What are thermostatic radiator valves and how can they save you money?

Thermostatic radiator valves, commonly abbreviated to “TRV”, are valves that regulate the temperature of the radiator based on the temperature of the room. It helps to create a more responsive heating system, allowing you to maintain the desired temperature in each room individually.
 

If your central heating system is one boiler with one thermostat that determines the heating level of your whole house, TRVs would give you a separate thermostat on each radiator that controls the heat within that room. A room thermostat will determine the heating for the full house based on the temperature in the room the thermostat is located in yet the temperature will inevitably vary across different rooms based on the size of the room, the size of the radiator and the position within the house relative to the boiler.

Can you save money by using TRVs?

TRVs can save you money because they allow you to heat your home more efficiently and in a smart way that is appropriate to each area of the home. For example, you may want to keep your living room very warm and have your bedroom a little cooler but still, have the baby’s room at a higher temperature with TRVs you can do this more accurately. Likewise, if there are spare rooms that you don’t use you can keep them aired or turn the heating off completely.

Once the room reaches the desired temperature, the TRV will close not allowing water to flow through the radiator once the room temperature falls below the set temperature it will open again allowing water to flow through the radiator. This means that radiators don’t waste unnecessary heat.

Of course, there is a cost to installing TRVs to your system. Because the system needs to be drained before installation, it makes sense to install TRVs on every radiator because much of the installation cost stems from the time required to drain and fill the system again this cost is the same whether installing 1 or 10 TRVs.

So is it worth doing and will it save you money? With the current cost of energy, it is definitely worth installing TRVs there is no point in heating areas that don’t need heating and if you need to save money on energy bills you can always turn the TRV down a notch or two.