

 

[KC01342]

If not heating bedrooms is your main desire then I'd recommend starting with plain trv's in bedrooms (you'll need them fitted either way) set to no2 to keep rooms cooler.
Have thermostat in main room and boiler set to around 60degC or maybe a bit lower in spring say 50deg and balance rads (see any balancing thread)
If that's not doing the job then could look at evohome or tado as the better options. For your needs just having actuators in bedrooms should be adequate.

Hi, Thanks for the reply,
Sorry, I didn't make it clear. I'm new to plumbing
I do want to heat all the rooms. effectively we have 2 zones, the bedroom end and the other end.
The day end will need heating all day but the bedroom zone just early AM and just before bed time.
Cheers,
Keith.

 

[KC01342]

I'm not sure it is needed. It depends how the system is set up, and some of the systems have a central control that is very modifiable and in which you can change the setup just by altering the programming rather than actually having to make physical changes, but - in short - I can't really see why you'd need to have one room dictating when other rooms are coming on. Having a room thermostat that switches the entire system on and off only makes sense if you have mechanical TRVs that have no way of telling the boiler that the room they are in is a bit cold and can it please send some hot water their way, which, in my opinion, doesn't really make for a very good system.

As gmartine has said, the disadvantage of having an all-wireless-TRV system in which any single TRV can fire up the boiler, is that the boiler might not like working under, potentially, extreme part-load. That said, as long as the installer fits a bypass valve, I suspect the boiler may run happily enough albeit at reduced efficiency, but the fact that none of your house is ever overheated may result in a lower overall fuel consumption than a boiler running efficiently and overheating parts of the house will. System efficiency vs. boiler efficiency is an interesting topic, in my opinion.

Thanks for the input. My plumber has said a bypass valve can be fitted (instead of a constantly on rad) so it seems I'm good to go.