Honeywell HR92 TRV driving me mad!!

[JamesPowell]

I’ve had my Evohome system for a couple of years now and think it’s great. One thing that is bugging me more and more (can’t work out if it has suddenly got worse or I’m just getting older and grumpier!) but the TRV in our bedroom (might be the others do it too but the bedroom is where I notice it) constantly adjusts itself. It does the usual whirring for 30 secs or so when it first comes on but then at times every couple of minutes or so it does a shorter adjustment. If you’re trying to have a lie in that is really annoying! Not sure if there is a parameter setting I need to tweak or this is perfectly normal, in which case I need to get a new system because right now I just leave the rad off as I’d rather freeze than listen to it! Any tips greatfully received.

[filbert]

There's no getting away from the fact that the HR92s are noisy. There's been quite a few discussion on that in here and the general tone of the replies is that they're better than the competition and that you just have to get used to it. The one on our bedroom functions perfectly well as an alarm clock in the heating season - we have never "got used to it". I've tried all the tricks like lubrication, tennis balls to dampen resonance, etc.

At some point I'm going to swap it with another one that might be quieter (or might just be in a room where it's less obtrusive, for some reason) but that means finding out how to rebind them (I'm sure the docs will tell me but, over the summer it hasn't been an problem and I haven't been motivated enough to get round to it). Another option that should resolve the issue is to use an external sensor and wrap the head in soundproofing of some sort.

However, my bedroom valve definitely doesn't do the hunting that you describe. It will come on and after 10 mins or so will whirr and maybe a again a few mins later, certainly not every couple of minutes.

Maybe one of the experienced folks her can suggest how to do a reboot of some sort - like with a phone or PC that's getting cranky..

[Tigermad]

I’ve had my Evohome system for a couple of years now and think it’s great. One thing that is bugging me more and more (can’t work out if it has suddenly got worse or I’m just getting older and grumpier!) but the TRV in our bedroom (might be the others do it too but the bedroom is where I notice it) constantly adjusts itself. It does the usual whirring for 30 secs or so when it first comes on but then at times every couple of minutes or so it does a shorter adjustment. If you’re trying to have a lie in that is really annoying! Not sure if there is a parameter setting I need to tweak or this is perfectly normal, in which case I need to get a new system because right now I just leave the rad off as I’d rather freeze than listen to it! Any tips greatfully received.

Spooky. I was going to post the same as you. My bedroom one waked me up at 4.30 every morning and adjusts now and again so I can’t get back to sleep properly. I’ve listened to other trvs but they are all similar. Far too loud!

[DBMandrake]

It's been said before, but it's entirely down to the acoustics of the room and radiator itself as to whether an HR92 sounds loud or not. There's nothing much they could do to make it any quieter, whilst still using an electric motor. An HR92 by itself is very quiet but once it's attached to a radiator it has a big sounding board to radiate noise with, but this depends on your radiator. Even things like whether the anti-creak spacers are fitted or not can make a difference, as they help to damp vibrations of the radiator panel. (These are the small pieces of plastic that are supposed to go between the radiator and the bracket on the wall - that are frequently lost or thrown away as people don't realize they're important)

Some of my HR92's seem a bit noisy due to where they are located, like the hallway one echos throughout the hard wood floor hallway and therefore seems very noisy, while the ones in the living room and bedroom can hardly be heard, and we've never been woken by our bedroom HR92. In fact even if I'm lying awake in bed the only time I can hear it is when it does a full 30 second off to on transition. The small periodic adjustments it makes I can't hear from bed at all. This is partly the layout of the room, and partly traffic noise from a slightly open window.

The shorter adjustments are normal - about every 3 1/2 minutes it will potentially (not always) make a short adjustment if it is nearing or at the set point to try to maintain that. Rooms with a tendency to overshoot will result in a lot more adjustments occurring, rooms where it is able to keep the temperature steady will tend to have much fewer adjustments. Without graphing the temperature it's hard to say which kind you have.

I'd also say that rooms with remote temperature sensors (as our bedroom and living room have) will probably make fewer adjustments because it is sensing the true room temperature and is thus not influenced by the periodic heating and cooling of the radiator, and that seems to be borne out in my system where those rooms without remote sensors do have more "active" HR92's.

At the end of the day if its too noisy for you in your specific bedroom then it's not really suitable for you - maybe just put a manual TRV back in that one room. The radiator will still warm up in the morning when other scheduled rooms come on.

[a62vw]

This is the normal modulating behaviour of the HR92 rad controller. It is regulating the flow of heating water through the radiator to achieve the desired setpoint you have set for the room. If it didn't behave in this way, and was just fully open or fully closed, you would not get the precise room temperature control it gives you.
As stated above the HR92 isn't silent but isn't particularly noisy, IMHO. However, in the dead of night when you can't sleep and you notice every little sound, it can sound noisy - believe me, I've been there!

[paulockenden]

Maybe in the HR93 (or whatever you guys call the next generation) you might consider running the motor at, say, 1/4 speed overnight, as an option.

I think that would help the people who are suffering.

In my house the noise from expanding pipes when the heating comes on is FAR more intrusive than the motor noise.

[G4RHL]

I have never bothered to adopt this as a solution, as I have never found the HR92 intrusive, but as an experiment, I did once try wedging a piece of wood between the feed pipe/valve assembly and the wall, and that suddenly reduced the sound. All caused, as has already been said, by the radiator acting as a sounding board. It is bound to. If I hear my bedroom radiator come on in the morning it reminds me I have overslept! I am usually up before the heating comes on.