Does anyone make a thermostatic radiator valve with a timer?

[Elkato531]

The alternative is to have a manual implementation of the existing manual TRVs with adjustment by the room occupants .

Must admit I was thinking the same. If you want a really cheap solution, you could walk upstairs at 9.30 and turn the rads on.

 

[Mister Banks]

Thanks, Mister Banks. I'm only intending to control 2 or 3 radiators out of 13. The rest will stay on as before, which I tghink will mean there is enough circulation not to trip a short cycle. Am I correct?

It depends on the heat loss of the rooms and how low the boiler will modulate down too.

 

[Rodders53]

Note I said ALL THE BEDROOMS' rads will need to have E-TRVs to control the bedroom rads on/off times.

If that's three bedrooms then that's all the smart TRVs you need.
Properly smart ones that can make the CH turn on when needed will make all the house rads warm up (depending on individual rads TRV settings) if the CH is otherwise all off.

SWMBO wants the master bedroom under 18C to sleep. It's why we have an aircon unit installed. Our manual bedroom TRVs are usually set at 1-2 unless we have visitors staying. Often enough they remain off altogether.

 

[CliveyC]

Must admit I was thinking the same. If you want a really cheap solution, you could walk upstairs at 9.30 and turn the rads on.

Yeah, that's what I do right now - when I remember! That's why I want to automate it.

 

[ericmark]

So putting one of Eric's eTRVs on a single radiator won't let me stop that radiator coming on when the central heating comes on?

Yes it will, although set to a temperature in the main, not on/off. Terrier i30 and eQ-3 do not need hubs, the eQ-3 comes in two versions with and without Bluetooth, with Bluetooth you can pair two radiators in the same room, and linked to phone a little easier to set. But need to be in the room to set it, Bluetooth range is limited, and will only work with one phone.

A quick search for TRV timer there are loads - here is one https://www.amazon.co.uk
But I always thought that its not good to turn off too many - pressure or something ?

That is the non Bluetooth version of the eQ-3. A lot more than I paid, in 2019 the Bluetooth version was £15, assume due to Brexit?

As to turning radiators off, a typical boiler (Gas) will modulate 7 kW to 28 kW, and has a by-pass valve, so as long as using 7 kW the boiler will run. but even below 7 kW it starts a mark/space ratio of turning off/on, and when it turns back on, it does so at minium output. Where it turned off with an on/off control like a room thermostat, it resets the boiler, and it turns back on at maximum output.

Selecting times and order can help, if the on/off wall thermostat turns on at 5 pm, and kitchen also a 5 pm, or 4:55 pm to ensure open, then dining room at 5:10 pm followed by living room at 5:20 pm the radiators will heat in that order. So the kitchen warms up quicker.

With no linked TRV heads, turning wall thermostat down 0.5ºC half hour before TRV asks for more heat, then up again when it asks for it the boiler is more likely to run. Also, we are given thermals,

but this unlikely to work with the stairs, the heat will slowly go along the hall, but if the main wall thermostat is in the hall, likely you also need a TRV as well, since when you open the front door, hall cools rapidly, so needs a large radiator to replace the lost heat, but only for a short time, so setting the TRV head lower than the wall thermostat, allows the room to reheat rapid, but then slow down as the TRV closes, allowing rest of house to heat up, before wall thermostat clicks off.

In other words use some thought, don't simply follow books, it is all well and good saying don't put a TRV in the same room as the wall thermostat, if that room is the slowest to re-heat, and has no alternative heating or cooling, i.e. no south facing windows, or patio doors. I have 6 mid-houserooms, Utility room, unheated, shower room gets hot when shower running, kitchen door to outside and cookers, dinning room, patio doors, hall front door, living room patio doors onto balcony. So only option is two wall thermostats wired in parallel.

So unless linked, TRV's stop a room over heating, and wall thermostats stop rooms getting too cold.