The Electronic Thermostatic Radiator Valve (eTRV)

[mpooley]

Hi
Has any one ever used these? http://www.etrv.co.uk/Home.aspx

would be nice to know if they are any good.

expensive though!


Mike

[Quakered]

Not sure and suspect it depends on your type of house. In our bog standard suburban house, we have the living accommodation on the ground floor and the bed rooms and bathrooms on the second. Since we have had it insulated (roof and external walls) the house seems to maintain a standard temperature throughout. Whatever happens, it the heating is on some time during the day the second floor is always at 70 or over (old thermometer upstairs – think that is around 20 in foreign). I have even experimented with switching off all the thermostatic valves (manual) off and still no difference in household temperature. Indeed the wood burning stove in the living room is under our bedroom and whenever this is on the thermostatic valve on the bedroom radiator automatically switches off due to the rising heat.

Unless you can insulate the internal floors then suspect there is nothing you can do to stop heat rising and these devises will just add complexity. It is bad enough co-ordinating the programmers on the boiler and the thermostat without having to add in the radiators as well.

To get the 25% savings they are suggesting then you will need really excellent isolation of the rooms you are prepared to keep cold during the day (bedrooms presumably) – more bloody batteries to!

If you have the living rooms above the bedrooms, it might work well……

PS How much are they? I could find any mention of the vulgar topic of money on their site.

[billt]

They have an online shop http://www.chalmor.co.uk/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=15&cat=eTRV. The TRVs are £60 inv vat and the remote £12. That looks pricy to me.

[mpooley]

Thanks
yes they are expensive aren't they.

Just wondered if anyone had any real life experience with them.

I ordered a couple of Terrier i-temp i30 Programmable Thermostatic Radiator Valves

from screwfix today at £30 each.

I have a large old barn conversion and believe me the bedrooms do get cold 

I want to be able to leave the upstairs hall and bathroom on all of the Normal heating times but just have 2 of the bedrooms come on an hour or so before beddy byes just to take the edge of the artic like conditions in them.

i will probably need more of them to do this properly but thought i'd just test them out and make sure they work first.

thanks

Mike

[Baz]

 Bear in mind that fancy electronics doesn't last. I ten years if the company is still around they will have moved on.

[biff]

heating a house is a mixture of experience and balance,
                         over a period of time you gain the experience to balance the system,initally when the system is set up the plumber would have left the upstairs lock valves only one quarter open, these lockshields are normally on the opposite end of the rad to the thermostat, downstairs lockshield are left wide open so as to offer no resistance to the flow, thats called balancing the system,its a waste of time fiddling with a remote control thermostat because it takes so long for the system to reach running temp, your bog standard thermostat is just the job,if there is a need for more power then raise the temp on the boiler itself, this means the boiler will run that bit longer to reach the required temp before cutting out,it will also fire up more frequently.
    of course the best way to heat a house is to insulate it to the hilt,then your boiler will fire up far less frequently and save you money.,,,,,,,biff

[Automan]

I have a system from Honeywell where the valves have remote controllers and the valves tell the boiler that it is needed.

System code is YZ667A1060 and is called the Wireless Domestic Heating Zoning System

See http://www.honeywelluk.com/products/Temperature-Controls/Wireless-Temperature-Controls/CM-Zone/ for more information.

System seems to work well and I have three of the remote stats and thus can have six heating temperature zones.

Automan.

[Alan]

Before you invest Tooo much cash into Wireless Domestic Heating Zoning Systems or other electronic data logging / control systems.
You should investigate if any of your neighbours have go 50 inch plasma TVs.

The standard used to assess the Electromagnetic Compatibility of domestic appliances is
CISPR22 
( In Europe this same standard is adopted as EN55022:2006 )

The revised EMC ( Electro Magnetic Compatibility ) Directive makes it mandatory now for manufacturers to provide a written warning that they are not suitable for domestic use.

Regards

Alan

[mpooley]

Alan I'm about 100yds away from nearest house so hopefully immune from interference 

Automan: Thanks for the link that looks very interesting will try to get my head around how could integrate that into my system.

I'm at the quotation stages of installing an ASHP or GSHP system at the moment and am not sure how the new system will be run.
I am thinking it will run 24hrs a day at the moment so might not need the boiler interlock.
will have to wait and see about that but i assume you can add that bit later?

thanks  all

Mike

[Automan]

Before you invest Tooo much cash into Wireless Domestic Heating Zoning Systems or other electronic data logging / control systems.
You should investigate if any of your neighbours have go 50 inch plasma TVs.

The standard used to assess the Electromagnetic Compatibility of domestic appliances is
CISPR22 
( In Europe this same standard is adopted as EN55022:2006 )

The revised EMC ( Electro Magnetic Compatibility ) Directive makes it mandatory now for manufacturers to provide a written warning that they are not suitable for domestic use.

Regards

Alan

Never had any issues with my 46" Panasonic which I have just replaced with an LG LED LCD 47" which eats only about 70 watts of power.

Automan.

[martin W]

hi, I would properly balance the system first, (insulate, insulate), then look at remote trve controls.

I have these:

http://shop.conrad-uk.com/home-and-garden/home-automation-systems/remote-control-system-conrad-fs20/fs20-heating-control/646463.html

without the window sensor

installed in the bathroom they are excellent, but I would like more times and temeprture settings, but working very good. There is probably a better system out there now... but a remote sensor for a trv is a good thing in my mind... depends on cost