Plumbers

I've just moved into a new house which doesn't have thermostatic radiator valves so I got a quote for installing them from my new next door neighbour who is a plumber (recommended). The quote is basically as follows:

15 x Drayton trv4 TRV
1 x Drayton automatic bypass valve refill system and dose with sentinel x100 inhibitor
15 x Drayton lock shield valves
1 x furnox tf1 filter or magiclean unit
Carry out power flush using sentinel x800

It will apparently take 3-4 days and cost about £1900 incl VAT.

Could a plumber say if that's in the right ballpark?

Thanks

[johnnyrod]

HOW MUCH? I presume you're replacing the lockshield valves because they're old, good call otherwise waste of money. Installing 15 TRVS is an all-day job. Auto bypass, waste of time if you have a manual bypass already, I assume you have a fully pumped system. Magnets, great in an old house, powerflush is a luxury unles you have cold rads or money on your hands. My 2p. 2 days max with everything you have there but powerflush is time-consuming. Get more quotes if you like, looks like a lot to me, it's called growing a job.

Is he putting a new boiler in for that too?

It is a fair bit of messing around but I allow £20 a set for trv's and lockshields, so he's probably got £400 in materials there tops, I think that's very high tbh.

Most people generally don't have trv's on all rads, you can just fit them to bedrooms and let the room stat control downstairs rads.

My dads a plumber and I know when he replaces an old style boiler and storage heater for a combi system, which also involves fitting TRVs by law I believe, he's done in four days, albeit that's in a normal 3 bed house so probably not as many as 15 rads.

I imagine you could get cheaper quotes. It's looking like a great start to your relationship with the neighbours.

Thanks guys. I thought that using a recommended plumber and a neighbough to boot would be a safe option - I'll get a couple more quotes tho.
The house is quite old - 1928. I turned up the thermostat (in the hall) and opened all the rad valves and they all heated up nicely but they don't all seem to heat up when thermostat is at a normal level. For a lot of the upstairs rooms we'll not be using them other than when we have guests so they will just require low-level heating to ensure no damp etc.

Thanks for the input - much appreciated.

Could be the location of the room stat, get it swapped to a wireless one, then put it away from any close heat source, you can then just temporary try it in places until you find a nice balance at the areas you want to heat.

Like I said in my earlier post, you don't need trv's on all your rads, if when your room stat is on a decent temperature for the house but one rad /room is too hot, just put a trv in that room.

[dirtydog]

Originally Posted by specialone

Is he putting a new boiler in for that too?

It is a fair bit of messing around but I allow £20 a set for trv's and lockshields, so he's probably got £400 in materials there tops, I think that's very high tbh.

Most people generally don't have trv's on all rads, you can just fit them to bedrooms and let the room stat control downstairs rads.

A quick bit of maths and I reckon the materials are a little bit over £500. 15 Drayton TRV4 and lock shields are going to cost about £370 (screwfix prices). The auto bypass is only about £20 ish (been a while since I bought one) so maybe worth doing while the system is all drained down.
As for the powerflush, probably not needed and is normally quite expensive as it takes a while to do if its done properly.

I get a lot of people asking to fit TRVs to all the radiators in the house but its really not needed but some people still insist that its done

Originally Posted by specialone

Could be the location of the room stat, get it swapped to a wireless one, then put it away from any close heat source, you can then just temporary try it in places until you find a nice balance at the areas you want to heat.

Have done this quite a few times now, surprising how many room stats are fitted above a radiator

Thanks for the additional info SP1 & DD.

I can see why someone would want TRVs everywhere because if an additional one is required later, it can be problematic to get someone out to do just one.
The thermostat in the hall is quite near the radiator so that could indeed be causing problems - certainly something to consider. I guess I'd put the controller where the current thermostat is, and then put the sensor somewhere else, out of the way?

[embee]

Good advice there.

While breaking into the system it might be worth consdering zoning. I fitted wireless Honeywell programmable room stats and zone valves to split upstairs/downstairs. Managed to get them off the 'bay at about 60% of rrp. Huge saving in heating costs for a pretty simple mod.

The Honeywell wireless sruff works brilliantly. I fitted TRVs all round, and if you decide to move the stat to a different room (in the same zone) just turn that TRV full on and set the other one to what you want. You can also use the room stat to give much more control of the system very simply, just set demand temps to a very low figure and it effectively turns the heating off for that zone while allowing the other zone to run normally.

You can get programmable rad TRV's now too, another option. The ones I've fitted for others (Pegler) have been add-ons to existing TRV's, just swap the heads. Simple solution if a bit pricey, but you can do just the ones you want.

What about balancing the radiators?