We moved into a new (to us) house in Feb and want to get the radiators replaced before winter sets in. They are the original radiators from when the system was installed; heavy, slimline things that get bloody hot, but don't seem to radiate particularly well.
My OH's dad is a retired plumber reckons they are long lasting & reliable radiators, but were never particularly effective.He's gonna spec up replacement radiators & fit them for us. He's already got us the dining room one as we've recently re-decorated the room so had the radiator off for that.
Anyway, he mentioned wireless control systems to us, as something we should consider. I think he retired before they were particularly mainstream or popular so knows very little about them though.
I was hoping to work it all out from a bit of online research, but haven't found much to help.
As I understand it we can replace the controller with a wireless thermostat controller, which would be a simple, fairly cheap option. This would work like a normal timed controller, and the thermostat can be put in any room you want and communicates wirelessly.
But, there also seem to be zoned heating control systems where each zone has a thermostat & motorised TRVs that automatically adjust to keep to the set-point of the thermostat. Each zone can have multiple on/off cycles and can be set to different temps.
I also saw mentioned somewhere that if this is linked in with a boiler controller, then when the TRVs aren't requesting heat, the boiler is shut down.
Anyone know if these systems are any good and how simple they are to install? I don't really wanna be ripping walls out and stuff, but presumably this isn't required due to the wireless nature of it all?
How much would we be looking at for a house install? We've got 4 bedrooms & a bathroom upstairs, with kitchen, dining room, living room & loo downstairs all with radiators in, plus there's a radiator downstairs in the hall & upstairs on the landing.
I thought there would be kits that would suit varying house sizes and it would just be a case of finding one that suits, but that doesn't seem to be the case.
Any help/links/info would be appreciated!


