Separate upstairs and downstairs heating

mikefox

My house has 4 radiators upstairs, 7 downstairs

I would like to have the option of having heating off upstairs when I am downstairs
and vice versa.

To avoid the cost of having controllers (smart TRVs) on all radiators would this solution work?

Use 4 controllers only upstairs (to form a Zone).

So

1. When I am downstairs I have the thermostat heating on and turn the Zone
   off
2. When I am upstairs I set the Zone on.
   I can't turn the downstairs off as they don't have controllers but I could set
   the thermostat to a very low temperature so they don't come on.

Is that feasible ?

Thanks
Mike

DCContrarian

It depends on how your radiators are plumbed.

First, you didn't say whether your system is hot water or steam.

If it's hot water, sometimes all of the radiators are on one loop, you can't turn one off without turning them all off.

Can you tell us more about what kind of system it is?

mikefox

I have a combi boiler and all radiators currently have thermostatic controls.

(Is that sufficient information ?)

DCContrarian

I'm a little confused. In the initial post you said you're trying to avoid the cost of TRV's. But you say they all have thermostatic controls? Like TRV's? Or do you just mean valves you can turn?

DCContrarian

Also, what is your motivation for doing this? If it's to save energy, it probably won't save as much as you think. If part of the house is cold the heat from the other part will flow there pretty easily.

mattmia2

If the thermostat isn't firing the boiler the upstairs radiators won't heat either.

mikefox

Sorry, I meant to say I want to be able to control heating with Wi-fi which I believe you can do with a smart TRV. My current controls are not smart, they operate manually and have numbers.

The motivation is to reduce energy costs though I accept your view that it might not save much.

Would also be nice to have (wifi) control of the bathroom radiator (upstairs)
eg to heat towels or to keep bathroom warm without having the bedrooms (upstairs)
heating up

Jamie Hall

Since you seem to be happy enough with the idea of a "smart" home, I rather expect that you will get the best results not from trying to zone things — which may not work — but with smart TRVs. That is, however, making one HUGE assumption: that the radiators are not piped as series loops, but have individua returns to a pair of main loops or manifolds. Do you know how your radiators are piped?

mikefox

I believe the radiators are not in a series. I turned off the first one but the following ones were able to heat up.

The idea of a zone (just the 4 radiators upstairs with smart TRVs) was to reduce the expense of having 7 more smart TRVs downstairs.