Thermostatic Radiator Valves with Indoor Temperature Sensors

Suchitapage

Hello Everyone,

First time posting over here. I have question regarding TRVs and its compatibility with indoor temperature sensors. This is strictly for 2-pipe systems because one-pipe system won't be efficient with this setup, but correct me if I am wrong. I have 3 questions to ask.

1. Let's say a building has TRVs on all the radiators except the top-floor. Now, let's assume that the lower floor do not require heat and the TRVs start to shut off. Will this help steam reach the top floor more quickly than when all the TRVs are open?
2. The same condition, except this time, the radiators on the top floor has TRVs as well.
3. If the answer is yes in either of the conditions, will this help me in a setup where the top floors have indoor temperature sensors controlling the boiler and if my TRVs started to shut off, the steam will reach at the top quickly, will heat the space and meet the setpoint quickly, thus causing my boiler to run less?

Thank you.

Regards,

Suchit

mattmia2

You need to fix the system problems before you think about TRVs. TRVs are good to help a room that chronically overheats or has a varying load, but you need to get the system basically balanced and fix issues that are causing some emitters to not hear before TRVs will help anything. If the pressure is well controlled and the system is balanced, TRVs closing shouldn't affect how fast or ho much of the remaining emitters heat appreciably.

If you try to solve system problems with TRVs it won't go well.

Jamie Hall

The above. And two other thoughts. First, keep in mind that a TRV can reduce the heat from a radiator. It cannot increase it. Second, when TRVs start closing, they effectively make the system size smaller, and thus the boiler will be oversized for the system (if it isn't already!) and thus will have to cycle on pressure more often.

As @mattmia2 said, get the system well-balanced first. Then add TRVs if you still need them.