Having very little trust in the temperature sensors on TRVs which are right next to the heat source, coupled with my strong desire to code all my heating controls myself via node red, I’m looking for the “dumbest” smart TRV around.
I literally want to be able to tell it to open and close via zigbee, preferably with a % open option. Most of the TRVs on the market have a whole heap of options, none of which I will use (i.e. scheduling etc) so I just want to make sure I get one which is not going to override my programming elsewhere.
You can consider using actuators actually meant for underfloor heating. These work on radiators as well. If you open/close them via a relay, with a sonoff with zigbee like you prefer, than you can control your radiators.
That’s actually a pretty good shout. I wonder if I could get battery powered ones as getting power to each point where there is a radiator is going to be a challenge.
Don’t know if there is a battery driven actuator. Off course the relay needs to be powered too in that situation, so battery powering does seem complicated in that situation.
But I don’t have experience with any Zigbee TRV to recommend.
I also had this project stored in my bookmarks: https://github.com/Smejky338/Heating_ESP_control_with_WiFi_MQTT/ It uses some Eqiva EQ3-N radiator valves (low cost), which are connected to ESP devices. This can also be considered if you are willing to do some DIY.
Thanks a lot. I do like a bit of DIY but I must say the Shelly ones look tempting. I’ve been super impressed with all the shelly things I’ve ever worked with aside from the Shelly H&T which was just awful. Might try one and see if it has the ability to turn off all smart
Bit the bullet and ordered 3 Shelly TRVs. Just in case anyone else is in the UK and ordering Shelly stuff, it’s considerably cheaper to buy via shop.shelly.cloud than to use the UK Shelly Store, even with shipping. £170.23 for 3 x TRV vs £209.97 in the UK store.
Cool, good luck with it. You’re radiators are already suitable for thermostatic radiator valves? Sometimes they require a new insert or even a new valve.
Thanks a lot. They all currently have manual TRVs so I’m hoping it will be a quick swap over but I need to redo a lot of the plumbing anyway (installing UFH) so if needs be I can switch them at that point when the system gets drained down.
For the UFH I’m taking it back to basics. 240v actuators per channel, a mid point valve to switch between the rads and the UFH (or both), all triggered from an 8ch ethernet relay which will be triggered by hidden thermometer sensors, probably Aqara. Again it’s all about me controlling the logic rather than relying on a vendors idea of smart.
