My current central heating system has no TRVs on any of the radiators at the moment and I need to add a some before winters starts kicking in.
I am toying with the idea of going all in with smart TRVs instead but, whilst I love having a smarthome, I cannot workout whether this level of control is justified or not.
Regular TRVs are pretty cheap so I need to factor in whether the extra costs (and the extra complexity) is worth it in the long run.
It depends upon how often you open doors/windows.
The one and only practical thing is smart ones do detect that and close the valve to the radiator, that’s it, and they automatically reopen it later.
Besides that you get data back, temperature, value position and such like, depends upon which model you choose.
But that’s something I’d call home visualisation not smart home, since smart is something which automatically happens in the background like magic, without asking for interaction nor attention.
Not using TRVs since we found them too unreliable and noisy, swapped them for actuators instead.
But when we had TRVs it was not much difference due to them being unreliable, batteries, sometimes stuck at full open, batteries, sometimes not responding, batteries, oh… did I mention batteries?
However when we switched to actuators we have saved about $40 per month in heating compared to the previous year.
Could be also due to weather, but I doubt it.
This graph shows our heating in the bar graph and the average of everyone else in the condominium as the line (note that our apartment is about twice as large as the average).
So the winter 2023/2024 we had about the same heating cost as the average apartment, sometimes a bit more most likely due to batteries or not responding while full open. This was a year with TRVs.
The winter 2024/2025 you can see we are below the average (keep in mind the average apartment is a lot smaller than ours).
The result was about $40 less per month.
Looking at the area below the line I would say it seems as our neighbours thought it was a similar winter those two years. Perhaps even colder 24/25?
Now at the end of the graph you can see that our heating demand is a lot less than our neighbours.
I believe this is mostly because we turn off the heating when not home and if the weather forecast says it’s going to be a sunny day then the heating is shut off in advance.
Our room temperature is set to 20-21 degrees c when we are home and nobody can change it.
For us it was worth it, but I regret buying TRVs first since they were not worth it for us.
However, some other find them great.
This is an actuator.
It runs on 230 v and has nothing fancy.
The two cables are simply live and neutral, no thermometer, no schedules, no setpoints, no motor.
Pure on/off behavior based on if the switch/relay is on or off.
The movement inside is also different, the TRVs have a motor that spins creating a metal against metal noise. On our radiators this sound/grinding was vibrating the whole radiator making it sound like a cat fight was going on inside the room.
The actuator is plastic and moves straight in or out, no twisting.
This makes them completely silent.
The only sound you hear is the sound of the water rushing in the pipes.
They are however much slower since they work by heating up a fluid of some kind inside before opening.
So 5-6 minutes before the radiator actually opens is not unusual.
Floor heating uses just plastic pipes.
Plastic isn’t electrically conductive, and the pipes are under the floor.
Connecting 230V to a metal radiator exposed to a user seems much less safe.
If there was a safety concern then there would obviously be a ground wire.
IF the radiator would become electric then the breaker would pop since it’s a short circuit.
I doubt the plastic parts mounting to the radiators are conductive.
And lastly they are CE marked. Although that is not any guarantee
I installed one sonoff trvzb last winter, and this winter i added two more. They work even better than i expected. For example: all my radiators now heat max. 50% of the time, so this means that without these valves they heated too much, i’ve had too warm in some rooms and now i’d save some heating money. Now my room temperature is constantly accurate within half degree from what i set.
I use trv’s in combination with external temperature sensors (installed at the other end of the room), i don’t use trv’s internal ones.
Regarding actuators: for me it’s a no-no not only for safety reasons, but mainly because you need 230 V wire at each radiator, which is extremly inconvenient, ugly and many times hard to do. I rather change batteries once in a while.
And, sonoff’s are quiet, i don’t hear them running.
So many obvious things…
How about you point to any country you want where it is actually regulated what kind of open/close mechanism you have on a radiator?
I have serious doubts anyone gives a…
But yes, all radiators are grounded here. It has been required for at least 30 years, and probably done for longer than that.
And even if they were not then this whole idea that because something is metal then it’s lethal is just plain wrong.
Your dishwasher is metal and 230 volt, so is your washing machine and your dryer.
Pretty much all appliances are 230V, and all are allowed. For example water heater is 230V powered. To go further: water pump on central heating system is … yep, 230V powered. Then if you have electric mixing valve (for upstream water into radiators) that one is again 230V powered. etc… and they are all in direct contact with water, while valve in question isn’t, to be honest (it just pushes a rod)…
All 230V devices MUST be grounded, of course. So, i don’t see any reason why these valves would be prohibited, as long as they are made properly and they are grounded. But, as said above, you generally don’t have a wire available at valve position unless you plan them when you (re)build your house, so…
Around here they don’t. A lot of devices are not.
A typical bedside lamp has the two-prong connector with just live and neutral.
I’m quite sure I could find loads of devices that use them and they are still legal. I mean most phone chargers has these connectors.
My daughter’s hair dryer has two prongs.
The heated blanket my spouse uses is also two prongs.
And these are just the devices I can see from my position here.
As far as I remember, our coffee brewer is also not grounded.
Well, if we think as electricians it’s only logical: i assume that this valve contains an electric motor with stator winding, poured into a resin (which makes it insulated), while rotator is only a magnet, which doesn’t have any contact with winding. That makes it double-insulated. Additionally shaft which pushes valve’s rod can be also insulated, which would make whole thing even triple-insulated …
