TRVs

[JBR]

Hi.
We're thinking about getting a Hive heating controller and see that it is possible to buy a stand so that the thermostat can be moved from room to room.

I realise that the room in which the Hive thermostat is placed must not have a TRV on the radiator and that the obvious solution, if I'm to move the thermostat to another room, would be to remove the TRV from that room and place it on the radiator in the room where the thermostat previously was. A time-consuming activity.

My question is, whether I can get away with simply turning up the TRV in whichever room we wish to place the Hive thermostat to 5 (full)?

 

[ianmcd]

yes you can move it to anywhere you want, but if you have the Hive Hub, then you can control the heating from your phone or Ipad or whatever so you dont really need to move the thermostat around

 

[JBR]

yes you can move it to anywhere you want, but if you have the Hive Hub, then you can control the heating from your phone or Ipad or whatever so you dont really need to move the thermostat around

Thanks for your advice.
The thing is that 'Marge' sometimes likes us to put on the wood burner and, of course, as that room warms up our present room thermostat (not Hive) turns off the central heating and at bedtime the bedroom is freezing! (I exaggerate a little).
If we move the (future) Hive thermostat to the bedroom, say, when the wood burner is lit, it would not be affected by the local heat.

However, I understand that in a centrally heated home with a room thermostat, the room in which the room thermostat is located should not have a TRV on its radiator(s), hence my question.

If this is something we were to do regularly, it would be convenient if the bedroom radiator TRV (or whichever room we should move the Hive thermostat to) could be simply turned up full instead of having to remove it completely.

 

[ianmcd]

The reason the room in which the room thermostat should not have a TRV is because they conflict each other, but with modern smart thermostats, the thought process goes completely out of the window, stick the Hive in your bedroom and you can see live time on your smart phone what the temperature is in there and you can turn the heating on or off to suit yourself, there are far more complex setups that you can use, that have electronic thermostats on every radiator, but just get used to how to work the hive

 

[JBR]

The reason the room in which the room thermostat should not have a TRV is because they conflict each other, but with modern smart thermostats, the thought process goes completely out of the window, stick the Hive in your bedroom and you can see live time on your smart phone what the temperature is in there and you can turn the heating on or off to suit yourself, there are far more complex setups that you can use, that have electronic thermostats on every radiator, but just get used to how to work the hive

Thanks. I can see the sense in what you're saying.
I don't need, or want the additional expense of buying electronic TRVs, which I know Hive can supply.

If we were to move the Hive thermostat around as needed, I assume that I could still have TRVs on all radiators. Normally, changing their settings wouldn't be necessary but if, for example, we were to place the Hive thermostat in, for example, the spare bedroom in which the TRV is normally set on '2', the radiator would not heat up beyond the level set. The Hive thermostat would assume that the required temperature has not been reached and would keep the central heating running, heating up the radiators in all the other rooms.

Incidentally, there is no TRV in the room with the wood burner, as that is where the fixed room thermostat sits. If we were to use the wood burner, I suspect it would be better to have a TRV there and turn that down low or the central heating, governed by the Hive thermostat in another room (the bedroom, for example), would continue to heat that radiator unnecessarily.

 

[ericmark]

The thermostat and linked TRV head is often placed in the same room, also if the wall thermostat has the same schedule as the TRV head.

Before the modulating boiler the idea was, control a room with less heating to other rooms, so all other rooms would be slightly over heated and TRV in other rooms would stop them over heating.

But with the modulating boiler we don't want the central heating turning off/on, we want the return water turning up/down. So the Hive wall thermostat links to the Hive TRV and the TRV head sends a "heat on demand" signal to wall thermostat which makes the wall thermostat run the boiler for 1/2 hour. So as long as the wall thermostat is set lower than TRV then it will work great.

 

[JBR]

The thermostat and linked TRV head is often placed in the same room, also if the wall thermostat has the same schedule as the TRV head.

Before the modulating boiler the idea was, control a room with less heating to other rooms, so all other rooms would be slightly over heated and TRV in other rooms would stop them over heating.

But with the modulating boiler we don't want the central heating turning off/on, we want the return water turning up/down. So the Hive wall thermostat links to the Hive TRV and the TRV head sends a "heat on demand" signal to wall thermostat which makes the wall thermostat run the boiler for 1/2 hour. So as long as the wall thermostat is set lower than TRV then it will work great.

Thanks for this additional information.
Although that system does sound impressively clever, I'm not really interested in buying Hive TRVs. I'd prefer to keep things simple.

Perhaps I might ask a more simple question:
Is turning a TRV on full (No. 5 in my case) equivalent to completely removing it from the radiator?

 

[Harry Bloomfield]

Incidentally, there is no TRV in the room with the wood burner, as that is where the fixed room thermostat sits. If we were to use the wood burner, I suspect it would be better to have a TRV there and turn that down low or the central heating, governed by the Hive thermostat in another room (the bedroom, for example), would continue to heat that radiator unnecessarily.

Turning the TRV up to max, has a similar effect to having no TRV, so putting the Hive in there would work OK.

Usually you would put the Hive either in the hall and have no TRV on the hall radiator, but again turning it to max would work.

There should be no need to adjust the TRV in the room where the wood burner is located, it should turn the radiator off once the room gets to the TRV's set temperature.

There really should be no desperate need to carry the Hive around with you under normal circumstances - properly set, your TRV's should maintain each room's temperature.

 

[JBR]

Turning the TRV up to max, has a similar effect to having no TRV, so putting the Hive in there would work OK.

Usually you would put the Hive either in the hall and have no TRV on the hall radiator, but again turning it to max would work.

There should be no need to adjust the TRV in the room where the wood burner is located, it should turn the radiator off once the room gets to the TRV's set temperature.

There really should be no desperate need to carry the Hive around with you under normal circumstances - properly set, your TRV's should maintain each room's temperature.

Thank you. That's exactly what I needed to know.

 

[ericmark]

eQ-3 TRV heads start at £10 each, with blue tooth mine cost £15 each, so setting the TRV with same schedule as wall thermostat you can adjust the sample room (with wall thermostat) to need slightly more heat to other rooms in house then you can set house to reasonable have each room heated independent.

May seem odd but works better with poorly insulated house, as clearly if sample room does not cool, then boiler does not run, so even if TRV in other rooms open, boiler not running means no heat..

So setting in sample room is important, the wall thermostat, the TRV and lock shield valve are all important. But rest of house cool close lock shield valve in sample room.

 

[ericmark]

Oh as ps remove TRV head, and it defaults fully open.

 

[JBR]

eQ-3 TRV heads start at £10 each, with blue tooth mine cost £15 each, so setting the TRV with same schedule as wall thermostat you can adjust the sample room (with wall thermostat) to need slightly more heat to other rooms in house then you can set house to reasonable have each room heated independent.

Well, I suppose that if they're so reasonably priced, despite our having eleven radiators in total (I've just had to mentally count them), we might think about electronic TRVs in the future. Easier to make adjustments from a chair and certainly more interesting to play with. Marge will have the casting vote, of course!
Thanks again.

 

[ericmark]

My bathroom no TRV, my shower room simple wax, and flat under house wax, but entrance floor 4 x wifi and 1 x blue tooth, up stairs 4 x blue tooth, the blue tooth can only pair to one phone, however I have found once programmed hardly bother with phone.

The button with moon and * swaps from comfort to eco mode, you can set the two temperatures, so I have 17°C for Eco and 20°C for comfort so it is simply pressing one button which is easier and quicker than using phone. Clearly spinning wheel you can also change setting, the Terrier i30 is very similar,

Screwfix charge £22 for the eQ-3 but internet found at £7.66 plus postage real cost depends on how many bought.

I am also using the Energenie MiHome these were £160 for 3 with a hub Screwfix price, again found down to £25 each on internet.

My idea was the 4 wifi heads would link to Nest, however Nest has stopped the linking, I could set geofencing on both Nest and Energenie TRV's so they do both automatic change settings as I get close to home, never bothered as yet, I find if Nest set to drop to 17°C when I leave the house, it has rarely dropped to that point on my return, so TRV's can't heat room if boiler not running, so no need to set geofencing on the TRV's.

 

[dilalio]

IIRC, Nest has a setting for being in a room with a fire in it... maybe Hive does too?

 

[JBR]

Thank you both.
Much more information of which I was unaware until now.

Yes, of course I really don't need to have electronic TRVs on every radiator!

What I'll do will be best decided when Marge and I can have a proper talk about it. She's in America right now, but back on Friday night.