jamestaylor18 said:
Hello
We have the Truma blown air heating, and it was fine for our winter caravanning. Some have said previously that it struggles with warming the van from cold, but I have not noticed this at all, and we have been away in some cold snaps this winter! You can use gas & electric with the Truma to get the temp up quicker, but to be honest, I have not had the need to do this! I leave mine on low overnight, and it keep the van lovely & warm! You will need to drop the fan speed down though and not use it on auto otherwise it make wake you up when it kicks in. I sleep right next to the heater, and yes it omits a low hum on low, but nothing that would stop me sleeping!
We have one electric ring on our hob. It does take longer to boil the kettle and cook due to it not being instant gas heat, but its not using your gas, so i don't mind! I have had the same gas bottle on since July, and my gas cooking use I would say is moderate.
If it was me, I would go with the Truma heating, and get a electric ring (depending on the price!)
Just a few clarifications about James' post.
Warm up times. Virtually all modern versions of both the Truma and the Alde heaters offer Gas and/or Electric operation. Generally the gas side of the appliances has greater heating capacity (kW's) than the electric side, so for the fasted heat up it's best to use both gas and electric systems combined. But once up to temperature, how much heating power you need will depend on the external environmental conditions and how many times you open the door or windows etc, but many people find they can just use the electric power to maintain the temperature. If its particularly cold or you don't have a mains connection, the gas is perfectly adequate and safe.
Because the Truma systems uses hot air rather than water and the way the systems are installed, the Truma can usually start to produce heat that you can feel quicker than the wet Alde. This is for two reasons, the first is the thermal mass of the Truma heater is less so it warms up quicker, and secondly is blows hot air directly into the living spaces at low level, where as the Alde system takes longer to heat up the mass of the heater and fluid in the circulatory system, and its radiators are often behind bed lockers and only convect heat which means it heats the inside of the lockers before releasing heat up the sides of the caravan walls and the hot air collects at head height first of all, and takes longer to reach the lower levels.
Noise. The Alde has the advantage here, its operational noise is less than the Truma Fan systems.
Overall heat in the van, There are many people who will make claims about one systems being better at keeping the van warm overall. I always have to take such claims with a pinch of salt, becasue there will be very few people who have actually had the opportunity to compare the two heating systems in the exact same caravan in the same conditions, so customer claims about one being better than the other are not scientifically sound. However I am lucky I have been involved with heater testing, and I can tell you that a properly installed and adjusted blown hot air system is capable of maintaining a very small temperature difference between the floor and the ceiling and indeed throughout a medium sized 4 berth caravan, where as the wet convected only systems had a bigger temperature floor to ceiling differential. Both systems were very capable of keeping users comfortable.
In terms of boiling water for drinks etc, you simply cannot beat an electric kettle for energy efficiency, as the element is usually in direct contact with the water its heating, so there is virtually no wasted energy. Using a hob to heat the same water is bound to be less efficient, as some heat escapes and does not heat the water, this applies to both electric hobs and especially gas hobs.
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