HR 20 Radiator valves at LIdl

[fred bloggs]

All

Went into the Stoke branch - none in store - went to look for the LED bulbs and nearly all gone  - still got a couple of the MR16 which will be installed tonight

Best regards

Fred

[rhys]

HR20's were in stock in North Swindon Branch near Wickes.
Virtually all LED's have gone. Got 3 MR16 12v but of course then had to get  a LED transformer from B&Q.

[Tigger]

Well I can confirm that my HR20s do what they say on the tin.  The bedroom was nice and cool last night and much warmer this morning.  The living room was also cool this morning so will hopefully be nice and warm when I get home later.

Yes, I did hear both valves open up at 4am but then I'm a light sleeper, I can usually hear if a mouse farts at the bottom of the garden (I guess I was a cat in a former life).

I also heard the little adjustments they made as the room started to come up to temp, that was a strangely pleasant sound, a reassurance that they're working properly.  I'm sure it's something I'll get used to, it didn't actually wake me up and one of the valves is just 3 feet away from my head so it would be hard not to hear it.  I  might try and swap the valves end for end on that rad since I discovered last night that the TRV is on the return rather than the flow so now I've got a good reason to move it......

[tony.]

My local Lidl had 5 in stock at 8am.  I bought 4.

Unfortunately thedy didnt have any led lamps.

Yes they do make a noise, but i just set mine for when we are awake so not an issue.
tony

[MikeM]

Just bought 2 out of the 3 available from Lidl Cirencester store. Installed in a 'jiff' and really easy to programme.

Noted that they say that they don't lose their settings when the battery goes flat - which is more than my Conrad FH80 units did - as I recently discovered !

Also read in another forum that these units do meet UK regs as there is no boiler interlock ? Thus if fitted to ALL radiators in a system the boiler would be unable to dissipate it's heat anywhere. Not a problem in my case as I have a bathroom rad always on.

[tony.]

Wouldn't that depend?
I have Trvs fitted to all my radiators, but I have a danfoss bypass fitted under the floor between the flow and return at the furthest distance from the boiler.

Tony

[Antman]

Bumping this to report back on Terrier i-temp PRCi30 valve fitted last October.

With the ambient temp dropping a bit now I noticed that the motor was sounding a bit 'strained' so checked batteries. Down to 1.1V. Not bad getting 11 months for a motorised device that trundles up and down several times a day. Remember that this valve also has a 'decalcification' function that cannot be disabled - so it cycles fully up/down every 24hours even in the summer months when the heating is off.
So 60p for a couple of Procells every year is worth it.

Now for the interesting bit. My gas useage for the 12 months to May 2011 (i.e. including last winter) was 19165kWh. For the previous 12 months (to May 2010) it was 19353kWh. (This includes a gas hob).
Considering that last winter we had the heating on 24-7 for over six weeks, I call that a result!

So the conclusion is, YES the i-temp will save you money - especially in rooms where you have a well-defined temperature requirement cycle. And in such areas you will more than recover the £30 cost in the first year.

Antman

[dimengineer]

I think the cost has to come down a fair bit to make financial sense. Antman - in your case you reckon to have saved 200kWh (unless thats a typo). If using gas for heating that is only about £6!!

I have looked at them, and they do seem a great idea, but at around the £30 mark, you want to be saving at least £6 per year per unit (5 yr payback) - and I can't really see it.

That being said, I will probably get a couple and give them  twirl - probably in our big living room.

Tim

[JohnS]

According to imeasure' new reporting functions, I used 9% less gas in the year to 31 March 2011 compared to the previous year.

Admitedly, I had done some internal wall insulaion and other draft proofing measures.

John

[Andygodber]

According to imeasure' new reporting functions, I used 9% less gas in the year to 31 March 2011 compared to the previous year.

Admitedly, I had done some internal wall insulaion and other draft proofing measures.

John

Help me out with these types of valves.....how can they (and even Ordinary TRVs) help save gas?
Surely the boiler is controlled by the temp of the central thermostat? If the thermo in one room is set to say, 23 degrees, isnt the boiler still going to heat/pump for that room, even though the temp for the smart valves in other rooms has been met? Ok, so the water may not need to pump around those rooms - is it a case that (simple term) less water has to be heated to get to the temp of the thermostat?

[clivejo]

Awwww, you got me all excited there, rushed over to Lidl website to see when they be in stores!  Seems I'm a year too late 

[JohnS]

According to imeasure' new reporting functions, I used 9% less gas in the year to 31 March 2011 compared to the previous year.

Admitedly, I had done some internal wall insulaion and other draft proofing measures.

John

Help me out with these types of valves.....how can they (and even Ordinary TRVs) help save gas?
Surely the boiler is controlled by the temp of the central thermostat? If the thermo in one room is set to say, 23 degrees, isnt the boiler still going to heat/pump for that room, even though the temp for the smart valves in other rooms has been met? Ok, so the water may not need to pump around those rooms - is it a case that (simple term) less water has to be heated to get to the temp of the thermostat?

Andy

My understanding is that these thermostats/valves are best used to reduce demand.  For example a bedroom might only need heating from till 7.30 in the morning, whereas downstairs needs an extra half hour.  Same in the evening where the bedrooms can be brought up to temperature later than the living space.

The aim of my post was to show that my gas usage went down in what Antman thought was a colder winter.  Maybe my extra insulation helped, maybe the micro climates were different, maybe Mrs Antman learnt how to tweak his system.  Who knows?  bit of each most likely.

How did the gas usage of others vary from 2009/10 to 2010/11?

John

[Tigger]

I'm sure they'll save me some money eventually, however my biggest driver for fitting them was to ensure that we had a cool/cold bedroom at night to make it nicer to go to sleep in and a warm bedroom when we get up in the morning. 

The opposite goes for the living room where there's no point in heating it up in the morning since we don't go in there but we do want it warm in the evening. 

It makes the house more comfortable to live in so that alone makes the expenditure worthwhile for me