Thinking of getting thermostatic radiator valves in an apartment

gebbel · 14-01-2015 09:38AM #1

I'm in a 2 bed apartment. 6 rads in total, 2 in living room, 1 in hall, 1 each in the bedrooms and small one in bathroom. A well serviced glowworm micron gas boiler with no issues. No zones or thermostats etc. Open fireplace in living room, burn turf in wintertime. Get the turf for free from the folks. Was asking a plumber how to make the system smarter, specifically that when I'm burning fires I don't need the rads in the living room on. And it's a nuisance turning them on and off at the valves.

So he has suggested TRV's. And quoted me a max of €250 to do the job of replacing them plus labour. I've no problem with the cost, just wondering if it makes good sense in a small unit like mine. Thanks.

Dtp1979 · 14-01-2015 09:57AM

gebbel wrote: »

I'm in a 2 bed apartment. 6 rads in total, 2 in living room, 1 in hall, 1 each in the bedrooms and small one in bathroom. A well serviced glowworm micron gas boiler with no issues. No zones or thermostats etc. Open fireplace in living room, burn turf in wintertime. Get the turf for free from the folks. Was asking a plumber how to make the system smarter, specifically that when I'm burning fires I don't need the rads in the living room on. And it's a nuisance turning them on and off at the valves.

So he has suggested TRV's. And quoted me a max of €250 to do the job of replacing them plus labour. I've no problem with the cost, just wondering if it makes good sense in a small unit like mine. Thanks.

250 plus or incl labour? It's not a bad idea. You should also install a room stat too. If installing all TRV's your gonna need an auto bypass too

gebbel · 14-01-2015 10:07AM

Dtp1979 wrote: »

250 plus or incl labour? It's not a bad idea. You should also install a room stat too. If installing all TRV's your gonna need an auto bypass too

Cheers, why the room stat? I will mention the auto bypass but I'm sure this guy knows his stuff.

gebbel · 14-01-2015 10:08AM

gebbel wrote: »

Cheers, why the room stat? I will mention the auto bypass but I'm sure this guy knows his stuff.

€250 including labour. The valves are €15 each and apparently the job won't take too long, few hours maybe.

Calahonda52 · 14-01-2015 11:43AM

How old is system?
If u own apt, consider glass fronted gas fire or insert stove for even better energy value, free or not

gebbel · 14-01-2015 12:39PM

Calahonda52 wrote: »

How old is system?
If u own apt, consider glass fronted gas fire or insert stove for even better energy value, free or not

Hi, the apartment is 10 years old. The system hasn't changed since I moved in. Agree with you on the insert stove and will eventually get around to it. In the meantime I shove a chimney balloon up there when the fire is not in use. When I get the opportunity I'd also like to remotely control the heating, to turn on either the hot water or rads when I'm not here. I'm aware of climote and nest etc. but don't like the prices. Is there a SIM card based device that I could just text and it turns the heating on?
Cheers

Calahonda52 · 14-01-2015 01:26PM

okay, pipework should be clean enough then, I was asking as if it was older I would have it flushed when all the rads open.
I dont see need to room stat.
If u don't put a TRV in bathroom then bypass not needed unless she who must be obeyed shuts off the bathroom, unlikely activity by the species in my experience.:)

Will PM u re the techno solution as have it cracked:)

Wearb · 14-01-2015 02:35PM

Aldi have programmable rad valve heads at the moment. I don't know how good they are. I have Conrad ones on most of my rads and I am very happy with them.

Calahonda52 · 14-01-2015 02:47PM

Wearb wrote: »

Aldi have programmable rad valve heads at the moment. I don't know how good they are. I have Conrad ones on most of my rads and I am very happy with them.

Under what section? cant see online. Thanks

Wearb · 14-01-2015 03:07PM

I didn't see it in their catalogue either, just on the shelf. Now that I think of it, I am unsure whether it was Lidl or Aldi as both stores were side by side. They were about €15 each, which didn't include the valve.

cerastes · 16-01-2015 11:52PM

Wearb wrote: »

Aldi have programmable rad valve heads at the moment. I don't know how good they are. I have Conrad ones on most of my rads and I am very happy with them.

It was Lidl, I bought a few but returned them, they may work for the OP, but they would not work for me.
You need to set them up to operate (learn) the use of the valve, I had a valve body from a TRV not in use so tried to set it up on this. I could see the device operate the valve fully open to fully closed but it would not detect that this step in setting up was completed, so it never progressed to allow me into the time, date or programming steps, I tried it on a second programmable unit and it had the same issue, so I did not open the rest and returned the lot.

May work for the OP, saw one on adverts but havent seen them in the stores near me.

Wearb · 17-01-2015 12:15AM

Mine needed to be attached to a valve to set it up. During setup, it needs to know the limit it's plunger needs to travel to turn on and off. So if you try to set it up when removed it will not allow you.

cerastes · 17-01-2015 12:57AM

Wearb wrote: »

Mine needed to be attached to a valve to set it up. During setup, it needs to know the limit it's plunger needs to travel to turn on and off. So if you try to set it up when removed it will not allow you.

Was yours the Lidl one?
I had it attached to the valve to set it up, its just the valve was in my hand and not in use. I could see the sealed plunger going up and down, but it would not detect that it had completed this limit detection step and would not progress further into allowing me to programme it, this happened on two of the items I took out of the packaging.
Although a collar adapter was provided that fitted my valve, my valve type wasnt named, I suspected the valve plunger was too stiff (it seems stiff) or heavy for the programmer to operate. Bit it did drive the plunger up and down, I could see it working.
Rather than taking the chance, I returned them along with the unopened ones.
I'd have been interested to hear if anyone had any success or a similar experience with them as they seemed like a nice little device, but was too busy to even enquire. I saw nothing about them on bargain alerts or in the plumbing forum at the time. Went out of my head till I saw the post mentioning them.

Wearb · 17-01-2015 01:03AM

Mine were Conrad ones. I set them up with the new valves also. The valves were not attached to any pipe work at the time.

Seeing as you did the same as me and still could not get the to work, you did right to return them. Conrad ones are cheaper anyway, though €10 delivery.

Thinking of getting thermostatic radiator valves in an apartment

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