If I have smart TRVs on every radiator and none are calling for heat, will Tado turn the boiler off?

As per title. If the heating is meant to be on, but all the smart TRVs are closed because none are calling for heat, will Tado turn the boiler off until one or more TRVs calls for heat again?

Best Answer

  • eezytiger
    eezytiger ✭✭✭
    edited October 2021 Answer ✓

    @JonBurnage The answer is yes - but only if you have a Tado smart thermostat controlling the boiler and all the SRTs included in the zone for that thermostat and nothing else in the system requesting heat (such as a wall mounted room thermostat).

    But if you have SRTs only, without the smart thermostat, then the SRTs have no way to influence boiler operation. This is how I first had my system set up - SRTs only - for two whole days. The boiler still had to be controlled by my dumb old timer/thermostat in the hall. The SRTs could take heat if the boiler was on, but couldn't themselves command the boiler to be on or off.

    Then I added a smart wired thermostat to replace the old timer/thermostat and now any one of my SRTs or the smart thermostat can request the boiler to fire up. If none of them want heat then the boiler shuts off.

    EDIT : Actually, you can exclude some SRTs from the controlled zone and they will just play on the sidelines, taking whatever heat the system is producing. They won't turn the boiler on or off. That is the job of the smart thermostat, with input from the SRTs that are connected to it.

    However, while I'm most certainly not a heating engineer, my understanding is that you should not have SRTs/TRVs on every single radiator since, if they all close at once and the pump is still running (as it will for a while after the burner shuts of), then that water has to go somewhere, so you'd better have a bypass for the water to continue flowing if/when all the valves are shut. Normal advice, AFAIK, is to have one radiator (the one in the same room as the smart thermostat) and/or a bathroom towel rail, always left open so the water can return to the boiler even when everything else is shut off.

    Disclaimer : This heating game is very new to me, but I'm learning fast, and hope I have everything right in what I've said.

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