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Thread: Evohome is Noisy - please help me

  1. #21
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    The response quoted from Honeywell did actually give a suggestion of using a wired MT8 head instead of an HR92 if complete silence was critical. This is operated by a relay and will still give control of the radiator and room temperature, so nothing is being "taken away". I wasn't even aware of the MT8 until that post so interesting to see that there is a wired option that doesn't use a motor to control the valve.

    Of course you would need a wall mounted thermostat in the room somewhere to measure the temperature and (optionally) adjust the set points - something like a DTS92 or Y87RF as it doesn't look like the MT8 has a sensor of its own, or any controls but personally I think a remote sensor is a good idea in a bedroom anyway, especially if you leave the window ajar at night. We have a DTS92 in our bedroom near the head of the bed to get a more accurate measurement of the room temperature where the occupants are instead of the reading being influenced by cold air from the window, and find this gives a much more consistent, comfortable temperature through the night than using the HR92's built in sensor.
    Last edited by DBMandrake; 23rd November 2016 at 10:33 AM.

  2. #22
    Automated Home Guru MichaelD's Avatar
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    My HR92s and HR80s are noticeable, but quiet, we don't ever notice them, and I've never known visitors being distracted by them, although when we got a kitten she was a bit spooked for the first day or so, now she doesn't seem to notice them, just like the rest of the family.

    The one exception is when they do their weekly exercise of going fully closed to fully open and back during the summer. Probably because we are less used to the noise, and because it goes on for a while.

    I had heard that motorised valves on aluminium radiators are loud, because of the nature of those rads, so it might be that different HR92s give different noise levels because of the different rads they are connected to? Do any need bleeding?

  3. #23
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    I've played around with an HR92 a bit to see if I can reduce the noise level as I also feel it's distracting, although I appreciate with this type of actuator it would be a struggle to make it silent and affordable.

    IMO, a lot of the noise is coming from the plastic housing of the HR92. It's acting as a loudspeaker by amplifying the noise coming from the motor itself and the gears. A thicker housing would help, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, so I've looked at ways to dampen the vibrations.

    It may be possible to carefully fill some of the voids within the housing with some sort of dense filler such as potting compound used in electronics, but there would be a lot of risk involved as it could flow into the battery compartment or motor etc. and effectively write off the actuator. I haven't taken one apart completely to see if it's even worth trying that method.

    The other method which I have had some success with is to stick sound-deadening material around the outside of the actuator body. This reduces noise noticeably but cosmetically isn't ideal, although that may be of secondary importance to you! You can get foam rubber with self adhesive backing which is used to stick on panels of desktop PCs and servers to make the quieter and a piece of this stuck on the outside of an HR92 does do some good. I don't know exactly where the temperature sensor is situated and how it might be affected by this, so that needs to be considered.

    Food for thought, anyway.

  4. #24
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    Quote Originally Posted by DBMandrake View Post
    The response quoted from Honeywell did actually give a suggestion of using a wired MT8 head instead of an HR92 if complete silence was critical. This is operated by a relay and will still give control of the radiator and room temperature, so nothing is being "taken away". I wasn't even aware of the MT8 until that post so interesting to see that there is a wired option that doesn't use a motor to control the valve.

    Of course you would need a wall mounted thermostat in the room somewhere to measure the temperature and (optionally) adjust the set points - something like a DTS92 or Y87RF as it doesn't look like the MT8 has a sensor of its own, or any controls but personally I think a remote sensor is a good idea in a bedroom anyway, especially if you leave the window ajar at night. We have a DTS92 in our bedroom near the head of the bed to get a more accurate measurement of the room temperature where the occupants are instead of the reading being influenced by cold air from the window, and find this gives a much more consistent, comfortable temperature through the night than using the HR92's built in sensor.
    I get it - however I've already spent too much to be able to buy even more things - simply to avoid the weaknesses of Evohome. I'm going to need to find a solution or, yup, its going back.

  5. #25
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    We rarely hear the HR92s in our bedroom at night; however, I was woken up at about midnight last night by a short quiet beep. It has taken me until now to release that it was most likely the first indication of a CO detector battery end of life.

  6. #26
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    Quote Originally Posted by MichaelD View Post
    My HR92s and HR80s are noticeable, but quiet, we don't ever notice them, and I've never known visitors being distracted by them, although when we got a kitten she was a bit spooked for the first day or so, now she doesn't seem to notice them, just like the rest of the family.

    The one exception is when they do their weekly exercise of going fully closed to fully open and back during the summer. Probably because we are less used to the noise, and because it goes on for a while.

    I had heard that motorised valves on aluminium radiators are loud, because of the nature of those rads, so it might be that different HR92s give different noise levels because of the different rads they are connected to? Do any need bleeding?
    No. All radiators fully bled. No loose metal to resonate.

  7. #27
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    Quote Originally Posted by Arrghh! View Post
    I've played around with an HR92 a bit to see if I can reduce the noise level as I also feel it's distracting, although I appreciate with this type of actuator it would be a struggle to make it silent and affordable.

    IMO, a lot of the noise is coming from the plastic housing of the HR92. It's acting as a loudspeaker by amplifying the noise coming from the motor itself and the gears. A thicker housing would help, but that's not going to happen anytime soon, so I've looked at ways to dampen the vibrations.

    It may be possible to carefully fill some of the voids within the housing with some sort of dense filler such as potting compound used in electronics, but there would be a lot of risk involved as it could flow into the battery compartment or motor etc. and effectively write off the actuator. I haven't taken one apart completely to see if it's even worth trying that method.

    The other method which I have had some success with is to stick sound-deadening material around the outside of the actuator body. This reduces noise noticeably but cosmetically isn't ideal, although that may be of secondary importance to you! You can get foam rubber with self adhesive backing which is used to stick on panels of desktop PCs and servers to make the quieter and a piece of this stuck on the outside of an HR92 does do some good. I don't know exactly where the temperature sensor is situated and how it might be affected by this, so that needs to be considered.

    Food for thought, anyway.
    Thanks for those ideas. Anything is worth considering but I think I would return the Evohome system before I decide to cover all the TRVs in foam ;-)

  8. #28
    Automated Home Legend paulockenden's Avatar
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    I still wonder whether it's your valve bodies offering more resistance than normal. I know at least two people asked you what brand they are but I can't see an answer.

  9. #29
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    Quote Originally Posted by DBMandrake View Post
    Not sure what you mean by "detached 20c mode" - when an HR92 looses contact with the controller it will just remain at its last configured set point, it doesn't revert back to 20c. I tested this not long ago to see what the system behaviour is if the controller goes offline. It also doesn't cycle the valve when comms is re-established, unless a new set point had been scheduled in the intervening time that would cause a set point change. If the set point is the same before and afterwards it will not make an adjustment.
    Both handy to know. The 20C came from some piece of Honeywell literature IIRC, but seemed an odd fallback compared with keeping the current setting. Good to hear that it does do the latter.

    I hadn't tested the servo cycling idea, but it seemed odd that it would otherwise have a need to activate in the night (unless the 20C thing was happening, which we've now ruled out).

    All anecdotal based on recollections of a sleepy and grumpy teenager, so plenty of room for correction being needed!

  10. #30
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    20 degrees is the default set point on an HR92 after the batteries are removed and reinserted, so when changing the batteries it will go back to 20 degrees until it receives a set point change or periodic update from the controller, which can take a while. But if its the controller that is rebooted rather than the HR92 then it just remains at its current set point, then resumes the schedule at the next set point update, or can be immediately overridden to a desired temperature.

    One possible explanation for the motor whirring after re-establishing the connection though is that any HR92's that are in a "single-room zone" (which is the default) don't use their temperature reading directly even if they're the temperature sensor and only device in the zone - the temperature reading is transmitted to the controller which displays it and then transmits it back to the HR92 a short time later. Sounds weird, but that's how it works. If the HR92 is in a "multi-room zone" then it does use its own temperature sensor directly without the reading having to be relayed via the controller and back.

    So if the controller goes missing in action the HR92 will stop receiving temperature readings even though it is the sensor, after about an hour of lost communications it will fall back to directly using its own sensor rather than waiting for updates from a non-responding controller. At this time there could have been a significant temperature change in the room up or down that requires a response and the valve may open or close a long way to deal with this.

    Likewise if you use a remote wall sensor like a DTS92 those readings are relayed via the controller to the HR92 so if the controller goes missing the HR92 will stop receiving temperature updates but fall back to its own sensor after an hour.

    For those interested in the technicalities behind it, it appears that all a "multi-room zone" does is sends a configuration flag to the HR92's in the zone that says "use your own temperature sensor directly". Otherwise they always expect the temperature reading to come from the controller. And the controller in turn gets the temperature reading from either its internal sensor or the device you bind first as the sensor, whether that is one of those same HR92's, or a remote sensor like a DTS92.

    That's why even if there is only one HR92 in a single room zone the temperature measurement still gets relayed via the controller. In theory setting a zone with just a single HR92 to multi-room zone should give a faster response to temperature changes and better temperature regulation since the reading is not being relayed via the controller with a significant delay, however doing so disables local override display on the controller even though there is only one HR92 in the zone.
    Last edited by DBMandrake; 24th November 2016 at 10:32 AM.

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