Thermostatic Radiator Valve

nerophis

Does anyone know if these are worth fitting? I like the idea of being able to control the temp in each room individually and it might reduce heating bills somewhat if the radiator was effectively by-passed. But then there's the cost of each valve. Anyone have an opinion?

I_am_Jebus

Hi,

I haven't done a an analysis of how effective they are in terms of reducing heat output and therefore overall heating costs. I now have them in my house on all radiators (with the exception of two towel rads) and I think TRV's are a good way to go. As I say, I haven't done any analysis on them but at the end of the day they didn't cost a great deal and with every room regulated it surely has to have an effect.

Like anything there are a number of different brands, from whay I've seen they all work the same. So stay away from the likes of Myson ones (good but can be expensive) and go for more generic brands.

I don't think we can mention company names etc... on here but whe I got mine just before christmas I gor a good deal from a trade plumbing and heating company in dublin indutrial estate, in Glasnevin (persuming you are based in Dublin).

But either way if you decide to get them, stay away from the large retail DIY stores and go to a trade plumbing and heatin place as in my experience they are considerably cheaper.

nerophis

Thanks very helpful. Do you use them in conjunction with an electronic thermostat? could you give a ball park price for what you paid per TRV? I saw them at around thirty

djpbarry

Moved from Green Issues.

Joey the lips

I have never believe the guff that the are worth fitting cause the way I see it your heating is either on or off. Fcek the crap of different room temp

I think you only fit them downstairs and if you do buy them buy good ones where you can replace the heads cause the little sh1ts stand on them and break the heads off

I think they contribute to the BER Rating but as far as I am concerned a plumber charging between 50 - 70 euro to fit one, ber can go to hell!

Turn on heating if cold

Turn off heating if hot!

Better still if you have no kids there is better ways to keep warm

nerophis

If it were only so simple and in a mans world it would be. Heating to the sub-tropical temps desired by herself and watching the cost as I do means a compromise is required. I can obviously completely turn off rads in rooms rarely used but complaints do follow. If I could barely heat I would be happier. Not trying to bring this into PI but someone might be able to say whether it's worth the cost or not

demanufactured

try turning DOWN rads in unused rooms.

TRV's are handy, they give you more control over the heat used and the more control you have the easier it is to reduce costs, also having TRV's will help balance a heating system, this is a good thing because i find most systems have not been balanced leaving some rads on a circuit cooler than others, Gary.

Joey the lips

My understanding was always that its bad to turn off rads cause you unbalence a system. Just curious why trv's are encouraged!

Your right, turning off rads on a balanced heating system will have a impact on the rads that are left on, finding a properly balanced system is as hard as finding a banker to give me money, that's due(in my experience) to bad installation practices ie.. no flushing or inhibitor causing sludge, flow & return to small, cylinder on the heating circuit, over sized or undersized boiler etc.. fitting TRV's mean that as the rad shuts off the flow can be pushed out to the rads that are not getting hot in effect balancing the system, Gary.

demanufactured

Joey the lips wrote: »

My understanding was always that its bad to turn off rads cause you unbalence a system. Just curious why trv's are encouraged!

You probably do un-balance it but what harm is it doing by temporarely turning off a rad or 2 , i never turn them off completely just turn them down so their barely on.

pipers

nerophis wrote: »

Does anyone know if these are worth fitting? I like the idea of being able to control the temp in each room individually and it might reduce heating bills somewhat if the radiator was effectively by-passed. But then there's the cost of each valve. Anyone have an opinion?

Yes, they are worth fitting.


For comfort (prevents area's overheating) and economics (rad's shut down when room temperature reached).

Also consider fitting a thermostatic cylinder valve on the coil. If fitting this ensure one rad (towel rad perhaps?) will always be open to ensure circulation.

Interesting101

Was only thinking about doinf this myself.

What should i expect to pay per value in a plumbing suppliers. Like OP i saw then at €30 a pop in the bigger DIY chains.
Anyone know where they be bought online?

http://www.bes.co.uk/products/115.asp never had a problem with my orders from BES, Gary.

mainly English pipe sizes.

whitelightrider

Im looking into getting these for my own house.
Im assuming you only need the valve on one side of the rad?

darcy.jonny

if you want to save money on your heating .........

trvs just wont do it on there own ,if your thinking about installing trvs on any system consider also , sealing the heating system (if you have an open system)

chemically clean the heating system proplerly ........ (not a 2 hour job!)

put a thermostatic cyliner valve on the cylinder .

DO replace the return valves (oposite side of where u want trv on rad)
most of these valves are usless after a few years .

closing of a trv does not mean it will unbalance the system .... if its correctly balanced it will be balanced by a the return valve not the trv.

also consider ....... changing the circulation pump , a lot of houses out there have the wrong rated pump in them

changing various radiators ... if there 20 years old and painted the output is very low .

youtheman

I put TRVs in all my bedrooms, not to save money, per se, but to regulate the temperature in each room individually. If you don't want to fit zone valves and individual thermostats then this is the cheapest way to give individual control to some of your rooms. There is nor wiring modifications required, or piping mods, or zone valves, controllers and thermoststs required.

They cost me approx 15 euros each, and it was money well spent (I fitted them myself)

The literature says that a bedroom should be around 18 degrees C, and a living room around 20 to 21 degrees C (and I accept that this is an individual preference). So my bedroom radiators heat up in the morning when the rooms are cold, but they are off in the evening when the kids are going to bed (even though the heat is on downstairs)

A TRV won't unbalance a system, if you think of it it's no worse that closing the manual valve on each radiator.

You can't fit TRVs to all rooms, as they could all close and dead head the system (ie no flow). It is recommended that you fit an automatic bypass valve that will allow water to circulate in case something blocks the system. In fact my new boiler has this automatic bypass valve fitted internally.

You should still have a thermostat in at least one room, and this is the 'master' in that it calls for the boiler to be on or off. The TRVs will regulate the temp in the other rooms assuming the heat is on.

darcy.jonny

do not fit trvs in the hallway or bathroom .

Interesting101

darcy.jonny wrote: »

do not fit trvs in the hallway or bathroom .

Why not?

darcy.jonny

hallway .......... the coldest room in the house if you open the door the front door the heat will be lost rendering the trv pretty usless but the main problem here would be hallways are heavy traffic areas heads on trvs usually get snaped off . also being the coldest room in the house most hallyway rads the heat naturally rises to the landing area . these rads are far better served with standard lock shield valves ...............its the one rad u need hot all the time open the sitting room door into the hallway with rad on low temperature and ull lose the heat in the sitting room .

the bathroom .......... condensation to put it plainly , the trv will be useless if condensation gets on it and although in most cses they are chromed or brass they will still rust up on the piston mechenism jaming it open or closed .


third part as a previous poster said if you want to avoid the system kettling over and triping the overheat switch you need to have a least one rad thats non trv . but to be honest depending on the rad size e.g. bathroom it sometimes is never enough so u use two and the hall and bathroom are the ovious ones to choose

tinofapples

Can someone who knows their stuff recommend a particular brand or type of TRV ? I've been in B&Q today in Athlone having a look, the only one they had was an Easi-Plumb brand @ €30 a pop :eek:

I was on the B&Q website before going over (Albeit UK site) and they were available there for less than £7 on special offer. Yer man explained that the UK one's are different than ours mainly due to the fact that most if not all systems here use 1/2" pipes.

Anyhow, where does a fella go for reasonable good TRV's ??

What are these ones like ??

http://www.pulsar.ie/plumbing-supplies/ProductDetail.asp?ProductSubId=21&ProductCatId=1044&ProductCode=RAV007

yoshytoshy

tinofapples wrote: »

Can someone who knows their stuff recommend a particular brand or type of TRV ?

I'm a registered gas installer and qualified for sei grants ,Danfoss heating equipment is the best at the moment.

Never had one callback in the last three years ,on their trv's.

Probably have installed 400+ of them.

Joey the lips

Hi All, my own opinion on trv's aside from above.

1, When buying TRV cheap or dear always buy 2 spare heads. They tend to be broken at some stage. It could be a sofa pushed into them, a box up against them or kids standing on them

2. I see the myson TRV manual rec's that for a TRV to work at its best it should be fitted with the dial face pointing towards 3 o clock or 9 o clock as apposed to the standard 12 o clock. This makes the TRV more prone to breakage by kids but app makes it work better.

3. Lastly for a TRV to work correct never turn it completly off. Turn it to the Frost symbol.

My own feelings on good TRV's are Myson, Danfoss or peglar. tbh if i really thought of it I would pick myson because the heads now are interchangable with the older ones. I dont know if the regs have changed recently but the general rule is one rad should be left open all the time and its not necessary to have TRV's upstairs BUT as said these are my feelings please check first with your plumber as I would

yoshytoshy

Joey the lips wrote: »

Hi All, my own opinion on trv's aside from above.

1, When buying TRV cheap or dear always buy 2 spare heads. They tend to be broken at some stage. It could be a sofa pushed into them, a box up against them or kids standing on them

2. I see the myson TRV manual rec's that for a TRV to work at its best it should be fitted with the dial face pointing towards 3 o clock or 9 o clock as apposed to the standard 12 o clock. This makes the TRV more prone to breakage by kids but app makes it work better.

3. Lastly for a TRV to work correct never turn it completly off. Turn it to the Frost symbol.

My own feelings on good TRV's are Myson, Danfoss or peglar. tbh if i really thought of it I would pick myson because the heads now are interchangable with the older ones. I dont know if the regs have changed recently but the general rule is one rad should be left open all the time and its not necessary to have TRV's upstairs BUT as said these are my feelings please check first with your plumber as I would

Joey ,that doesn't go for the latest danfoss valves. They have improved a lot since then ,the myson valves on the market at the moment are old ,compared to danfoss.

Joey the lips

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Joey ,that doesn't go for the latest danfoss valves. They have improved a lot since then ,the myson valves on the market at the moment are old ,compared to danfoss.

I dont understand? What does not go. As for improving the myson new heads fit the not so old valves. How many manufacturers do this.

The way i figure is any TRV will work fine but the aftercare, ie reliabability and ability to replace heads matters and myson have never faultered on this.

As said you can always buy cheap valves and just keep a couple over

Joey the lips

yoshytoshy wrote: »

I'll leave you with this ,the only call backs in the last five years on trv's for myself ,were for myson trvs.
Either they stopped working or people complained they operate very slowly ,i.e. take a long time to come back on after going off.

Danfoss supply trv heads for valves ,going back thirthy years or more. I know this ,because I have a catalog of their products in my van.

With due respect that cannot be true. The MAJORITY of call backs in the business is cheap sh1t that builders are installing to meet regulations. They have not been set correctly and are ususally not fitted correctly as regards flow and return .If its your experience that your call backs are on myson you are in the minority and it also tells you about the amount of myson on the market. Councils spec myson TRV's as well as there rads and the myson TRV's are made in Ireland in the same factory as there chrome and nickle standard valves.

I would use danfoss however as myson are made in limerick my loyality has always been with them.

Peglar is also a brilliant TRV as they have been one of the first to come in chrome.

yoshytoshy

Sorry ,I deleted the last post. I didn't come on here to spoof ,it was just to give some solid advice.

No harm done ,I'll leave you to it.

gorwanvfr

yoshytoshy wrote: »

Sorry ,I deleted the last post. I didn't come on here to spoof ,it was just to give some solid advice.

No harm done ,I'll leave you to it.

Yoshytoshy your advice is most welcome. I have to agree with you about Danfoss having just purchased 30 of them. Before doing so I looked at Myson and felt the Danfoss where better. Having read your posts I made the right choice.

whitelightrider

Guys what price would we be looking at for TRV's? Im thinking about putting them into the upstairs rads in my house to better regulate the heat.

gorwanvfr

whitelightrider wrote: »

Guys what price would we be looking at for TRV's? Im thinking about putting them into the upstairs rads in my house to better regulate the heat.

eBay around €14.50 del.

whitelightrider

gorwanvfr wrote: »

eBay around €14.50 del.

Thats not too bad. Im assuming its 1 per rad. Can they be put on the towel rads aswell?