Dear all,

I am having problems with all of the trv s on all my radiators. I have
only recently moved in to this house, and i have no knowledge of how
long they have been fitted, nor do i have the destructions.

I have been unable to test them when the house has been above 16 / 17
degrees (ish) i understood from my parents house that if you have them
screwed right in, they will turn a radiator off at about 10 degress c.
Is this generally the case? Would heating them up with a hair dryer or
similar work?.....see if that would turn them off?? Or any other
ideas?

Also, how do they work! Anyone know?!


Aside from this, can i thank every one for their advice and posts on
SDS. I just ordered a Makita hr2450. I cant wait to start my reighn of
terror against my solid concrete walls that have driven my dads old
black and decker to an early grave!.

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 06:04:33 -0800, Colin wrote:

Dear all,

I am having problems with all of the trv s on all my radiators. I have
only recently moved in to this house, and i have no knowledge of how long
they have been fitted, nor do i have the destructions.

I have been unable to test them when the house has been above 16 / 17
degrees (ish) i understood from my parents house that if you have them
screwed right in, they will turn a radiator off at about 10 degress c. Is
this generally the case?

They will have some minimum temperature that they *can* be set down to.
Don't know if it follows any sort of standard or not (unlikely). Should be
way below 16C and above 0C

Would heating them up with a hair dryer or
similar work?.....see if that would turn them off??

Yes - that's a good way. Will be hard to say exactly what temperature they
triggered at, but it will show if they are working.

Or any other ideas?

Borrow a couple of 2/3 kW electric heaters? Presumably your CH isn't a
happy bunny at all if you can't get the place warm???

As most designs allow the TRV head to be removed from the valve body
without touching the plumbed connections (and don't come running to me if
you flood your house - have a look at them, it should be fairly clear how
to remove the head, if it's desgned to come off dry, in service).

For a start, removing the head should allow the valve to open - so you can
see if you have any stuck valves.

Then with the head removed, depending on the design, you could dunk it in
a bowl of warm water with a thermometer and see how it's behaving - but it
sounds like your problems are more general that that?


Also, how do they work! Anyone know?!

The ones I've seen (Drayton) have a metal head containing fluid of
some sort which expands and pushes down on a pin in the valve part of the
assembly, closing the valve.


Timbo

In article ,
Colin wrote:
Also, how do they work! Anyone know?!

Remove the top part - there's a metal ring just below the plastic, which
should come undone by hand. That will reveal a pin which controls the
water valve. It should move down with finger pressure against a spring and
return. If it doesn't, they're stuck. They can sometimes be freed with a
tap from a chunk of wood or similar. But if old might leak after this.

--
*Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

Thankyou for all responses. Having tryed the hair dryer thing; It seems
that either ;

a. these valves were designed by someone with shares in powergen.....or
b. i am too tightfisted and should leave the central heating for longer.

At a guess i would say that on their lowest setting, screwed right in, they
turn off at about 14 maybe 15 degrees c. Which i guess i should be heating
the house to about that anyway. I was just a bit confused that when screwed
in, the radiator still functioned, i expected it to turn off.

As this is my first house / winter gas bill, i am unsure of how much CH
'on' time costs, so in case anyone was wondering, that is why i am maybe
alittle over cautious with heating.Besides, I dont get cold with lots of
jumpers :-)

As a bit of an offshoot from this topic, is there any information on the
heat retaining properties of homes with (as mine) solid concrete walls as
apposed to a 'cavitied' wall? Are concrete walls as bad as it gets? (aside
from maybe.....copper or ice?)

Thankyou again,

Colin

"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Colin wrote:
Also, how do they work! Anyone know?!

Remove the top part - there's a metal ring just below the plastic, which
should come undone by hand. That will reveal a pin which controls the
water valve. It should move down with finger pressure against a spring and
return. If it doesn't, they're stuck. They can sometimes be freed with a
tap from a chunk of wood or similar. But if old might leak after this.

--
*Can vegetarians eat animal crackers?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

In article ,
Colin wrote:
At a guess i would say that on their lowest setting, screwed right in,
they turn off at about 14 maybe 15 degrees c. Which i guess i should be
heating the house to about that anyway. I was just a bit confused that
when screwed in, the radiator still functioned, i expected it to turn
off.

Most have a frost setting which is a deal less than 14-15C. This is the
minium. To turn them off fully for temperatures below this, you re-install
the cap that comes with them when new. This turns them off fully
regardless. In theory.

--
*A nest isn't empty until all their stuff is out of the attic

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 22:39:21 GMT, a particular chimpanzee named
"Colin" randomly hit the keyboard and
produced:

As a bit of an offshoot from this topic, is there any information on the
heat retaining properties of homes with (as mine) solid concrete walls as
apposed to a 'cavitied' wall? Are concrete walls as bad as it gets? (aside
from maybe.....copper or ice?)

It's unusual for a house to be built entirely of cast in-situ
concrete, or even concrete panels. Is this what you mean, or do you
mean concrete blocks?

Reinforced structural concrete by itself is a poor insulator (having a
conductivity of 2.3W/m°C compared to 0.77W/m°C for brick), but isn't
used over a whole wall, only to form a frame. There is usually some
form of infill panels with internal or external insulation. There
were other types of system builds (such as 'no-fines' concrete) which
were used by Councils in the '60s and '70s. I would have thought most
of these have been upgraded (or demolished) by now.

Most houses in the last 20 years have been built with concrete blocks
of varying density to the inner leaf. The conductivity can vary from
1.13W/m°C (worse than brick) to 0.11W/m°C (better).
--
Hugo Nebula
'What you have to ask yourself is, "if no-one on the internet wants
a piece of this, just how far from the pack have you strayed?"'

"Hugo Nebula" abuse@localhost wrote in message
...
On Sat, 04 Dec 2004 22:39:21 GMT, a particular chimpanzee named
"Colin" randomly hit the keyboard and
produced:

As a bit of an offshoot from this topic, is there any information on the
heat retaining properties of homes with (as mine) solid concrete walls as
apposed to a 'cavitied' wall? Are concrete walls as bad as it gets?
(aside
from maybe.....copper or ice?)

It's unusual for a house to be built entirely of cast in-situ
concrete, or even concrete panels. Is this what you mean, or do you
mean concrete blocks?

Reinforced structural concrete by itself is a poor insulator (having a
conductivity of 2.3W/m°C compared to 0.77W/m°C for brick), but isn't
used over a whole wall, only to form a frame. There is usually some
form of infill panels with internal or external insulation. There
were other types of system builds (such as 'no-fines' concrete) which
were used by Councils in the '60s and '70s. I would have thought most
of these have been upgraded (or demolished) by now.


Sadly i think this is a house that has not been knocked down, or upgraded.
It is according to the survey, a 1950s ish system build, and the concrete
seems to be made up of pebbles some of which seem to be quartz in hardness!
I think there is method that the council have used to insulate them by
putting an outer layer of something clever on to the walls but i understand
that unless it is being done on mass then the figure would probably come
close to buying a new house.

Thankyou,
Colin


Most houses in the last 20 years have been built with concrete blocks
of varying density to the inner leaf. The conductivity can vary from
1.13W/m°C (worse than brick) to 0.11W/m°C (better).
--
Hugo Nebula
'What you have to ask yourself is, "if no-one on the internet wants
a piece of this, just how far from the pack have you strayed?"'