Alde Control panel

[BarryB]

Hi everyone
Can anyone help please.....
We have just taken delivery of our new 'van with the Alde wet heating system. I have read the instructions and had a 'play' with the control panel but I do not seem able to find a simple timer to start the heating off (say in the morning) and then shut it down in the evening. There is a temperature change feature to drop the temp. say at night, but I was under the impression that it would run very much like the domestic system we have at home.
Any ideas please...
Thanks

Happy travels BarryB

 

[MichaelE]

Ahhh the good old Alde heating control panel question,difficult to explain really just read the book over and over again you will understand.
You cant have hot water without the CH so just put the room temp down really low.
You can get a module to turn it on via txt now !! if it wasnt complex enough?

 

[lohr500]

Hi Barry B,
I am sure you can use the Auto function (with the moon symbol next to it) on the bottom row of symbols to achieve what you want.

Say you want the temp to be 21 deg during the day and effectively off for the night, then you would switch the heating to on and set the temp at 21 deg using the top row of symbols. Next go to the bottom set of symbols and move across to the auto function. Press the on button so the display changes from OFF to ON. Then the left button, followed by repeated pressing of the off button until the temp is reduced to say 5 deg (effectively off unless it is a very cold night). Then press Store once you have set the temp. You can then enter the start time that you want the reduced temp. to kick in ( say 21.00) select 0 for the day if you want the temp to reduce every day of the week. Press store again and input the stop time. (say 8:00).
We do this ourselves because we find the temperature gets too hot at night (Although I can't remember if it will let you set the temp as low as 5 deg).
Can't get to our van just now to test this in practice but please give it a try and let us know if it works.
Tony

 

[NigelHutson]

Not the question that you asked, but you can have the hot water without the central heating.

 

[MichaelE]

Please explain how to Nigel?
The hot water is always on when the heating is switched on,if you switch the heating off the hot water goes off,the tap icon you see on the panel is for extra hot water (30 minute burst)
To stop the heating running as well you turn the temp down,the hot water stays the same temp as this is non adjustable.

 

[MikeyW]

Hi BarryB

Like you the Alde heating is new to me but as I understand it you can only set the heating to come on for up to a 24hour period and then set it to do the same the following week. I also thought this could be done on a daily basis, unless I'm also missing something. As has been suggested the way to go is to set the temperature lower for overnight. I also agree that the hot water and heating are on together but you lower the temperature to lower than outside to stop the heating kicking in.

Regards

Mike

 

[JTQ]

We leave the Alde itself on then there is available hot water and the central heating can respond to the set temperature(s) of the room thermostat.
The central heating itself is only "on" when the circulating pump(s) are signalled by the temperature set on the room thermostat to come on.
If the Adle is set "off" then there is neither hot water nor the ability for the CH to respond to the room thermostat.
So you cant set it up to automatically go completely off during the night and unaided come on in the morning, you can however do this manually.
As others have said if you dont want CH to come on in the night set the night time temperature to a level below what the van will fall to; 5 degrees being its lowest setting. If on gas the boiler might fire once or twice in the night but not bring on the CH pump. If on electricity you would need to be a very light sleeper to hear the boiler stat switch.
These heating systems deserve a bit of time invested in understanding how to set them, and that will be very rewarding.

 

[NigelHutson]

My mistake! Sorry. I just knew that we'd not had the heating on at all over the summer, but it must have been a case of turning the thermostat down (same thing really). If it is turned right down, then the heating isn't working. As has previously been said, if the pump isn't running, then neither is the heating.
We're away this weekend, so I'll have another play. I'm sure that I sussed out the night time setting to be much lower, but as I've been to bed since, I've forgotten!

 

[Jennifer2]

Tony and JTQ have given very comprehensive descriptions of how the heating works, so I will not add to that.

We have had the Alde for 3 years now and like Barry I had expected to be able to set on/off times like our CH at home, so was initally disappointed, but once I got to grips with the controller I soon found it worked very well using the night-time setback. I think the way that Swift, for example, are advertising the features of the Alde is misleading, and I did point this out to them at the time. Their wording of the description of the Alde leads people to expect a "timer" function , when really it is more a "programmable thermostat".

The Alde is originally a Swedish system, designed for Scandinavia, where in winter you need heating all the time, even at night, but probably not at the same level as in daytime. The Alde programmer does exactly that.

 

[xtrailman]

programmable thermostat? my domestic one still allows multiple programming of both CH and DH.

But as you say it does the job.

But a wireless portable programmer would be a nice touch, allows you to play with the programmer seated in comfort, while also enabling the "stat" to be located anywhere in the caravan?

 

[JTQ]

programmable thermostat? my domestic one still allows multiple programming of both CH and DH.

But as you say it does the job.

But a wireless portable programmer would be a nice touch, allows you to play with the programmer seated in comfort, while also enabling the "stat" to be located anywhere in the caravan?

From my understanding of how the boiler works you could simply add a domestic electronic CH controller and stat working on either the existing circulation pump or another one added in series and operate much as a domestic system. The boiler then ought to try its best to reheat the glycol circuit back up to its normal 70 degrees when the "new" circulating system comes into action. I however have no issues with how the existing one works apart from the way Hymer have wired it up and all my timer settings are wiped each time I couple up the tow car. Even thats not been enough to induce me to rewire a maintained feed into the unit.

 

[Jennifer2]

We had that problem too, and as we move on frequently it was very annoying. Apparently there is a little wire you can add to the programmer to bring a direct feed from the battery. We got one supplied by Swift/Alde.

 

[BarryB]

Hi there

Many thanks to you all for your information..........looks like it will be fun when we go away at the end of October. Maybe I should just let my wife sort it out......She says we will take the fan heater as well just to be on the safe side....hehehe

Happy travels BarryB

 

[Jennifer2]

Your wife has got the right idea saying she will take a fan heater!

1. It is a good idea to have a second source of heating, especially in cold weather, just in case your primary heating fails.

2. The Alde will take some time to heat the van from cold, so the fan heater could be handy. If you can, it is a good idea to have the Alde running for a while before you leave home, so it is not heating from totally cold. To speed up the heating in cold weather you can run the Alde on both gas and electricity together, the gas side is very powerful. Or if you want "instant heat", start the Alde on gas and run your fan heater on 2Kw until the van is warm, then switch it off and turn the Alde onto electricity.

Maybe you should let your wife deal with the Alde programmer, I deal with operating the heating in our van and at home, it's a bit like operating a washing machine or dishwasher. And men, it seems, are not good at reading instruction books!