House Tech wireless TRV system ?

[jives11]

Hi,

I'm starting to see a system advertised called House tech, which consists of motorized TRV's and a room thermostat. Both the TRV 'head' and the stat are battery powered and communicate wirelessly, so the stat part does not have to be physically close to the radiator. I wonder if anyone has any experience of these ? I think the system comes from Germany.

I ask because generally I find that TRV's don't work especially well. I have two teenagers who spend a lot of time using PC & games consoles in their rooms which get very warm, while the rest of the house maybe on the cool side. A smarter TRV system i.e one that works , would seem a good move. They claim that the units connect to a wide range of TRV fittings - you remove the top pice. Not sure if my Drayton 'Lifestyle' is the same as the Danfoss fitting they support.

I have no connection with HouseHeat - it just seemed like it might be a good idea , assuming it works and you don't have to spend your life replacing batteries

[Andrew Gabriel]

Might just be that your TRV heads are worn out. You could try renewing one of the heads, to see.

[RubberBiker]

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Have you actually measured the room temperatures before the kids start playing and after they've been doing so for a while? Are the rads in that room shutting down? It's just that the body isn't a good judge of absolute temperature - it depends on lots of factors which a thermostat can't take into consideration.

If the TRVs aren't maintaining the temp you want have you tried changing the orientation from vertical to horizontal, say?

[chris French]

In message , "Dave Plowman (News)" writes

Or checked that they work at all? The valves can stick, though IME they tend to stick closed.

I've generally found that TRV's to work pretty well, but they won't stop a room getting hot from otherways.

And I assuem the TRV's are turned down ? I'd turn the trv right off and see how it goes.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Indeed. Hence my point at actually measuring the temperature of the room empty and then after it's been in use some time, and making sure the rad has shut down. A radiator can only heat the room - not cool it. ;-)

[Cicero]

========================================== Some makers ('Optima' and possibly Wickes) state, "... the head and body must not be separated, they are a calibrated pair and must be used with each other."

If a new head is fitted it might give misleading results, although it's difficult to see why calibration should be so important in this case.

Cic.

[Andrew Gabriel]

,

He said his are Drayton. They seem to be very good about supplying new heads for valves they stopped supplying years ago.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Calibrated to what, I wonder? Since all the ones I've seen don't have actual temperatures on them. Apart from the anti-freezing setting, I suppose.

[Cicero]

========================================= The Optima version has numbered settings 1 - 6 with intermediate marks between the numbers and the manual gives a range of actual temperatures for each major marking. The manual is also quite emphatic about the calibration - "... the head and body MUST be used in conjunction with each other." It seems rather bad marketing to make head replacement impossible in the event of failure unless they offer a re-calibration service with a replacement head.

The Wickes version appears to be their own brand version of the Optima judging by the installation guide.

Cic.