Hive/Hive TRV's

sobi1

Smart TRVs are really more of a gadget, to be honest. If certain rooms heat up faster than others, you can manually adjust the TRV and leave it at that setting. As long as you have a thermostat measuring the temperature in at least one room, your heating should adjust automatically. That said, I do recommend a smart thermostat.

Qyburn

Reed_Richards said:

With regard to the programmable TRVs, well a few, maybe, but do you really want to vary the temperature of all the rooms in hour house during the day?  

Yes in our case. With the whole house as a single zone we're pointlessly heating parts of the house that aren't in use at that particular time of day. 

Reed_Richards

Qyburn said:

Reed_Richards said:

With regard to the programmable TRVs, well a few, maybe, but do you really want to vary the temperature of all the rooms in hour house during the day?  

Yes in our case. With the whole house as a single zone we're pointlessly heating parts of the house that aren't in use at that particular time of day. 

I reckon two Hive TRVs would cost more than one zone valve so that's not a money saving solution in terms of the plumbing.

Qyburn

Reed_Richards said:

I reckon two Hive TRVs would cost more than one zone valve so that's not a money saving solution in terms of the plumbing.

Maybe if part of the original build. Or if you're just literally comparing price of parts and not installation.  I wouldn't like to even think of how our plumbing could be reworked to suit. It would certainly need floors lifted and hatches into eaves space for the new pipe runs.

It would also mean being completely certain which rooms need to be zoned together. A change of heart "maybe we do need the bathroom heated in the morning", or starting to use the spare bedroom if working from home would mean changing the plumbing again.

Reed_Richards

I've seen an argument applied to heat pumps that if you only heat some rooms then they will lose heat faster to the unheated rooms so you need your radiator water temperature in the heated rooms to be hotter (on average).  That can lead to reduced heat source efficiency and you end up not saving anything, or not saving as much as you thought.  Gas and oil boiler efficiency is less sensitive to operating conditions than for a heat pump so I imagine you will be okay  

FreeBear

The other thing to consider is water volume - Heat pumps have a minimum amount that they will work with, hence many systems have buffer tanks or volumisers fitted. If you start zoning areas off and/or fit TRVs (smart or regular), you could find yourself dropping below the minimum volume being circulated.

Reed_Richards

That would depend on where your buffer/volumiser is situated.  I guess ideally it is at the start/end of the heating circuit so common to all zones.

anon_ymous

400ixl said:

Certainly not to all radiators, one should be left to allow for pressure release.

Having Hive TRV's with a hive controller has the advantage they can call for heat if required.

Personally I have put Tuya smart TRV's on ours and it is all controlled by my Home Assistant smart home system. The TRV's from Aliexpress were less than £15 each and have been working faultlessly.

They would equally work with the Tuya gateway and app if you didn't have a smart home system.

May I ask how you're finding them? And what link you used presumably on aliexpress?

Also why that instead of say Sonoff or TP link which are similarly priced?