In 2019, when we moved into our home, we replaced all the “old school” thermostatic valves (TRVs) with Eve Thermo smart TRVs. For us, it didn’t make sense that we had to run from room to room during the cold winter months turning radiator valves on and off. This was an inefficient and ineffective way of heating our property.
We have now had the Eve Thermo smart TRVs up and running for two years, and I have to say that they have made a big difference. During this time, the oil boiler came out and was replaced by an 18kW air source heat pump, and smart TRVs make even more sense in our renewable heating set up.
One of the most important things to bear in mind when it comes to these Eve TRVs is that they cannot call for heat. Something else has to do that. We have Salus smart thermostats to assist with this, but we’ll cover that in a future post and review.
The Eve Thermo smart TRVs regulate whether rooms are up are up to temperature and whether the radiator valve should close if the room is too warm or whether it needs to open if the room has dropped below a certain temperature.
These smart TRVs are HomeKit enabled and have integrated seamlessly into our heating set up. They are Bluetooth, which means that you have to physically go into rooms to change settings, schedules or increase/decrease temperatures. We have solved this ‘issue’ by installing a product called Eve Extend, which means we can access them over our WiFi network. I have recently reviewed the Eve Extend on our sister website, My Home Farm, and you can see the full video review here.
The new version of Eve Thermo units that are available in 2021 will feature Apple Thread, so that’s an exciting addition and development.
The units each take two AA batteries, and we’ve found that they last about a year. The Eve app grants you full control over the TRVs, and setting schedules and upgrading firmware is a breeze. Installation of the TRVs was also super easy, and takes less than five minutes to do (including installing and setting them up on your iPhone). On that note, Eve products only worth with Apple, so it you’re on team Android, you’ll have to look at an alternative product.
As someone that’s obsessed with data, the Eve TRVs keep a meticulous record of the temperatures your rooms have registered. I now have over two years’ worth of data for the temperatures in every room in the house that has a radiator. This lets you quickly ascertain whether rooms are getting to target temperatures and it’s easy to identify the rooms that are struggling to stay warm.
We own a lot of Eve products, and the TRVs are extremely well made and designed. Their customer support is also excellent. If you’re looking for good quality smart TRVs, I would certainly recommend that you consider them, and Eve sell an assortment of other smart home products which can form the basis of a HomeKit-enabled smart home.
They sell for £64.95, and you can get more information about these TRVs on Eve’s official website.
Eve Thermo smart TRVs: Specifications
- Valve compatibility: M 30 x1.5
- Supplied adapters: Danfoss RA, RAV, RAVL
- Power source: 2x AA Replaceable Batteries
- Dimensions: 54 x 67 x 85 mm
