Anyone using Hive plus TRVs? I have a question

[Relentless81]

Long shot but here goes, hoping someone has a similar setup that can confirm my theory before I spend £200 on TRVs

I have two rads without TRVs, one in the office and one in the hall near the thermostat.

If I add Hive TRVs to all other rads and set the schedule to frost protection in the day and thermostat to 20C the two rads without TRVs will come on and the Hive TRVs will prevent all other rads from coming on.

If the schedule then changes in the evening for the rads with Hive TRVs to match the thermostat at 20c all of the other rads will function

Is this correct?

What I am doing here is not using the Hive TRVs to call for heat or "heat on demand" but actually using them to prevent the rads they are fitted to from firing up so that the dumb rads in the office and hall way are heating up only.

Thanks

 

[Trox]

Yea, that's exactly how they should function. However, before you spend that sort of cash read the Hive community forum.

I use the HoD feature mainly and last year they worked as they should, this year they have been nothing but hassle so right now I can't recommend them.

Can't roll back on firmware unfortunately.

 

[DarkBahamut]

I would agree with the above. We have Hive + TRVs and while I had been quite happy with the TRVs last winter, they recently had a firmware update and now they seem to have a mind of their own.

Mine still opens and closes the radiator value (so the motor still works!) but whether it's open or closed is completely random. The TRV reports the correct room temperature, but it could be 7 or 8 C above it's target and it will still go from closed to open. Definitely can't recommend in their current state.

 

[Trox]

Yea, exactly describing my issue with them there.

I've removed all valves checked the pins move and tested the motors. I've also lost count of how many 3 hour+ calibrations I've done in the past month.

Right now these are costing me more on gas than standard manual TRVs would. Not ideal with the ever inflating gas price.

 

[Relentless81]

Oh no, sorry to hear that. I did read about people having issues with them but was hoping it was early adopter issues not the other way around!

Ok I will avoid them in that case and consider either moving to Tado for everything or just getting an oil heater for the office and keeping the heating off in the day time

 

[Yaayuh!]

I bought one recently to try them out. Didn't really have much luck with it so i'll be interested to see how other get on in this thread.

Bought a Hive TRV to try one out, I haven't really got the hang of it.

I've put it in my office that I use only at the weekend. Set the schedule to something simple, 10c all week and 20c on weekend 7am to 6pm. Result is as follows:

Week days it reports around 12c
Weekend it reports 14c

I've "calibrated" it twice, but hasn't improved. The heating is on sufficiently at the weekend to heat up other rooms including this room with the previous "dumb" TRV.

I've played around with it for a while now and it might just be this TRV, but it's a bit ****. I might just go back to the standard TRV and set to 1 or 2 during the week and bump it to 3 on weekends.

 

[413x]

Oh no, sorry to hear that. I did read about people having issues with them but was hoping it was early adopter issues not the other way around!

Ok I will avoid them in that case and consider either moving to Tado for everything or just getting an oil heater for the office and keeping the heating off in the day time

Have no issues with tado. 6 trvs, 2 wireless stats, and hot water control

Took a while to get set up properly, iron out routines. Have weird calibration issues etc. But now it's rare for an issue.



Went with tado because of issues I read about with hive.

 

[Relentless81]

Have no issues with tado. 6 trvs, 2 wireless stats, and hot water control

Took a while to get set up properly, iron out routines. Have weird calibration issues etc. But now it's rare for an issue.



Went with tado because of issues I read about with hive.

Good to know, such a shame about the Hive TRVs because the thermostat works perfectly for what I use it for and they would have been a great addition

I had a look at Tado and the cost of swapping out the thermostat plus the TRVs for this point in winter isn't worth it right now so I will revisit toward the end of next summer

 

[413x]

Good to know, such a shame about the Hive TRVs because the thermostat works perfectly for what I use it for and they would have been a great addition

I had a look at Tado and the cost of swapping out the thermostat plus the TRVs for this point in winter isn't worth it right now so I will revisit toward the end of next summer

I think each tado trv cost me 35-40 not cheap. And probably won't save money. But definitely helps comfort!

 

[Deleted User 298457]

I have absolutely no such issue with my Hive TRVs and they do precisely what you say in the OP.

I know Tado is a fan favourite on this forum so the number of folks recommending Hive is always very low.

 

[Relentless81]

I have absolutely no such issue with my Hive TRVs and they do precisely what you say in the OP.

I know Tado is a fan favourite on this forum so the number of folks recommending Hive is always very low.

It's the same in the Amazon reviews completely split between "works fine" and "have a mind of their own" not willing to take the risk on 5 of them right now though

 

[413x]

It's the same in the Amazon reviews completely split between "works fine" and "have a mind of their own" not willing to take the risk on 5 of them right now though

That's what I saw. It was basically no issue or endless issues. Not much in between

 

[Deleted User 298457]

It's the same in the Amazon reviews completely split between "works fine" and "have a mind of their own" not willing to take the risk on 5 of them right now though

My further two-cents on the situation is this...

I put 5 Hive TRVs in my relatively tiny house (640sqft). What I've learnt is the only one I really care about is the nursery and the bedroom, as they both get phenomenally hot when the radiators are on. However they are both of the rooms where I'm super sensitive to when they get cold because 1) I sleep in one of the rooms, and 2) my 18mo daughter sleeps in the other.

All other rooms are typically baltic until I put the heating on, and after 30 mins they are 'at temp'.

So I've found I completely ignore 3 of the 5 TRVs because the cost of not heating the rooms is probably the same cost as heating them, assuming the efficiency of your boiler isn't whack.

So to heat my living room (2x TRV) and kitchen (1xTRV), I just boost the heating for 30mins on my phone/Alexa. The TRV will control whether that boost affects the two bedrooms. For the reverse flow, only the nursery can call for the heating to come on, but it relies on the main thermostat agreeing that "things are generally cold [i.e. below a set temp]".

I think this is where Hive can be a tad confusing. It works in conjunction with your main thermostat and when they disagree, it'll keep the heating set to off regardless as to what the TRV is asking for. And the setting isn't SUPER clear to change this.

Hope this helps?

 

[Relentless81]

@dLockers yes I think so thanks, in my case I want the TRVs to prevent certain rooms from heating at certain times and then change on a schedule to come on later in the day.

I really don't want them coming on when scheduled not to as that defeats the purpose of buying them and will cost us more on the bills

Also I don't want them not coming on when they are scheduled to because that will my prevent my young sons room from heating up which is bad for him and for me due to grief from the Mrs so I'm just not sure at this point if it's worth the risk.

I also noticed Amazon don't seem to be stocking them as much and are no longer available under Prime, whether this is a stock issue or down to high volume of returns i don't know but doesn't look good

 

[Deleted User 298457]

@dLockers yes I think so thanks, in my case I want the TRVs to prevent certain rooms from heating at certain times and then change on a schedule to come on later in the day.

You can do this super easily, but........

I really don't want them coming on when scheduled not to as that defeats the purpose of buying them and will cost us more on the bills

Do the maths on this. The cost of the TRVs will offset any saving and I imagine whether you heat one room or three rooms as odds are they will all take 30 mins to radiate.

Also I don't want them not coming on when they are scheduled to because that will my prevent my young sons room from heating up which is bad for him and for me due to grief from the Mrs so I'm just not sure at this point if it's worth the risk.

It definitely can do this.

I also noticed Amazon don't seem to be stocking them as much and are no longer available under Prime, whether this is a stock issue or down to high volume of returns i don't know but doesn't look good

You can often get them on discount direct from Hive.


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It sounds like you need to really focus on what rooms you want to control:

• Kids room
• Rooms you desperately can't live with if they get hot
• Optionally - do the maths on whether the rooms you are indifferent on heating but if they get too hot or too cold it isn't a disaster and stick to classic TRVs.

I was also told not to close off the entire heating system to just 1 rad.

 

[Relentless81]

@dLockers

I have three rads without TRVs, dining room/office, bathroom and main hallway. These would run off the thermostat during the day and the Hive TRVs would prevent the other 5 rads from heating up.

At the moment we are heating all rads all day via the thermostat.

I could manually go round twice a day switching the current TRVs on and off but ain't nobody got time for that.

Cost savings it would take a good few years to rake the money back at current energy costs but part of me just wants to mess about with the tech and get it setup and working as I've imagined it to

 

[Deleted User 298457]

@dLockers

I have three rads without TRVs, dining room/office, bathroom and main hallway. These would run off the thermostat during the day and the Hive TRVs would prevent the other 5 rads from heating up.

At the moment we are heating all rads all day via the thermostat.

I could manually go round twice a day switching the current TRVs on and off but ain't nobody got time for that.

Cost savings it would take a good few years to rake the money back at current energy costs but part of me just wants to mess about with the tech and get it setup and working as I've imagined it to

Sounds like you've got exactly the right idea then! The 'five' should operate totally peacefully much like my system does. Just pay attention in the scheduling app because it is a bit anti-logical

 

[the_dead_parrot]

I haven't had issues with running schedule or using them as you've described. The only thing I found to be a problem, was the noise of the valves when used in a small child's room. On opening and closing the motor was too much of a disturbance for them. I don't know how other brands compare but they are a bit noisy.

 

[Relentless81]

I haven't had issues with running schedule or using them as you've described. The only thing I found to be a problem, was the noise of the valves when used in a small child's room. On opening and closing the motor was too much of a disturbance for them. I don't know how other brands compare but they are a bit noisy.

That's a major issue to add to the negatives, kids wake up if a spider farts in the loft

 

[Deleted User 298457]

Yeah to be fair the motor does a little dance to calibrate, it is a noticeable noise. But tbf the rads gurgle when water goes in as well.

Maybe what you need is a jumper and a padlock?