I am looking at automating our heating system with smart room thermostats and smart TRVs.
Looking at a lot of the websites of smart TRV providers their imagery seems to show the TRV screwed into the side of the top of radiators, and without any water pipe.
For me this seems a bit odd. On radiators that I have encountered to date, this is where the bleed valve actually is located. And if there is no water pipe, what is the TRV acting as a valve on? From the installation instructions I have been looking at it seems actually that the TRVS are really mounted on the existing valve in existing pipework (i.e. at bottom side of rads).
However this imagery does look like there has easier access to control the TRVs.
Is this imagery simply liberties in marketing images or have I misunderstood some part and there is some way that I can actually mount TRVs like this?
Of course you don’t install it to bleed valve.
There are many ways of using the radiator/piping. Sometimes valves are IN on top of OUT. Sometimes both on the bottom part of radiator. Sometimes in opposite corners.
You simply connect your TRV to the inlet valve, where ever it is located.
Why not posting the image of your radiators? That way will be easier for us to understand.
A close up if the inlet pipe is needed.
To use TRV your EXISTING valve needs to be compatible with the actuators…it need to have a pin that is pushed to open the flow and a head that allows to screw the actuator on it.
My expectation is just to unscrew the existing “dumb” TRV and screw on the new smart ones. But I am not a plumber, perhaps I’ve completely mis-understood.
Seems a bit silly for all providers websites to indulge in such images if they are complete mis-representations. But anyway.
This is picture of the current dumb TRV on the inlet pipe in my house:
Ok, good, from what I’ve seen in my experience you can use smart TRV. Just unscrew the one you have and install the smart one in its place.
To be 100% sure that the new ones will be compatible you should check the screw thread pitch (Google translated as english is not my native language) and the length of the pin once you unscrew the existing TRV, but I think it can be problematic if you don’t have a caliper and experience in using it.
Meybe, before ordering 30 smart TRV, just start with one and test it so, in a worst case scenario, you’ll need to send back only 1 box (or lose only a little money)
Chinese websites almost NEVER have real images, sometimes I’m wondering if they have to pay some tax for real photos.
Anyway, the concept is simple, the thermostat is pushing a small pin in the valve body to open /close it. If you don’t have any specs for your actual thermostat, remove it and measure the dimensions to verify compatibility.