Smart radiator valves

knightstyle

I am thinking of getting some and would appreciate your experience.

BUFF

what controls system is fitted to your boiler at the moment (& can it accept "call for heat" from a smart TRV)?
Do you already have mechanical TRV valves fitted?

knightstyle

There are some old thermostatic valves and some manual. The boiler is a 1 year old Worcester greenstar 2000 with a Centre 340017 wireless thermostat.

BUFF

Obviously you can't fit eTRVs heads to manual valves - you would have to replace the valves for thermostatic too.

Why are you thinking of switching to eTRVs, what do you hope to gain?
Unless you are also thinking of changing the controls (I doubt that Centre 340017 can accept/action calls for heat from eTRVs) I don't think that you will gain much. Even then the studies that have been done showed a range of results from none to (iirc) ~8% saving.

ashe

The only real benefit of such a setup, imo, is that you can easily turn the rads off to all other rooms except one if you work from home alone for example. most other use cases it would take some time to repay the outlay. Given how cheap standard TRV's are they're generally a no brainer. 

Remember with eTRV's you'll need to recharge them regularly too, which friend told me gets old fast. 

Alnat1

Yeah, I heard the batteries are always going and are a pain in the !!!!. Stick with manual TRVs

knightstyle

The reason for thinking about this is to get heating into various rooms when we need it and not when we need heat in another room.  For example our bedroom would be low at night and most of the day but have two boost periods, 1 before we get up and another before we go to bed.  Then the garden room, sounds posh but is not, heat in morning first thing and low the rest of the time, sitting room low at night, medium during the day and high in the evening.
I cannot see any other way of getting control unless I go round several times a day changing valve temperature settings.

littleboo

This is raison d'etre for smart TRV's - the ability to heat individual rooms to different schedules and with varying target temperatures. I have recently installed Drayton Wiser and the TRV's work very well

powerful_Rogue

I've got the Drayton Wiser system with  their TRV's on 90% of my radiators. Been using the system since 2017. I highly recommend the individual room control.

Batteries, I usally get around 15 months out of them.

BUFF

littleboo said:

This is raison d'etre for smart TRV's - the ability to heat individual rooms to different schedules and with varying target temperatures. I have recently installed Drayton Wiser and the TRV's work very well

yes, but you have also fitted a new boiler control not just eTRV heads.
Unless the OP also changes their controls the minimal savings from just fitting smart/eTRV heads will take forever to repay for the investment  or possibly never.

piperm87

I've got 3 Hive TRV's ones as-well as the Hive thermostat and hub. The main stat and hub is ok but i dont rate the TRV's - they are constantly calibrating and the one in our bedroom doesn't fully shut off so is still getting warm even when its reached temperature. i had a right nightmare setting them up aswell. If i could send them back for a refund i would.