Basic set up? Going round in circles

[richsimpson]

HI, struggling with the basic setup, any tips? I have Tuya valves that have Heat Auto and Off modes plus a load of presets, comfort, boost etc.
They also have sensor for valve position 0 - 100% open.

Previously I ran them in Auto/Manual setup mode and I forced the temperatures from Node Red Automations.

I have added the integration with latest Beta - manually. HACS issue not showing BETA so done it the old fashioned way.

I find valves are sticking either open or closed and unsure what settings I should use?

I have only checked the maintenance mode during setup, everything else unchecked.
I have used an external temp sensor on each valve. Set as Offset calibration and Normal for the controller.

Was expecting that target temp = below current temp then valve closes, if above then it opens. Quite simple. Ideally just open or closed rather than the TRV trying to set a certain limit, 25% because its nearly at temperature etc.

Any pointers? Child lock option etc

For example - The valve in this room currently at 19.8'c and set to 25'c I expected it would activate heat and open valve but not happening?

If I change to Heat then it opens the valve. Though then turning the target temp to 15'c it doesn't close?

Valve is stuck at 100% open but shows as 'idle'

On the actual thermostat via Z2M the TRV shows as Heat/Manual - as in it is in a forced HEAT mode.

[Xander-V]

The valve position is not a good measurement since it can state the valve is closed and still have a position 100%. The heat is the hvac mode and does not necessarily mean the radiator is at the moment actually heating up, it only means that when the actual T drops below setpoint, it will heat. If it is above setpoint, the TRV itself will regulate its valve position to try and keep the temperature in the room stable. This might result in a period where the TRV is set to hvac mode heat but the valve is closed. You can see this in the better thermostat state "hvac_action", when that state is "idle", there is no request for heat. To make it easier, also install the UI for better thermostat and ONLY use that. Setting new temp, on/off etc. (of course for testing purposes at first you can have the original TRV entity in lovelace as well, but as soon as you're sure it functions as it should you'd better only control the TRV via the better thermostat and hide the original.

So actually the most common way to use the TRV during the winter is to set it hvac modem heat and set the T setpoint to the desired room temperature. I use a external component called scheduler by niels faber to manipulated the desired setpoints during the day. The valve then opens and closes as needed to reach that temperature.

The thing you notices by not shutting off might be a specific problem with the used TRV not really accepting the OFF command, you can set this option in the smart thermostat settings. Some TRV's need to have a T=5 f.i. to turn them off.

Of course to make the radiators a bit smarter, I also have an additional automation IF (no1 home OR heating_disabled OR on_holiday) THEN turn off regular schedule and force 15degrees to the better thermostats.

[richsimpson]

Thanks for the info.

After a few reloads of the integration for the TRV I make a change to and a couple of HomeAssistant Restarts it is starting to make more sense. I have also added the other UI card which is helpful.

I use the valve position through a calculation to turn the boiler on or off so need to be sure it works properly.

Now I need to understand the offset or target temp correctly. In one room I have two rads but grouping them doesn't seem to work well.

Am I right that not selecting to calibrate via the offset will just ignore the internal TRV temp value and instead will use the external sensor? That is what i need to do as I have two rads, one is always showing cool and the other is in a radiator cover so always reads too high. I have a room at say 20'c and one is sitting at 17.5'c the other at 29'c.

Previously I just had one Rad (Rad1) as the master and the other (Rad2) was either on or off based on the main rad valve position. 25% + on Rad1 = Rad2 on, 24% or less = off.

[Xander-V]

If one radiator heats up and the other not, you should first balance the heat transfer trough the radiators, a TRV alone is not gonna solve that problem. See f.i. https://ukradiators.com/advice-centre/the-simple-guide-to-balancing-radiators/

Basically, you set the amount of water flowing through to the best flow that is able to release at least 20 degrees of the heat into the room while the water is going through the radiator. Only if both radiators thermodynamically behave the same, a group will become a solution. If 1 is behaving completely different, a group will never become a reliable set.

That having said, take a look at the better thermostat state attributes hvac_action, this one accurately changes to 'heating' whenever heat/warm water is actually wanted, otherwise off. If you need to have some kind of percentage, you could try and calculate something by means of the the difference between state attributes "temperature" (wish) and current_temperature, f.i. a linear correlation from 0 - 5 degrees difference?