Heating

[MikeyP]

We're in Spain too currently and wild camping. 120W solar panel is keeping our batteries full at the moment. Not using the heating overnight much but using the inverter for PS4 sessions in the evening.

You should be fine but to be honest it's pretty dependent on the condition of your batteries (ie how many AH they're actually providing compared to the quoted figure - we've just had ours replaced because the old ones were woeful).

Best bet is to try it for a night or 2 whilst keeping a close eye on the battery voltage.

 

[MikeyP]

* duplicate post *

 

[Nikki]

Another vote for catalytic heater

Alke Mini Catalytic Heater Gael Force Marine

Minicat catalytic heater that works off either butane or propane gas. Complete with a safety thermocouple. It is possible to wall-mount the heater - free-standing or wall-mounting The safety factor is the catalytic element which allows the g .... £346.99.Gael Force - suppliers of the best and...

www.gaelforcemarine.co.uk

Brilliant

 

[WESTY66]

I have Alde and agree with you. I don't turn it on or off - that's what the thermostat is for. I use night set-back to drop it 4 degrees or so between midnight & 7 am but other than that it's left to it's own devices. This is my first experience of it and a replacement van (if ever) would be off my list if it didn't have Alde heating.

We too have alde and still experimenting with temps and time settings (as the boiler is under my pillow, and the first click of operation wakes me up) May I ask what temps you set and also night temps?

 

[Baggydave]

We have a diesel heater, a Chinese one & really excellent as far as I am concerned. It uses about 8amps on start up but once the glow plug switches off uses very little battery power. We have two 95ah hab batteries & charge them on solar mostly.
We normally run it for several-hours in the evening & again early morning. Never overnight. It’s. Fed from the fuel tank.

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[tonyidle]

We too have alde and still experimenting with temps and time settings (as the boiler is under my pillow, and the first click of operation wakes me up) May I ask what temps you set and also night temps?

I set 22 day and 18 night. I calibrated the thermostat first as per manual. My sensor is at shoulder height centre of van.

 

[TinaLes]

How noisy are your diesel heaters guys? I mention this as a few weeks back whilst outside a hospital near London, I happened to walk past a row of Private company ambulances, parked up with their heaters running. I kid you not they were pretty noisy, louder than a 2KW Honda generator would be.
Wish I had taken some footage with audio now, as I was pretty astounded at the discovery.
Les

 

[tonyidle]

I have an Eberspacher engine heater on mine. It has the usual little silencer on the exhaust. And it's as noisy as hell. I wouldn't like to be parked next to me. I do think the little engine heaters are noisier than the larger ones used for main heating.

 

[WESTY66]

I set 22 day and 18 night. I calibrated the thermostat first as per manual. My sensor is at shoulder height centre of van.

Calibrate?? Really?? never knew I had to do that
Sensor?? What sensor, where would I look for mine?? Jeez I have so much to learn, and I thought I was bossing it???

 

[tonyidle]

Calibrate?? Really?? never knew I had to do that
Sensor?? What sensor, where would I look for mine?? Jeez I have so much to learn, and I thought I was bossing it???

The sensor is a small black button around 20mm diameter usually on the side of a locker. Calibration is simply ensuring that the heating control temp reading matches the real temp. The sensors are pretty basic so each one, or any replacement, has to be calibrated. Info is somewhere iin the Alde manual. Hang a digital thermometer near the sensor then adjust the panel reading to match. It's a one-off thing to do unless the sensor fails & has to be replaced.

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[Northernraider]

Hi
Were wild camping in Spain so batteries charge with the sun. But it's also getting cool of a night so
Was thinking we may start using heating (gas) but just talking to some one and they say "we would need to watch the electric as the heat is pump blew round by fans. So if we have a few over cast days may run out of power.
No used the heating except for a test so any ideas is he right
Rob

Yeah he is pretty much

I've the same issue with mine , I can only really get 1 or 2 nights use with the truma heating on before my batteries are too low to run it.

 

[MitchandJenny]

Autotrail Tracker 2014.
Gas fire still in this model so left on low temp at night when needed and fan can be left on tickover set on thermostat when necessary.
Mitch.

 

[Baggydave]

I have an Eberspacher engine heater on mine. It has the usual little silencer on the exhaust. And it's as noisy as hell. I wouldn't like to be parked next to me. I do think the little engine heaters are noisier than the larger ones used for main heating.

We have a Chinese copy I fitted recently. It’s almost totally silent. Maybe somethings wrong with yours?

 

[tonyidle]

We have a Chinese copy I fitted recently. It’s almost totally silent. Maybe somethings wrong with yours?

Well - it works brilliantly and there's no smell so I assume it's OK. You'll read many complaints about noisy Eberspacher heaters. It's very small and unenclosed and it is the water heating variety - not that I know whether that should make any difference.

 

[Baggydave]

Well - it works brilliantly and there's no smell so I assume it's OK. You'll read many complaints about noisy Eberspacher heaters. It's very small and unenclosed and it is the water heating variety - not that I know whether that should make any difference.

Ah! ours is just a heater, 5kw, & is enclosed under the bed with vents in & out. But even outside it’s very quiet, just the clicking of the little diesel pump.

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[gus-lopez]

How noisy are your diesel heaters guys? I mention this as a few weeks back whilst outside a hospital near London, I happened to walk past a row of Private company ambulances, parked up with their heaters running. I kid you not they were pretty noisy, louder than a 2KW Honda generator would be.
Wish I had taken some footage with audio now, as I was pretty astounded at the discovery.
Les

Maybe they don't have the silencers?

We have a Chinese copy I fitted recently. It’s almost totally silent. Maybe somethings wrong with yours?

As is mine. I used it the other week whilst in Plymounth & even leaving it on during the night I certainly couldn't hear it.

 

[Baggydave]

Maybe they don't have the silencers?

As is mine. I used it the other week whilst in Plymounth & even leaving it on during the night I certainly couldn't hear it.

Maybe they were generators?

 

[tonyidle]

Mine is like the ones used on the ambulances. It does have a silencer (the size of two 10 packs of fags). Maybe it's an amplifier?

 

[DL42846]

I have an older Truma Combi Boiler on My Dethleffs and My previous Burstner. Yes they are hungry on 12V blown air heating.
I have fitted a Chinese 8KW diesel air heater now and will only use the combi gas boiler for hot water.
I have fitted 2 exhaust silencers on the chinese heater to make it a bit quieter outside.

I have done the same thing. My Truma heating system doesn't seem very effective when the temperature falls below -1 C I find the Chinese diesel heater works very well and doesn't seem to use much power from the batteries once the van is up to temperature. The heater goes into tick over mode just ticks over. I have left ours on overnight several times with no problems. We wild camp most of the time so hardly ever on EHU. In our previous van the Truma worked better. I spent four nights in Cologne in -8c with a heavy cloud cover for four days before our 110 amp battery went flat. Now I just use the Truma for the hot water and the diesel heater for heating.

 

[EuroTrotters]

You don't say what type of heating you have but if it's a Truma Combi it's a myth that they take a lot of power.
They draw about 5-6 amps on start up with the fan running full chat, once the van is up to temp they draw less than 1 amp.

I agree, uses very little 12v power once heated up.

Though ALDE owners will disagree

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