Shefwedfan wrote: » Ok, I am not sure if I asked before. I have on last count we have 21 radiators in house. All have TRV installed. System is just climote To install lets say Tado is going to be at a considerable cost, I guess no other alternative available? its just pay it and see?
championc wrote: » Just be aware that only 10 TRV's can be paired to a Smart Thermostat (if you wanted the TRV's to individually be able to fire the boiler). You can of course have 2 x Smart Thermostats, with 10 paired to each. One Smart Thermostat could be used to control the boiler while the other could be used to control a Zone Valve. (I'm sure @deezell will confirm if this is incorrect
championc wrote: » For the immersion, the Tado could control a simple valve leading into the cylinder inlet
deezell wrote: » Sometimes a manual valve on the cylinder coil also to regulate it's flow share.
Zone valve S plan. An individual motorised valve for each zone, timer/stat controlled,which call the boiler via their grouped relay outputs.
Any of the above with TRVs.
Manual trvs cap individual room temperature during a timed or zoned call.
An open loop at the end of a long run of TRV radiators is not uncommon, it facilitates faster response on the most remote radiators.
deezell wrote: » Notionally, it would be peak efficiency to have motorised zone control over every rad or room
Motorised Zoned valves with mechanical TRVs is also a good option.
You'll find systems with no bypass, safe enough as the boiler should never fire unless at least one zone valve is open to supply the SL, but retrofitted smart TRVs (or just the householder shutting down all the rad valves) can lead to a closed system, so the bypass is a good safety feature, it allows a boiler to safely cycle if a stat is calling it but no rads are drawing the flow, which could happen easily enough in a mixed system not optimallly set up.
The valve on the cylinder flow is most likely there to prevent the cylinder hogging all the flow from the pump when the cylinder is plumbed across the flow and return just like another rad. Without it, remote radiators will barely heat.
Having it's own timed/cylinder stat controlled zone valve means you can set when it operates, and you can also wire a priority system for CH over HW using the NC terminals of the CH stats/timers, though with modulated smart stat control the HW might never get a break.
Cylinder flows were often plumbed by gravity, from seperate ports on the boiler (many oil boilers have two sets either side), or from the same ports but before the circulation pump, using a special tee junction connector called a venturi to ensure the pump when activated did not reverse the flow through the cylinder, cooling the HW with return CH flow
Savings made by having a zone valve as well as full TRVs though would be tiny, as heat losses could only occur by leakage on the trv valve bodies themselves, which would manifest as warm rads that should be cold.
deezell wrote: » If all the rads on a branch or zone have closed TRVs, there should be no flow on the uninsulated hot flow pipe
Insulate exposed flow pipes. The ones underfloor would surely be insulated, behind partition walls or across first floor joists, maybe not, but not worth pulling floorboards for.
It does raise a discussion though on heating HW only during the summer. With a well insulated cylinder, the heat losses are trivial, and I've stated before there is no great loss in keeping it fully topped by its stat, without using timed slots as was the preference in older installs with bare cylinders, who loose lagging jacket lay at its base like a drunk's trousers.
In this instance the mechanical stat on the cylinder is ideal over digital, as it has sufficient hysteresis, difference in trigger temperature, to prevent constant cycling. E.g, set to cut at 60° , probably cuts at 63-64°, then doesn't cut back on again until 56-57.
deezell wrote: » Climote is a 3 zone timer with internal stat on zone 1, and just timing on the other zones. It is capable of additional wireless thermostat pairing to the other zones, though no mention of that on their website spiel. You can buy this extra stat for £39 on Amazon. The 'free' installation here results in a subscription for you, and a large EU energy grant for the utility installing it. If you had two zones, I doubt they will add in the necessary external stat for the second zone, as the grant requirements can be interpreted as two zones, 1 stat CH zone and one timed HW. No surprise then the recent news that EU grant aided heating efficiency improvements here were a con job. On a post here recently, one of these companies was even combining a home's two CH zones into one, as their crappy product was single zone, removing the homes main method of saving. Does your home have zone valves, do you set the climote seperately for all three zones on its display? Were you advised to add a stat for zone 2 ? If you choose to get a zone valve system plumbed in, your grant money has already been collected. First check if you have more than one CH zone With 21 rads, I'm surprised it's all on one. If you only have 1 CH zone, you can replace the Climote with a Tado plus ext kit to operate CH and HW zone valve, or just get the Tado stat only and wire it in place of your original mechanical stat, ( think you said installer left it wired in). Configure the climote to use the external stat, set climote Zone 1 always on, and let Climote continue to time the HW. After this you can begin to add Tado smart TRVs, initially to give more control over rooms not required to be heated during the main heating cycle. Decide what you want your system to do, and add TRVs as and when. You can add an additional main stat to slave a group of TRVs to, so all go on or off according to this TRVsm's schedule, it acts as their temperature sensor. You can similarly slave a number of TRVs to one in the group, e.g. if you have 2 or 3 rads in the same room.
deezell wrote: » They've got their EU grant money for your installation, far more than what the stat cost them. You have no further momentary value to them. Tado with ext kit is a good option to replace dud Climote, no sub for the key features. Add TRVs as and when you want to fine control a room.
Shefwedfan wrote: » The climote was installed in another house, I never claimed the EU money for this house. I done the job cash in hand to move it over Can I get the Tado installed via a grant scheme?
deezell wrote: » You're still grant eligible, that's something at least. I haven't read the heating grant rules recently, but you need an approved installer to install at least 2 zone smart controls afaik. It seems to have been stilted towards energy companies getting the cash to promote installations which vaguely can be construed to deliver savings, based on statistical research. It's all too dodgy, but none of the utility companies carried out real improvements such as installing zone valves. I've never seen Tado offered by any of the' free installation' utilities. You'll need to get a time and materials quote from an approved installer, if that's still possible. Maybe keep the self initiated grant option if it still exists for possible plumbing improvements, just get the kit yourself and get a sparks to swap out the Climote if your not confident to DIY yourself.
Shefwedfan wrote: » Netatamo is what is offered by Energia who I am with......they have a smart TRV from what I can see but is it as good as Tado?
Mickeroo wrote: » Is your heating zoned Shef? Once Energia saw ours was zoned they wouldn't do the netatmo install.
2011 wrote: » @ deezell: Clearly you know a lot more about plumbing than me. I would really appreciate a reply to the question I put to you at the start of this post. This is regarding you earlier statement that "An open loop at the end of a long run of TRV radiators is not uncommon, it facilitates faster response on the most remote radiators.” I would appreciate your insight. Thank you.
deezell wrote: » It doesn't have HW timer control or relay, just CH. If you already had a manual HW timer, or a cylinder stat, you just leave these. Good option for existing wall stat replacement, as a wired version like Tado is available. It also can add smart TRVs. I don't see mention of geofencing, but it has Alexa, Google Home and Apple Home kit connectivity, so you can use these to automate away functions. No subs or fees. I'm not sure how the energia people are able to scoff your grant entitlement by only smart upgrading a single zone, but I guess its the same ruse that Hubcontroller used, which is some vague statistical justification for cost savings without any extra zoning. You can't get it in free if you previously drew the grant for 'real' heating control upgrades, or even bogus ones. If you get this free stat, you won't be able to get a grant later for 'real' heating control upgrades, such as zone valve installation. DIY price is €139 from Currys this minute, which is not bad, it's costing energia a lot less than this, plus maybe €50 per Install, (they'll only take on the most basic single zone jobs), installers get through several per day, and who knows how much they get for your grant. They wont tell you. Nice one. Read the plan change small print, you might be paying for this in the long run. Smart TRVs are all much the same imo, they're a mini version of the wall stat with a valve actuator.
Shefwedfan wrote: » I think the grant is 700 isn’t it? Can you buy the equipment yourself and get it installed and claim grant?
xckjoo wrote: » I'm gonna wire in my new Tado Smart Thermostat and want to double check the wiring as there's only L(in)1, L(out)4, N(in)2 and N(out)3 notation (vs. the COM, NO, NC notation of the Tado). I found this old thread that looks like it might be applicable. So for me it would be L(in)1 to COM and L(in)4 to NO and then the two N's are joined parked in the Tado?Attachment not found. Edit: One other quick question. Are those 3 "parking" blocks on the Tado connected or will I need to connect the N wires together and then connect a common line to one of them?