Alde heating

[ether823]

Can anyone please tell me what ampage the Alde heating draws on electric hook-up. The reason i`m asking is that we are buying a new van with Alde heating and on some sites we use the electric is only 10 amps and when we want to use our electic kettle we have to switch off our electric fire or we trip out the power. Thanks, Pete

 

[Robtel]

I was having a look at the alde instructions online the other night, according to what I read the system can be set at either 1kw, 2kw, or 3kw
http://www.alde.co.uk/manuals.php

 

[Jennifer2]

I think the UK vans are mainly fitted with the nominally 1Kw and 2Kw cartridges, so under 10amps. So you can turn it down to the 1Kw setting while boiling a kettle.

Certainly Swift Group vans only have the 1 and 2 Kw cartridges.

 

[MikeyW]

Hi Pete The Alde heating in our new van is 1kw, 2kw or 3kw. As I understand it, to work out the amps you need to divide the watts by the volts. 1kw (1000w) divide by 240volts is 4.16 amps. 2kw (2000w) divide by 240volts is 8.33 amps. 3kw (3000w) divide by 240volts is 12.5 amps. I would add though that up to now we've found 1kw more than adequate once the caravan has warmed up, which you could always do using gas. Enjoy your new van. Mike

 

[ProfJohnL]

Hello Mikey,

Please note that the unified electrical mains supplies are now only 230V ac not 240V ac.

 

[ether823]

Many thanks for the replys to my question, Pete

 

[Heethers]

On the bottom menu you can set amps required on the Alde system, 6amp, 10amps and so on so it doesn’t trip the site, on our Lunar Clubman SE the electric heating has two settings 1Kw or 2Kw, we have boiled a kettle and had 2kw set on the Alde but admittedly this was on a 16 amp site.

 

[Wendy-Norfolk]

You're normally OK boiling a kettle with the 1 and 2 KW switches on, but with a toaster going at the same time, switch the 2 kw off - we've mistakenly tripped the EHU bollard a couple of times!!

 

[Collin]

If this is your first experience with Alde heating in a caravan, I think you will be mightily impressed Pete. We always stayed snug as bugs in rugs, even in weather like this, and we wouldn't contemplate any van without Alde. Like the others we were able to run the system on 1kw once the hot water had circulated and if we ever needed a fast boost then we used the gas. We never tripped the system by boiling the kettle (but we did once with the microwave and awning heater on!). You just have to be sensible and selective on what is on at any given time.