Am changing the radiator in our bathroom for a bigger radiator, because it has 3 outside walls and the current radiator is too small. As the room is much colder than the rest of the house (it sticks out at the back) the main thermostat turns the heating off before the bathroom reaches the set temperature, would fitting a TRV keep it on until that room is warm enough too (along with the rest of the heating) or do they only save energy in rooms that need to be cooler than the main thermostat?
TRV on radiator in cold room
- Thread starter angel150
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A TRV on the bathroom rad will not make it heat up faster. But it will prevent it getting excessively hot. They should be fitted on most rads in the house to save energy and maintain a comfortable temperature.
You need to reduce the speed that the room with the room stat heats up at.
the idea is that the room stat turns off the heating after the whole house has got warm. If your living room heats up faster than any other part, the other part will not get warm enough.
The rad in the room with the room stat should not have a TRV. But you can turn down the rad valve to slow down its heat output. You should find it has a knob on the valve at one end, and, at the other, there is a valve with a fixed plastic cover. You can take this cover off, and the knob from the other end should fit the valve. Try turning it down by a couple of turns.
Look up "balancing" in the first two threads at the top of this Plumbing and Heating forum to understand more.
There is another way of getting extra heat to the bathroom rad but this involves some plumbing changes.
You need to reduce the speed that the room with the room stat heats up at.
the idea is that the room stat turns off the heating after the whole house has got warm. If your living room heats up faster than any other part, the other part will not get warm enough.
The rad in the room with the room stat should not have a TRV. But you can turn down the rad valve to slow down its heat output. You should find it has a knob on the valve at one end, and, at the other, there is a valve with a fixed plastic cover. You can take this cover off, and the knob from the other end should fit the valve. Try turning it down by a couple of turns.
Look up "balancing" in the first two threads at the top of this Plumbing and Heating forum to understand more.
There is another way of getting extra heat to the bathroom rad but this involves some plumbing changes.
The main thermostat is in our hall, it's not particularly warm in there and the nearest radiator is quite far away. I'd say where it is, is a good reflection of the overall temperature of the house and is working ok. The kitchen and bathroom though are almost like an extension sticking out on the back and have very little effect on the temperature of the rest of the house. They stay very cold and sort of isolated (4 degrees cooler). Is there any simple way of resolving this? I wondered if a TRV in there would get the boiler to come on and heat that room even if the rest of the house was e.g. 20C as set on the main thermostat.
Angel, I dont think you understand how the trv works.
If the main thermostat is saying I want more heat, the boiler will be running & supplying hot water to all the rads UNLESS a trv has said 'hey Im hot' & turns off.
So putting a trv in a room that dosnt get hot still wont get hot.
You need to turn up the room stat, this will let the trv's contol the rads in the relevant rooms. The cold romm will then be controlled by the room stat.
You should find a combination of room stat setting that works for you.
Hope you can get a better understanding now.
If the main thermostat is saying I want more heat, the boiler will be running & supplying hot water to all the rads UNLESS a trv has said 'hey Im hot' & turns off.
So putting a trv in a room that dosnt get hot still wont get hot.
You need to turn up the room stat, this will let the trv's contol the rads in the relevant rooms. The cold romm will then be controlled by the room stat.
You should find a combination of room stat setting that works for you.
Hope you can get a better understanding now.
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a TRV does not make radiators hotter. It can only make them cooler.
It is like an extra brake on your car. It can slow you down but can't make you go faster.
In order of cost and ease: Check the balancing of your rads, improve insulation and draughtproofing, fit larger rads in the colder rooms.
It is like an extra brake on your car. It can slow you down but can't make you go faster.
In order of cost and ease: Check the balancing of your rads, improve insulation and draughtproofing, fit larger rads in the colder rooms.
Thank you I didn't understand whether they just made rooms cooler. So unless I fit TRVS to all my other rads and have them set lower to save energy and have the main thermosat set higher than all of them (i.e. 4 degrees higher than required to compensate for temp difference with bathroom) there's not an easy way round it.
I think what you have said is the easy way, although you will need a rad without a trv.
What I have described is roughly how my system is running.
It took me about a year to get it running just as we like it.
I have a digital room stat so its a lot easier & more accurate than a dial.
What I have described is roughly how my system is running.
It took me about a year to get it running just as we like it.
I have a digital room stat so its a lot easier & more accurate than a dial.
Thanks for your help. Yes easy, but fitting TRVs is beyond my ability so probably expensive to get them all done by a plumber. Will think on it- maybe one in the bedroom instead of the bathroom so we don't bake would be a compromise.
You say that the rest of the house is OK and that the Room stat gives satisfactory results located in the hall. This means that the cause of your problem in the bathroom is bad system design. The size of the rad was not calculated on the heatloss through the 3 external walls. Possibly aesthetic reasons took precedence?.
How has the size of the replacement rad been decided?
Once you have the correct size rad and the whole system has been properly balanced, you should find that the bathroom heats up just as quickly as the rest of the house.
As the other posters have said, a TRV is nothing more than an automatic tap which controls the flow of water through the rad. It does not decide if the boiler is running or not. That is controlled by the Room Stat.
Very few bathrooms have adequately sized rads!
The towel rails are very low output and that falls to virtually nothing when they are insulated with towels!
I like the bathroom to be the hotest room as I often take my clothes off there ( after locking the door to avoid overexciting anyone ).
Tony
The towel rails are very low output and that falls to virtually nothing when they are insulated with towels!
I like the bathroom to be the hotest room as I often take my clothes off there ( after locking the door to avoid overexciting anyone ).
Tony
So do I (to both points)
I have a fan heater as well, when I go for my morning shower the 1st thing I do is put that on as well.
This information need to be updated.
It does not make any mention of Condensing boilers, which work best with a 20°C drop, not an 11°C.
It also ignores the problem of balancing rads with TRVs. The only instructions I have come across for them are Drayton's, thought the principles will apply to any make TRV: Balancing TRVs
??
A trv does not make the rad cooler, apart from a short spell when it is in the process of closing. It will close the rad when the room is warm enough and open again when the room has cooled down.
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