do TRVs balance your system for you?

weil_fail

let's say you designed a system for a certain heat load, then you added insulation or an addition off of a room and your radiator is now incorrectly sized for the room. do Thermostatic Radiator Valves (TRVs) just automatically compensate for a wrong-sized radiator, or are there other factors to consider?

Jamie Hall

Thermostatic Radiator VENTS, not valves, will not balance a system that is out of balance. In the scenario which you describe, the best bet is to try a much slower radiator vent.

ChrisJ

> @Jamie Hall said:
> Thermostatic Radiator VENTS, not valves, will not balance a system that is out of balance. In the scenario which you describe, the best bet is to try a much slower radiator vent.

There's TRVs for two pipe systems as well as for hot water. Pretty sure it's valve, not vent.

I'm also thinking they behave differently with hot water.

Jamie Hall

Oops. Well, right you are, @ChrisJ -- and we really don't know at this point what sort of system @weil_fail is talking about here. My bad.

ChrisJ

> @Jamie Hall said:
> Oops. Well, right you are, @ChrisJ -- and we really don't know at this point what sort of system @weil_fail is talking about here. My bad.

I know how it is.
You automatically assume you're looking at the steam section.

Paul Pollets

TRV's will balance a system, especially when controlled by a "smart" pump that modulates according to pressure changes.

weil_fail

thanks for the info, dudes. I did mean hot water; sorry for not being clear.

is the best way to do a smart pump to get a condensing boiler with one built-in?

ChrisJ

@hot_rod

Paul Pollets

I'm not aware of any mod-cons that come with a built-in boiler pump that modulates. The smart pump is installed to control the zone(s) after the hydraulic separator or low loss header.

Jamie Hall

A minor caution: whether -- and how well -- a TRV can control a radiator or radiators depends a lot on how the system is piped. In a simple direct or reverse return system, each TRV will control it's associated radiator reasonably well. On a series piped system, a TRV will control all the radiators on that circuit -- which may not be what you want. And I would be of the opinion that the results on a monoflo system might be quite unpredictable...

hot_rod

With panel rads, for example, you can series a few of them and adjust the bypassing the H valve to do some balancing.

For the Euro market we build a balanced-able dynamic TRV to really accurately dial in a large system.

For a basic residential system the TRV function as Paul mentioned, with a ÔT cir works really well.