Installing a water system for a heating or cooling unit requires a set of hydronic valves to balance the flow of water. One must choose between using manual balancing valves or automatic balancing valves. The difference between the two is explained in the following blog post. Manual valves certainly do serve a purpose and are appropriate for many projects, especially where the installer needs to set the stems to custom specifications according to the system design. However, automatic valves have more advantages over manual.
- More Cost Effective: True, the actual automatic balancing valve hardware itself might be more expensive than manual balancing valves, but they only need to be installed at the terminals and not the distribution lines, branches and risers. This will greatly cut down on installation costs.
- Ease of Use – Automatic valves regulate flow according to their pre-set value. They do not require proportional balancing and require less repeat maintenance to monitor and re-calibrate.
- More Stability – There’s always a chance that manual valves will be poorly calibrated, therefore unable to properly read water temperature. This will result in sudden rises and falls in a building’s temperature because the system will try to compensate for the discrepancy between the thermostat reading and the actual water temperature.
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