Best Of

@Edtheheaterman said

"Keeping things simple is often the best design, then use old school methods to regulate the room temperature as needed. I find that placing the wired thermostat in the coldest room will allow that room to get comfortable, the other rooms that overheat can then be regulated by restricting the water flow to the radiators in the hotter rooms.

If you are designing the system from scratch, you should just do a room by room load calculation and install the proper size radiators in each room. That is the best way to balance the system. One size radiator for each room is not always the best design. Select the radiator to match the room's needs"

And I agree. Put a balancing valve on each rad.

The whole purpose of zoning is comfort control, possibly some small energy savings.

So it depends on how you plan on using the rooms. with variable use bedrooms it is nice to have the individual control. Bathroom control is nice for shoulder season, before the main house needs total heat.

At the very least leave options to easily add a zone control down the road.

A delta P type circulator is best for variable zoned systems.

Do not use a MonoFlo® or diverter tee system with TRVs. And I would caution you with designing a MonoFlo® type system. It may not be as easy as it looks. You will need to understand the flow patterns and pressure drops of each radiator on the zone (loop). You need to then know how to use this selection chart in order to select the pipe sizes and appropriate tee fittings.