Hive TRV Radiator Valves – I have some questions.

I’m in the process of installing 10 Hive TRV valves.
I put one in the living room last night. The room has 3 rads and I replaced one of the valve heads with the hive version. Got it setup and calibrated.

The rads are all on one circuit (no upstairs vs downstairs) and have existing Danfoss thermostatic valves or nothing (2 of them).
We have a Hive room stat in the hall and there’s a rad in there without a thermostatic valve head.

Questions
1. I assume that if the Hive TRV calls for heat and all other rads are open then they will all heat up – I need to fit the other Hive TRVs on the rads.
2. Do I need 3 Hive TRVs (one on each rad) in the living room, or will 1 do if I leave the other rad valves open – actually, no because I’ll want them to close if they are at temp and a Hive TRV outwith the living room calls for heat.
3. Did I say my head hurts?
4. I have a rad in my work room that doesn’t have a thermostatic valve on, do I need to drain the system to fit one or just bleed?

Have you read the reviews on Hive TRVs? I wondered about them but the reviews on eg Screwfix and Amazon are mostly poor.

On your questions. Each ‘zone’/room will need Hive TRVs if you intend to have rooms call for heat on their own.

The 3 radiator room, you are right that if another zone calls for heat then the 2 radiators without Hive valves in that room will get warm.

Fitting a TRV to a radiator without one. You will likely have to drain the system to below the level of that radiator. You don’t need to drain everything though. Remember you should have 1 radiator somewhere without a TRV for reasons of tradition. Or something. Bleeding your radiator will have the opposite effect and will ensure it is as full as possible won’t it?

I got a Hive installed with a great new boiler before Christmas. It’s not that different from my old 1 thermostat set up. Except for the addition of a weak app.

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. Yes
4. Yes

Hope this helps

If you have TRVs then you can shut off all rads and only drain the pipes and rad that needs the new valve.

The rad with no trv is a control for the main thermostat in its room, and also so that the system always has one rad open.

As a balance to the poor review comment above. The valves work fine, one of mine would not connect or so I thought. Web chat sorted that as they did some behind the scenes trickery to get the hub to confirm that it was paired. The only radiator that took a while to calibrate had the valve in a poor position and it needed to start from a cold system.
No need for a radiator without a TRV if it is all switched to on demand heating as the boiler won’t run unless there is a call for heat.

No need for a radiator without a TRV if it is all switched to on demand heating as the boiler won’t run unless there is a call for heat

Given the possible lag between different components not having any rad “open” is strongly discouraged, and can damage the pump in your boiler

@5lab So far it’s working well the motorised valve opens and calls for heat, the pump runs up and the boiler fires. One thing I have noticed is that pump noise is noticeable in one room with only one radiator accepting flow, especially if it’s one of the small toilet panels that has asked for heat.

As far as control goes, you need all the rads to have smart valves or only the ones you don’t use much. Second part of that might sound counter intuitive but it’s for the reason you have already pointed out. If you have a valve in the kitchen call for heat and no other smart valves. The rest of the house will get heat.
So if you only want to heat say downstairs. Fit valves upstairs and they can be zoned off without having to manually turn them off.

I have ordered 5 Hive valves and intend to put them on the rads I don’t want to be on at different parts of the day. For example first thing I want the bedroom and bathroom to get heat with the rooms we are working but not the loungue and dining room. After a short while I’ll just want heat in our 2 working rooms. Later on after 5pm it’ll just be the lounge and dining/kitchen and the bedroom just before we go to bed to take the chill off.

The only rads which won’t have the valves will be the hallway and cellar. Hopefully it will work out ok!!

The only other thing to add is that the hive app only lets you set individual vales, for some reason you can’t group them in rooms or floors. So in the room that has three valves you have to setup all three to be the same temp and the same schedules. You can set up scenes to set multiple values at the same but that’s only to set a temp for a time.

Given the possible lag between different components not having any rad “open” is strongly discouraged, and can damage the pump in your boiler

Is that the case with modern pumps? As I was under the impression that all modern pumps are flow sensing and adjust pump speed vs resistance, so if nothing is open the just back right off and likewise if they detect good flow, they speed up a bit to supply all the open rads.

Thought I should update this.
It’s all working ok except for 1 major ish issue.
Individual TRVs are not working when calling for heat if the master thermostat has reached temperature.
So thermostat in the hall has reached the required 18 degrees. The trv in the office is calling for heat to increase temp from 14 to 19 degrees. The app reports it is calling for heat, but the pump isn’t running and the rad isn’t warming up. The only solution I’ve found is to boost the temp on the main thermostat in the hall so it’s calling for heat too.
My google skills aren’t coming up with any answers. Any ideas?

Have you set the TRVs to “heat on demand” in the settings for each individual TRV on the app?? I’ve put them in our upstairs “zone” and its working well, though some of the temperature readings are still a bit wacky, doesn’t really impact much on the running, as I run at 20 degrees or 7 mostly. I like being able to boost the bathroom just long enough to dry towels, and turn on radiators to heat up if people coming to stay etc.I think its more efficient than old fashioned thermostats, but hard to prove.

That sounds like a bit of a design flaw….

if you were to turn the thermostat up to say 30 and all the rads had reached their respective temps does the system remain running?

Actually just looked on the Hive website and it says this…

Hive Radiator Valves work best with Hive Active Heating. Your radiator valves can automatically turn the heating on when they need to in order to keep that special room warm, even when your Hive thermostat is set low

are you sure the settings in the app are correct?

Individual TRVs are not working when calling for heat if the master thermostat has reached temperature.
So thermostat in the hall has reached the required 18 degrees. The trv in the office is calling for heat to increase temp from 14 to 19 degrees. The app reports it is calling for heat, but the pump isn’t running and the rad isn’t warming up. The only solution I’ve found is to boost the temp on the main thermostat in the hall so it’s calling for heat too.
My google skills aren’t coming up with any answers. Any ideas?

The main thermostat in the hall is a simple on/off that fires the boiler and pump until the temp is reached. When the hall reaches temperature the boiler and pump stops. TRV’s only open and close a valve, they don’t call for heat they call for flow. If the boiler and pump isn’t on opening the valve won’t do anything.

TRV’s only open and close a valve, they don’t call for heat they call for flow. If the boiler and pump isn’t on opening the valve won’t do anything.

That’s not what the Hive website says…

Your radiator valves can automatically turn the heating on when they need to in order to keep that special room warm, even when your Hive thermostat is set low

Have you set the TRVs to “heat on demand” in the settings for each individual TRV on the app?

Yes – first thing I checked.

TRV’s only open and close a valve, they don’t call for heat they call for flow. If the boiler and pump isn’t on opening the valve won’t do anything.

That’s not what the Hive website says…

Indeed

I think I might need some sort of update to the master thermostat, but I’m not sure. It’s frustrating because it’s almost great. Just not quite.

Have you rung them up? Their support is pretty good actually.

I’ve not rung them – I’ll try that tomorrow.

Telephone support is very good from Hive. They will check the settings at their end and tweak as necessary. (One of my valves wouldn’t register in the app and it was cleared in 5 minutes). Latest TRV firmware is 227, Thermostat firmware should be 01100100 receiver is showing 136620 as it’s firmware.

Well – I called telephone support and it’s now fixed. It would appear that it was a combination of user error (oops) and a need to reinstall the app and restart my phone. Anyway, all seems much better now. Thanks all.

What was the ‘user error’ out of interest?

What was the ‘user error’ out of interest?

I was convinced that I’d switched on the heat on demand option for each of the TRVs on the app, but the support guy said I hadn’t, but that he could switch them on for me.
The main issue though was that the app wasn’t showing that the TRVs were calling for heat when they were. That was only fixed by reinstalling the app and restarting my phone.