After having a TRV fall apart in my hands today I got to thinking I should really be getting on and fitting a smart system to control the heat in our home.
The Evohome seems the best option – I like the idea of being able to control each radiator individually rather than just having a Nest or something like that.
However many of the current TRVs are behind things (beds, sofas etc) - is this likely to badly effect their performance (ie, in the front room the radiator is behind the sofa). If we light the log stove I can imagine the heat will take some time to get behind the sofa so I reckon the radiator would keep on working away when we'd like it to automatically shut off.
Has anyone got any experience of such a system and confirm if this would be the case or not. And - what are your best recommendations?
Cheers
However many of the current TRVs are behind things (beds, sofas etc) - is this likely to badly effect their performance (ie, in the front room the radiator is behind the sofa).
I rang up an Evohome specialist about this very point and they were very clear it wouldn't work. They said you would need the radiator valve and a room thermostat to get it to work.
In our last place, when I lit the stove, I turned off the rad.
Try not to over think it.
In our last place, when I lit the stove, I turned off the rad.
That's what I do now - not overthinking, just wondering if our circumstances mean a smart system wouldn't be suitable.
Is there such a thing as a TRV that talks to a wall mounted thermostat? (Ie, a thermostat in each room controlled by a smart TRV)?
Yes
[url= http://www.johnguest.com/speedfit/jg-trv/ ]Speedfit TRV[/url]
The cost of these things far outway the benefit IMO.
Plus the TRV then has a motor installed to open and shut it which in a bedroom you'll hear it operating potentially. No idea how noisy these specific ones are.
They also do a hub to allow online control of it.
I'm with the don't overcomplicate it camp though.
If you really want remote control when out of the house it's more the overall system you want off or to a reduced temperature like the Hive rather than every individual room at different temps. Be a PITA when you forget and it's 10degC when you get home after forgetting to switch it back on again.
Is there such a thing as a TRV that talks to a wall mounted thermostat?
EvoHome does it. It was a cost thing that put me off ie not only having to buy the valve but then having to pair it to a room thermostat too, works out very expensive!
I've got Evohome, it's very good. My only crit is the app isn't very 'sexy', it's looks like it's designed by an 'engineer' rather than a graphic designer/marketing Dept. same goes for other hardware and the controller UI, it all looks a bit commercial or slightly old fashioned. However, it very much does the job.
[img] 
[/img]
I'll put my thoughts together for you, also about Tado, which I considered also. As well as Drayton getting in on the act now, I think Netatmo might offer something as well.
Is there such a thing as a TRV that talks to a wall mounted thermostat? (Ie, a thermostat in each room controlled by a smart TRV)?
Yes, as funkydunc say Evohome HR91 or HR92 bound to a separate thermostat possibly DT92E, definitely T87RF2033 and HCF82 and DTS92E1020
fitting a smart system to control the heat in our home
We've got one its called me. Problem is when I'm out all the other not so smart controls keep turning it back up 🙁
Is there such a thing as a TRV that talks to a wall mounted thermostat? (Ie, a thermostat in each room controlled by a smart TRV)?
Tado also.
PSA - 20% off all starter kits for Tado until 11th Dec:
[url= https://www.tado.com/t/en/countdown-christmas-present/ ]https://www.tado.com/t/en/countdown-christmas-present/[/url]
The Evohome head unit also acts as a temperature sensor, so if you set it up to have the head unit in the same room as the log burner, then you won't need to worry about an additional sensor - you can tell it to use the head unit instead of the TRV temp sensor.
We have one room with a radiator that's boxed in, the TRV sensing didn't work that well so we've got an external sensor on that room, all the others have been fine.
I've had 2 lots of Evohome (the original one and now the newer colour connected one) and think it's brilliant. It also links with Alexa, IFTTT etc as well if you want.
I recently spent £250 on extra loft insulation (to go from 100mm to 300mm). TBH having seen these theeads and Tado I wish I bought one of those 😐
Thanks for the PSA above ... decsion time
@cranberry, thanks for that PSA. That’s diarised and will be bought (note offer starts Dec 11 and runs till 31st)
1st off, my reason for wanting radiator control was/is that my upstairs is much warmer than the downstairs, due to rear of house being partially underground and with tree cover, front of house north facing. In winter temp dif is 3 or 4 degrees. Basically I wanted to equalise the temp in the house.
As geoffj points out, this could, in it's basic form, be achieved by just twiddling TRV's up/down. Evohome is like having a butler who goes round the house tweaking the TRV's constantly and then turning the boiler on/off to suit.
I don't know anything about Netatmo and Drayton systems as I wasn't aware of them / they weren't out at the time I was researching.
I did look at Tado and really liked the look of it. However, the radiator controllers where only just coming out and there wasn't much info about them, so that element of it would have been a bit of a gamble.
Tado are German, in Germany most apts/flats feed off a communal boiler with a meter in each apt/flat. I couldn't find anywhere a definitive answer on whether their rad Controllers were just fancy TRV's (all you'd need in a German apt/flat) or whether they'd be able to independently demand heat from the boiler. This doubt in my mind was compounded by Someone on here claiming that Honeywell aggressively protected their patent on boiler-rad controller comms tech ie each radiator controller being able to independently demand heat from the boiler.
Other reason for sticking with Honeywell was they are a massive company and Evohome has been out for years, Tado are a recent start up (2010) and their rad controllers weren't even quite out, at that time (last year).
If all these other radiator controllers (Tado, Netatmo, Drayton) can talk to the boiler, then worth considering. If they are just fancy TRV's, then they're not quite an equiv to Evohome. I don't know for sure as I threw my lot in with Evohome and moved on.
Other thing to consider, are your existing TRV's compatible with the radiator controller? if not, then you have to also take into consideration the cost of new TRV's. Evohome compatibility is [url= https://theevohomeshop.co.uk/content/9-honeywell-evohome-hr92-radiator-valve-compatibility ]HERE[/url] don't know about the others (Tado, Netatmo, Drayton).
Jusd ReminderPSA - 20% off Tado starter kits from today:
[url= https://www.tado.com/gb/ ]https://www.tado.com/gb/[/url]
( just because they sent me a reminder email )