"What the hell was that noise ?"
"What Noise ?"
"That whirring sound that's just bloody well woken me up!"
"Oh that noise, the same one that's been happening at the same time each day for the last 6 days ?, the one that's never woken you up before ?."
"It's never made that noise before"
"Yes it has, every day"
"No it's not".
And so this gentle early morning "chat" continued for the next few mins, the source of the sound identified and clarified by other various comments that could not be written here without the over use of the shift and 8 keys!. (* for anyone that has a different keyboard).
OK, we need to talk about Evohome TRV's and how much noise they make.
Now noise is a funny old thing, often defined as "a sound that is unpleasant or causes disturbance", based on that definition this is certainly noise rather than sound (at least for one of us). Of course sounds (or noise) that drive one person insane have no effect on someone else, we all hear things very differently. We also all have different frequencies of noise we focus on or that push our buttons, I can often hear electronics "working" (my netgear nighthawk made loads of noise when it was busy) others are more sensitive to low frequency rather than high.
It's a big subject but here we are talking about very specific noise, the motor whirring of the little TRV's.
Any noise we perceive as pleasant we will happily listen to for hours, music, the sound of rain, waves on a beach, bird song......you get the idea. However a few seconds of something you don't perceive as nice has the ability to drive you insane, finger nails down a black board, someone learning to play the recorder, all not good.
Where on the scale then do the Evohoe TRV's fall.....well it depends on the individual.
One of the key questions we wanted to answer before buying the system was how much noise do the TRV's make. They have a motor inside that turns the radiator valves hence it needs to have quite a bit of torque, being a battery operated motor it's always going to make a little more noise than a mains powered motor (which of course is not an option for obvious reasons). So there is always going to be some noise. Unable to find a decent answer to our question we went with it anyway based on the fact that all TRVs with a motor will make some noise.
Lets be honest here in normal daytime use you really don't hear them, if the TV is on then you won't hear them at all, if the TV is set to a low volume then you might just hear them depending on the layout of your room. If you're sat in the room talking or in the kitchen cooking you won't hear them, and if you do you filter it out as it's very much a background noise and hardly noticeable. So day to day it's fine it does not even register with you most of the time.
But what about at night, when everything is still and there is no other noise. That's the time when any noise seems amplified and your ears are alerted. The slightest creak from the central heating system cooling down sounds like burglar bill coming up the stairs to raid your sock drawer. It appears that some noises give the brain a nudge which then engages the vocal system and also the elbows, the noise from TRV's is such a noise.
Personally it does not bother me at all, if you're going to install this system (or any with similar TRVs) you might want to check if it bothers anyone else in your household. We clearly need to do something about this as whilst the noise of the motor does not wake me up, what follows it certainly does.
So what are the potential solutions ?. I guess there are two lists of solutions here, ones you can do yourself and ones that we might consider a "wish list" for Honeywell.
So, what can we do ourselves....
Quite simply there are only really two solutions here, if anyone can think of others then please let me know.
Change the temperature settings or times so that the valves don't move whilst you're asleep. Is this really an option ?. It will mean potentially waking up to a room colder than you like which kind of negates the reason for having heating in the first place. Whilst most people like to have a cool bedroom for sleeping they tend to like it at least a little toasty when getting out of bed on a cold dull winters morning. This is probably the route we will go, at least that's been suggested to me.
If you have more than one TRV in the zone (as we do) remove one of them and put it in it's own zone so that there is less noise (set it so it moves at a slightly different time). this is only possible if you have spare zones in the system, it's a bit long winded and will still make noise but could help. You could also just drop a normal TRV back onto one of the radiators and try and find the sweet spot where it will kick in and out with the system controlled one. Again negates the point of the system but we are just thinking about loud about solutions.
If you're such a light sleeper use ear plugs, you may as I did receive various feedback to this suggestion.
Moving on then, The Honeywell wish list......
One we've already proposed to Honeywell is that there should be an option to allow all TRV's that are zoned together to change their settings in sequence rather than in unison. This would reduce the noise by quite as bit as two TRV's going at the same time make much more noise than one. This might get the noise levels down enough to not be quite as disruptive.
The other might be to move the motors in small incremental steps (assuming they are stepper motors), it will take longer to make the change but avoid the noise of a longer motor run. When the motors move a small amount they really don't make much sound at all, when they are winding all the way in / out that's when they really start to sing. This might be a nice bedroom or early morning option that could be selected. If it had an impact over battery life I think most users having issues with the noise would take that on the chin.
Of course having motors that make less noise over all would be a good solution and most people I'm sure would be happy to stand the few extra pounds of cost this might add, however that would mean that such a motor would need to be available. Motorised TRV's are quickly becoming common with more and more options coming into the market so I'm sure we will soon see who has the quietest motor. I'd guess it's not that long until companies are advertising "whisper" motors as part of their sales pitch. The latest entrant into the market (at time of writing) is Fibaro with their Zwave option. These guys normally make quite nice hardware so it will be interesting to see where they sit in terms of noise level (I plan to get some and test them out).
If you're thinking of getting Evohome and putting TRV's in the bedroom and have a light sleeper in the household then this is something you need to think about. I don't think it's a show stopper but if you want a nice peaceful life you might want to think about how you implement those early morning warm ups (or not as the case may be).
For the rest of the house the motor noise really is not an issue at all and the system is still so far at least proving to be a great investment.
If you have any specific questions about our experiences with the Evohome system please leave them in the comments section and I'll try and respond as soon as possible.
"What Noise ?"
"That whirring sound that's just bloody well woken me up!"
"Oh that noise, the same one that's been happening at the same time each day for the last 6 days ?, the one that's never woken you up before ?."
"It's never made that noise before"
"Yes it has, every day"
"No it's not".
And so this gentle early morning "chat" continued for the next few mins, the source of the sound identified and clarified by other various comments that could not be written here without the over use of the shift and 8 keys!. (* for anyone that has a different keyboard).
OK, we need to talk about Evohome TRV's and how much noise they make.
Now noise is a funny old thing, often defined as "a sound that is unpleasant or causes disturbance", based on that definition this is certainly noise rather than sound (at least for one of us). Of course sounds (or noise) that drive one person insane have no effect on someone else, we all hear things very differently. We also all have different frequencies of noise we focus on or that push our buttons, I can often hear electronics "working" (my netgear nighthawk made loads of noise when it was busy) others are more sensitive to low frequency rather than high.
It's a big subject but here we are talking about very specific noise, the motor whirring of the little TRV's.
TRV's, one mans noise is another mans music.
Any noise we perceive as pleasant we will happily listen to for hours, music, the sound of rain, waves on a beach, bird song......you get the idea. However a few seconds of something you don't perceive as nice has the ability to drive you insane, finger nails down a black board, someone learning to play the recorder, all not good.
Where on the scale then do the Evohoe TRV's fall.....well it depends on the individual.
One of the key questions we wanted to answer before buying the system was how much noise do the TRV's make. They have a motor inside that turns the radiator valves hence it needs to have quite a bit of torque, being a battery operated motor it's always going to make a little more noise than a mains powered motor (which of course is not an option for obvious reasons). So there is always going to be some noise. Unable to find a decent answer to our question we went with it anyway based on the fact that all TRVs with a motor will make some noise.
Lets be honest here in normal daytime use you really don't hear them, if the TV is on then you won't hear them at all, if the TV is set to a low volume then you might just hear them depending on the layout of your room. If you're sat in the room talking or in the kitchen cooking you won't hear them, and if you do you filter it out as it's very much a background noise and hardly noticeable. So day to day it's fine it does not even register with you most of the time.
But what about at night, when everything is still and there is no other noise. That's the time when any noise seems amplified and your ears are alerted. The slightest creak from the central heating system cooling down sounds like burglar bill coming up the stairs to raid your sock drawer. It appears that some noises give the brain a nudge which then engages the vocal system and also the elbows, the noise from TRV's is such a noise.
Personally it does not bother me at all, if you're going to install this system (or any with similar TRVs) you might want to check if it bothers anyone else in your household. We clearly need to do something about this as whilst the noise of the motor does not wake me up, what follows it certainly does.
So what are the potential solutions ?. I guess there are two lists of solutions here, ones you can do yourself and ones that we might consider a "wish list" for Honeywell.
So, what can we do ourselves....
Quite simply there are only really two solutions here, if anyone can think of others then please let me know.
Change the temperature settings or times so that the valves don't move whilst you're asleep. Is this really an option ?. It will mean potentially waking up to a room colder than you like which kind of negates the reason for having heating in the first place. Whilst most people like to have a cool bedroom for sleeping they tend to like it at least a little toasty when getting out of bed on a cold dull winters morning. This is probably the route we will go, at least that's been suggested to me.
If you have more than one TRV in the zone (as we do) remove one of them and put it in it's own zone so that there is less noise (set it so it moves at a slightly different time). this is only possible if you have spare zones in the system, it's a bit long winded and will still make noise but could help. You could also just drop a normal TRV back onto one of the radiators and try and find the sweet spot where it will kick in and out with the system controlled one. Again negates the point of the system but we are just thinking about loud about solutions.
If you're such a light sleeper use ear plugs, you may as I did receive various feedback to this suggestion.
Moving on then, The Honeywell wish list......
One we've already proposed to Honeywell is that there should be an option to allow all TRV's that are zoned together to change their settings in sequence rather than in unison. This would reduce the noise by quite as bit as two TRV's going at the same time make much more noise than one. This might get the noise levels down enough to not be quite as disruptive.
The other might be to move the motors in small incremental steps (assuming they are stepper motors), it will take longer to make the change but avoid the noise of a longer motor run. When the motors move a small amount they really don't make much sound at all, when they are winding all the way in / out that's when they really start to sing. This might be a nice bedroom or early morning option that could be selected. If it had an impact over battery life I think most users having issues with the noise would take that on the chin.
Of course having motors that make less noise over all would be a good solution and most people I'm sure would be happy to stand the few extra pounds of cost this might add, however that would mean that such a motor would need to be available. Motorised TRV's are quickly becoming common with more and more options coming into the market so I'm sure we will soon see who has the quietest motor. I'd guess it's not that long until companies are advertising "whisper" motors as part of their sales pitch. The latest entrant into the market (at time of writing) is Fibaro with their Zwave option. These guys normally make quite nice hardware so it will be interesting to see where they sit in terms of noise level (I plan to get some and test them out).
If you're thinking of getting Evohome and putting TRV's in the bedroom and have a light sleeper in the household then this is something you need to think about. I don't think it's a show stopper but if you want a nice peaceful life you might want to think about how you implement those early morning warm ups (or not as the case may be).
For the rest of the house the motor noise really is not an issue at all and the system is still so far at least proving to be a great investment.
If you have any specific questions about our experiences with the Evohome system please leave them in the comments section and I'll try and respond as soon as possible.
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