Hi!
I’m also looking for good TRVs and I came up with LC-13, which is the only one affordable and I’m able to order it in my country. How is it working for you? I have read in the database that it is not listening permanently, but wakes up after a specified time. Doesn’t that means that you have to wait in average wakeup period/2 to receive the commands sent from openHab (sorry I don’t have any Z-Wave devices yet, so these might be noob questions…)?
Also it only reports the target temperature through Z-Wave? But it has a temp sensor, right? Otherwise how it “knows” when to turn on/off?
I have a bunch of these around my home. No real problems to report, they seem to work as expected. I’ve not really looked into the engineering behind them, they look good and do the job.
But are you sending commands from openHab to these valves? Maybe you know what wakeup time did you specify? (It says 1 hour seems okay, but if I don’t misunderstood that, it means that it can only communicate with openHab once/hour).
Yes I adjust them over the course of a day, mainly from the Living Room thermostat. I have the wakeup set to 1800 seconds. That gives me good enough control and flexibility over the battery length.
How often do you feel that you need to change your radiator temperature settings?
The problem is that I don’t really change at all, wasting lots of energy when we are not at home… I didn’t had any other device yet, but 1800 seconds seems okay for me I would go with a similar setup like this.
Just two questions left for me, if you can reply:
With this wakeup period what is the usual battery lifetime?
Does it reports the actual temperature back through Z-Wave? I’m asking that because it would be great that I can use that value in rules and also set the temperature based on that one…
I get about 10 to 12 months from the batteries with my setup. No the actual temperature isn’t reported by the LC-13’s.
An alternative that does report the temperature is; StellaZ from Eurotronics. I’ve got two of these, they don’t have any display and don’t look as good as the LC-13 does. But you have a little more functionality, such as the ambient temperature.
This product does not seem to be available anymore.
An alternative could be the Spirit Z-Wave Plus from Eurotronics.
The main reason I bought three Spirits is that this TRV supports FLiRS.
Well there is the popp TRV which is like the Danfoss LC13 plus it reports the temperature as well. I am thinking of buying a few of those for testing. Anybody has any experience with them ?
What good is the temperature report from the TRV anyway? I doubt it is really accurate as it is next to the radiators
I have temperature sensors in every room so in theory I can get the temp from those and adjust the TRV right ?
I bought the fibaro FGT-001 TRVs when they were released but they do not deliver as promised unfortunately. Although they do have a lithium battery that is rechargeable and they are always online / responsive they do not work well because the firmware is buggy.
I’m a eurotronics spirit user. What should I report. They are working, are very loud, and their calculation of the valve position is very bad. Most of the time it is too hot in the room.
see this log, target temperature is 18°C! and valve is still open:
2018-11-30 10:08:47.249 [ome.event.ItemCommandEvent] - Item 'Radiator02_heatpoint' received command 18.0
2018-11-30 10:08:48.664 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_heatpoint changed from 18.5 to 18
2018-11-30 10:08:48.843 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Valve changed from 0.38000000 to 0.14000000
2018-11-30 10:08:48.913 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Temperature changed from 20.96 to 21.05
2018-11-30 10:08:51.431 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Valve changed from 0.14000000 to 0.29000000
2018-11-30 10:12:51.434 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Temperature changed from 21.05 to 21.22
2018-11-30 10:30:59.415 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Valve changed from 0.29000000 to 0.20000000
2018-11-30 10:42:59.408 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Valve changed from 0.20000000 to 0.14000000
2018-11-30 10:54:59.406 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Valve changed from 0.14000000 to 0.09000000
2018-11-30 10:58:59.418 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Temperature changed from 21.22 to 20.78
2018-11-30 11:06:59.396 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Valve changed from 0.09000000 to 0.05000000
2018-11-30 11:12:59.406 [vent.ItemStateChangedEvent] - Radiator02_Temperature changed from 20.78 to 20.25
I must admit that this is second hand information (i’ve seen them work at a friend of mine and talked about them), but all that sounds like something is wrong. Yes they do make a bit of sound, but I would not call it very loud. Furthermore they should be very well capable of matching temperature to setpoint.
What mode are you using them in?
I just mounted one in my house and it seems to work so far for getting to the right temperature. Still I need to collect some experience. But after a few days I found another issue: I do not get the temperature to my controller or actually extremely rarely. It seemed to work nicely for the first day but then the last temperature event was almost 24 hours ago. But this is something for an extra post I guess.
I’ve just ordered popp trv, waiting to get delivered and give it a try. Shall be able to comment in a week or so.
I am LC13 user and was missing the feedback capability. Why? In my case it’s more curiosity - knowing how long/when the valve is (or would have been) open. Giving a feeling of how much I’m saving
EDIT: after more than a week of owning the popp trv - can’t complain. I wish, I’d know of it before ordering my first lc13. Inslucison, set-up was as smooth as with original device. Getting back the temp value as it’s detected by trv.
Must agree - it’s for curiosity mostly. E.g. having the setpoint unchanged and seeing the reported temp going slightly up&down does not tell the story - is it sensor’s accuracy; temp in heating system changes; wind outside or what.
Many thanks @Austris_V ! I ordered them as well to test and I am quite happy for the time being. They are working a lot better than the fibaro thermostat for which I had high expectations and I was disappointed.
Have you played with a bit more ‘advanced’ options ? For example how do you shut them down ? So far I can only set them to the lowest temperature (4 degrees celsius) in order to stop them but this is merely a workaround.
Is there any way I can create a schedule via zwave / openhab ?
I am actually using them in a “pretty dumb” way. Sending 0 (off) or 28 (max) degrees. And creating my own “schedule” from openhab via rules - at preset time, depending on day of the week (work day or holiday) and presence in previous evening - switching ON for few hours in the morning, before everyone waking up or evening - before coming back home.
I don’t believe you can create “device internal” schedules through ZWave/openhab. At least not yet, have not seen any channels for that (but always happy to learn I was wrong and it’s possible :))
After one year and a half one of the two popp’s I had ordered seems to have malfunctioned. It does not report anything to the controller anymore no matter what I do. Tried factory reset, exclude / include, new batteries but no change. i can only use it manually which beats the point of having it.
Check Honeywell Evohome system. You can control everything through wall mounted wifi controller plus you can connect to openhab the whole system and control it through openhab as well. Easier then set up zwave control.
But I will not implement them in my sleeping room: I will wake up of this noise.