HR 20 Radiator valves at LIdl

[Iain]

Hi
Noticed the programable rad valves ariving soon

http://www.lidl.co.uk/cps/rde/xchg//lidl_uk/hs.xsl/offerdate.htm?offerdate=15070&ar2=6&id=536&country=GB&zipcode=Plymstock&city=Plymouth&district=PL9+9BU&street=11&ar=6&nf=True

Iain

[daftlad]

Good find Iain.
Shouldn't it actually be fitted to a TRV valve bottom? I can't really see how it could work.
ta ta

[Ted]

Yes, some artistic license taken with that photo. Spec sheet here: http://www.floentoppen.no/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/honeywell-rondostat-hr20-spesification.PDF

[tony.]

Ive got one that i got from Conrad electronics, with P&P it was near the £50 mark i think.  Thanks to Guy, for highlighting them last year.

going to buy another 5 on thursday

[fred bloggs]

Members

I'm very interested in the HR20 valves myself , so decided this lunch time to walk into the local Lidl (in Stoke) from my office.
I picked up the flyer with this weeks offers on and no sign of the HR20 valves in it, the store manager stated that he didn't know what he was getting until he opened the crates on the morning of the offers, therefore he told me to call the number on the bottom of the flyer and ask whether the valves would be on offer.
Went back into the office logged onto the net and clicked onto the link above which is to the plymouth store offers and it does show the valves, search for a northern store. ie Stoke and they are not on offer!!!! I proceeded to call 08704441234 and after a 10 minute wait the gentleman on the line was at a loss as to what was on offer as his screen was not showing any valves on the offers page. He said he would query it with his line manager (much good that will do )
Typical something useful and only the southern lot seem to be getting it if anyone.

Enough ratting for today

Best Regards

Fred

[rhys]

Not available in Oxfordshire either!! The Lidle website has a Postcode store finder - HR20 only available in some stores it seems.

[GreenIan]

I noticed these in the Lidl flier a week or so back and thought, wow that looks cool and only £20. Then when I thought about it I was forced to ask myself the question is it worth it, will I actually save £20 of gas from controlling one radiator precisely. Plus it needs batteries.

The conclusion I came to was, no it can't be worth it. Manual TRV's do most of the job, I can't see this paying for itself.  Plus I can't really think of where I'd use it. Our large lounge would be the obvious place, ie no heating in the morning when we are all heading out, but our lounge has three radiators, should I have one or three of these...

I am open to someone proving to me that these are a sound investment!

What are good in Lidl (also starting tomorrow) are their 3W LED lamps. I bought a few of these from Lidl the other week and they work rather well (£6 each), although they do have quite a wide beam, which isn't great.

Ian

[tony.]

it depends, i am using them to create a 'second' zone that has its own control.  ie shut off heating to bedrooms when not in user

if i did it the other way, i would need to drain down the system install 2 22mm zone valves, a wiring centre another thermostat and programmer.

buying rondostats is an easy way of achieving this. fitted in minutes with no mess.

easy to remove and take away to the next house if required.

tony

[GreenIan]

Tony, at the risk of stating the obvious and sounding like I'm undermining your cunning project, could you not just turn the TRV's down to "1" in the rooms you rarely use?

We have a couple of spare bedrooms and a dining room that are hardly used. When expecting visitors I pop in and turn them to "3". Surely that's all this electronic TRV's are doing, only they don't have a crystal ball to know about unexpected visitors!

I'm sure they have their uses. My point was just that they are still pretty pricey.

Ian

[daftlad]

it depends, i am using them to create a 'second' zone that has its own control.  ie shut off heating to bedrooms when not in user

if i did it the other way, i would need to drain down the system install 2 22mm zone valves, a wiring centre another thermostat and programmer.

buying rondostats is an easy way of achieving this. fitted in minutes with no mess.

easy to remove and take away to the next house if required.

tony

We have 2 central heating zones and it is excellent, we don't need heating on upstairs when we need it downstairs and vice versa.
I would recommend to anyone putting new heating in to put more than one zone in, unless you have these things on every radiator.
ta ta

[tony.]

Ian,

All my rooms are in use at some point during the day.

we have a 1880 house that is difficult to heat (slowly upgrading insulation room by room)

i have tried turning them down to 1 but forget to turn them back up, or come in late and the kids bedrooms are freezing cold.

best to automate and fit and forget.

fitting them to bedrooms that arent used much during the day will allow the boiler to modulate down further.

 I could spend the money on something else, but i see it as a long term investment as I am never moving house again.

tony

[mespilus]

Typical something useful and only the southern lot seem to be getting it if anyone.
Fred

Not available in (outer) West London either,
or,

I would have got a couple to make a (temporary) '2nd' zone.

[GreenIan]

They had several in the Newbury Lidl this morning. I didn't buy any. Unfortunately the LED GU10 bulbs had been cleared out before I got there!

Ian

[Tigger]

I bought three of them from the Lidl store near work this morning.

I know the display will be 'upside down' when I use them in place of my vertical TRVs but for £19.99 compared to £29.99 for the Pegler Terrier ones, I can live with that 

A nice warm bedroom to get up to in the morning but cold when we go to bed at night, just perfect.  The opposite for the living room, leave it cold in the morning when we don't use it and then warm at night when we get home from work 

[Antman]

I fitted a Pegler Terrier PRCi30 head in my office/workroom a couple of weeks ago - fits direct on a Honeywell valve. This is on the basis that I am not the room most of the time in the working week (daytime) so it should save energy by setting-back the temp during the day and only upping it evenings and weekends. If I want it during the day it is easy to just turn the dial to a higher setting for the day.

Observations are that the motor does make an audible whir when it moves the valve. For me, as a relatively light sleeper, this would certainly wake me up if it were set to open the valve early in the morning. It also makes the occasional adjustment as it controls the rad so you get that periodic whir as the motor operates. Again, this would be annoying in a bedroom!
I have ended up with a -1.5 degC offset because the actual room temp ended up rather warmer than the valve set temp - but I do have a large work table between the rad and the monitoring thermometer across the other side of the room.

Batteries are claimed to last 2 yrs and mine came with Duracells. Will have to wait and see on that. I don't yet know if the unit retains programmed memory settings during a battery change - will be a PITA if it doesn't!

To reduce energy use in rooms that have a 'defined use' period, I would suggest that they should pay for themselves in 12 months in a 'living room' useage temperature. For areas that are mainained at a set temp regardless of time or day, a standard TRV head remains the best option in my view.

Antman