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do TRVs balance your system for you?

weil_fail
weil_fail Member Posts: 84
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?

Comments

  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,169
    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.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,590
    > @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.
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • Jamie Hall
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,169
    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.
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • ChrisJ
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,590
    > @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.
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • Paul Pollets
    Paul Pollets Member Posts: 3,656
    TRV's will balance a system, especially when controlled by a "smart" pump that modulates according to pressure changes.
    STEVEusaPA
  • weil_fail
    weil_fail Member Posts: 84
    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
    ChrisJ Member Posts: 15,590
    Single pipe quasi-vapor system. Typical operating pressure 0.14 - 0.43 oz. EcoSteam ES-20 Advanced Control for Residential Steam boilers. Rectorseal Steamaster water treatment
  • Paul Pollets
    Paul Pollets Member Posts: 3,656
    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
    Jamie Hall Member Posts: 23,169
    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...
    Br. Jamie, osb
    Building superintendent/caretaker, 7200 sq. ft. historic house museum with dependencies in New England
  • hot_rod
    hot_rod Member Posts: 22,024
    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.
    Bob "hot rod" Rohr
    trainer for Caleffi NA
    Living the hydronic dream