# Smart TRVs



## MrGrumpy (5 Feb 2022)

With this current energy crisis it’s got me thinking about smart TRVs for my rads. I would have liked to have separated out my heating between top and bottom floors at least . However smart TRVs would allow that . Anyone installed them. I think for me it would cost a small fortune due to the amount of rads in my circuit. Do you need to do all of them or just say the rooms you want to switch off . So leave hallways in normal thermostatic valves etc ?


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## gbb (5 Feb 2022)

While i have Hive, my rads are just on straight thermostatic valves. In rooms we generally dont use (2 spare bedrooms), i just have the valves turned off, very simplistic. I assume with Hive, you could contol individual valves .
Tbf, im not deeply into this kind of stuff, old school, if i want a rad off, i just turn it off. But theres only two of us usually in a 3 bed house so rooms stay generally empty for weeks, its no big deal for us. I also tend to think sometimes, is this kind of stuff technology for technologies sake.


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## jowwy (5 Feb 2022)

gbb said:


> While i have Hive, my rads are just on straight thermostatic valves. In rooms we generally dont use (2 spare bedrooms), i just have the valves turned off, very simplistic. I assume with Hive, you could contol individual valves .
> Tbf, im not deeply into this kind of stuff, old school, if i want a rad off, i just turn it off. But theres only two of us usually in a 3 bed house so rooms stay generally empty for weeks, its no big deal for us. I also tend to think sometimes, is this kind of stuff technology for technologies sake.


But if those rooms are turned off, dont they get damp?? And wouldnt also take longer to warm up the house to the required temp, due to cold rooms???


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## gbb (5 Feb 2022)

jowwy said:


> But if those rooms are turned off, dont they get damp?? And wouldnt also take longer to warm up the house to the required temp, due to cold rooms???


No. Its a 4 bed converted to 3 large bedrooms, two rooms only get used when grandkids stay over, maybe once a month. The house isnt overly heated anyway, heating is off early...if its even put on (its only been on today for a while), we"re ok with a house temp of 16, windows are always open at night anyway.
If the heating goes on, we just close those empty room doors (and windows)...a quite obvious thing to do surely ?

Waking with frost on the inside of windows as a kid hardens you to cold weather, personally i cant stand it going into houses that are over heated, some people just never acclimatised to a bit of cold.


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## jowwy (5 Feb 2022)

gbb said:


> No. Its a 4 bed converted to 3 large bedrooms, two rooms only get used when grandkids stay over, maybe once a month. The house isnt overly heated anyway, heating is off early...if its even put on (its only been on today for a while), we"re ok with a house temp of 16, windows are always open at night anyway.
> If the heating goes on, we just close those empty room doors (and windows)...a quite obvious thing to do surely ?
> 
> Waking with frost on the inside of windows as a kid hardens you to cold weather, personally i cant stand it going into houses that are over heated, some people just never acclimatised to a bit of cold.


All my doors are left open as to not trap my animals in any room……especially my two cats.

my house temp is set to 20.5, but warm for me, but the mrs suffers through illness if too cold.


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## Milkfloat (7 Feb 2022)

I have the Hive setup, with smart radiator valves on most radiators. At about £40 a valve during the sale it was quite an investment. I did not put a smart valve on all radiators due to cost and just leave those valves turned down very low as background heat. My situation is a family of 4, but I work from home on my own during the day. We tend to have the bedrooms and kitchen warm for when we wake up, then it is all off apart from my office during the day. The open plan kitchen gets heat from about 4pm onwards and the bedrooms get a boost just before bed. The rads without smart valves will just warm gently when any of the other smart valves are on and are in the bathrooms, toilet and hall. It is saving me money and will save significantly more when my fixed gas deal ends. I think it will be about 2 years payback. I could just round the house turning off all the rads each day manually, but life is far too short for that.


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## Scottish Scrutineer (7 Apr 2022)

MrGrumpy said:


> With this current energy crisis it’s got me thinking about smart TRVs for my rads. I would have liked to have separated out my heating between top and bottom floors at least . However smart TRVs would allow that . Anyone installed them. I think for me it would cost a small fortune due to the amount of rads in my circuit. Do you need to do all of them or just say the rooms you want to switch off . So leave hallways in normal thermostatic valves etc ?


Ali,
I'm using Wiser smart TRVs to effectively split the underfloor heating in the "new" part of the house from the older radiator heating in the rest of the house. This allows me to control the temp in the rooms we use as home offices from the phone App, and use the timer and room controls for the underfloor system (it is on longer as it is a slower response time). Office rooms only heat to a comfort temp on days that we are working from home, other radiators in hall and utility are only raised temp on mornings and evenings, but on cool settings otherwise.

Same system (Wiser) controls the smart plug to which the fan for the turbo trainer is plugged into. That's the top of the list in the App


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