Alde V Blown air consumption (1 Viewer)

[haganap]

Anyone any experience of the above?

My new wagon has Alde heating and I am interested to know the difference in consumption from those that have experience.

 

[pappajohn]

Come on Paul......more details.
Do you mean an Alde wet radiator system or an underfloor installation
You obviously mean gas consumption or possibly 12v but against what......blown air, old style convection, Bunsen burner, catalytic heater.
Huh....just read the title so that narrows it down a bit

 

[Kim H]

Having just changed to a van with Alde, Anthony thinks that the difference in consumption is negligible, although it takes more gas to bring the van up to temperature from a cold start (we don't have an Alde heat exchanger). Once it's reached your desired temperature it seems really efficient consumption wise.

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[haganap]

sorry @pappajohn I have a bad finger so am being lazy.. .I am talking about Alde Heating via rads and talking about gas consumption....

 

[funflair]

I believe the Alde is a lot more efficient as far as 12v power is concerned, I would have thought gas wise heat was heat so not much to choose between the two, you will find that the N+B heats all the locker spaces underfloor and garage so your bikes will be toasty and the garage makes a good drying area for your wet gear on that basis it may use a little more gas.

Have you got the heat exchanger.

Martin

 

[Robert Clark]

We’ve had both and not noticed any difference in fuel consumption, however the van feels warmer and more cosy with Alde. Plus if you’ve got the optional engine heat exchanger, you can heat the whole van and the hot water for free whilst driving - Truma can’t do that

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[pappajohn]

sorry @pappajohn I have a bad finger so am being lazy.. .I am talking about Alde Heating via rads and talking about gas consumption....

I know you were mate.

 

[Floydster]

Echo what has been said and a big plus for the heat exchanger. Wouldn't want a van without Alde heating now, it's a much better type of heating, and doesn't use anymore gas in my opinion.

 

[DuxDeluxe]

Having just changed to a van with Alde, Anthony thinks that the difference in consumption is negligible, although it takes more gas to bring the van up to temperature from a cold start (we don't have an Alde heat exchanger). Once it's reached your desired temperature it seems really efficient consumption wise.

I’d agree with that. The underfloor heating is wonderful and once up to heat does not seem to use excessive gas

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[canopus]

We were away over New Year (5 nights) and we had a few very cold nights when we left the Alde heating on low over night. The heating was on every day in our A class which is 7.9 Mts long - we used 14 ltrs of gas for heating, hot water and fridge over the 5 days which equates to less than £10.00 on our refillable Gaslow system.

 

[Snowbird]

My RMB 760 had the Alde wet system with underfloor and radiators. It had the engine heat exchanger so during cold weather you could warm the van whilst driving. Once the van has warmed up it takes very little gas to keep it warm in a well insulated van. The Alde pump that pumps the water round is tiny compared to a conventional fan on gas heating so uses little or no 12 volt power. If the van is cold, it does take longer to warm up with the Alde system.

 

[Wagoneer]

Slightly off topic, but there do appear to be hidden costs associated with the Alde system.

Every 5 years (or it may even be every 3 years) the system needs to be flushed and replaced with special non-corrosive fluid. There is a UK Alde service centre somewhere in the Midlands. Probably best to allow at least £30 per year if you have the system replenished at the Alde service centre. Failure to have the system regularly serviced can lead to very expensive bills if affected by corrosion involving ripping out the pipework and replacing. I know someone who bought secondhand where the system had not been serviced and the dealer was left with a £10k bill.

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[funflair]

It's just standard long life antifreeze for alloy engines and easy to change yourself, when I asked the Alde guy (at one of the shows) about servicing they said "nothing to do" but you could get the fluid tested or just change it, I changed it, you should drain a bit of hot water (fresh not heating) off now and again as the systems needs a cushion of air in the top.

Martin

 

[old-mo]

If it has a heat exchange from the engine.. Being N/B I should imagine it has..

If you can plug in at home and put it on full a couple of hours before you set of...

Then while mobile to your camp site venue the engine keeps an already hot system topped up and when you arrive it is only a short time to bring right up to hottest mode..

I know what I mean...

 

[funflair]

If it has a heat exchange from the engine.. Being N/B I should imagine it has..

If you can plug in at home and put it on full a couple of hours before you set of...

Then while mobile to your camp site venue the engine keeps an already hot system topped up and when you arrive it is only a short time to bring right up to hottest mode..

I know what I mean...

I think I know what you mean, the heat exchanger is on the option list for N+B vans so they don't all have it.

Martin

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[icantremember]

First time we tried the heat exchanger I had the panel temperature set too high .... we were soon stripping off and opening windows!

 

[mojo]

Set at 30 deg on heat exchanger,from 10 pm to 5 am at 18 deg and 5 am to 10 pm at 23 deg.Perfect .Takes average 8 litres per 24 hrs in winter including the fridge and cooking.
We use Gaslow and find many Repsol garages provide it here in Espania.

 

[Wagoneer]

We use Gaslow and find many Repsol garages provide it here in Espania.

Are you saying you can fill up Gaslow cylinders at a Repsol garage?

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[Daveg]

Are you saying you can fill up Gaslow cylinders at a Repsol garage?

We do without any issues.

Dave

 

[mojo]

Yes but I always need to borrow a Spanish adaptor to fit my French one.

 

[martin2603]

When on site it’s gas for the initial warm then switches to electricity. The last.M H had Truma 6 combi. Would not go back to it.

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[jongood]

Hi Paul

If this is the N&B, have you been shown how to use the heat exchanger?

For those that dont know, there is usually a washing machine type valve on it( so you can shut it off in the summer) and a circulation pump switch and you need to set the controller on electric with the temp high enough to trigger. It sounds complicated but easy enough when you get used to it.

Its fantastic when you re travelling in the winter because it warms everything and keeps it warm and gives hot water. So when you arrive it only needs keeping up.

I do agree Alde takes a long time to come up to temp from cold. We find its better to leave it on a low setting and then turn it up when you want it, or people have fitted programmers.

Hope you love your new MH
Jon

 

[SpeedyDux]

The purpose of a central heating system is to replace heat that is lost. Once the MH interior is up to your desired temperature the gas consumption is determined by the rate of heat loss so insulation and prevention of cold spots and drafts is what governs your rate of gas consumption. Unless there are major differences in energy efficiency between Alde's boilers and the Truma ones the difference in terms of gas consumption should be minimal. That's the theory, anyway.

The big perceived difference is going to be the speed at which the interior warms up from a cold start. Blown air systems do this faster than ones using radiators which only convect or radiate heat. My first house had a blown air CH gas fired boiler and it was like having a big fan heater in every room so the house felt warm in under 5 minutes from switching it on. A bit like a giant Truma system.

 

[peterc10]

We had Truma in our first van and we were happy with it. The present van has the Alde system fitted and I was a bit worried about it at first, to the point that I actually posted a thread on here before we committed to it. We are not worried anymore and we would never go back to Truma now. The Alde is so much cosier that the Truma. I think that is because the Alde heats the fabric of the moho whereas the Truma just heats the air. We have the heat exchanger and it keeps the whole interior of the moho toasty when we are driving and warms the water, without using any gas.

We do not have the underfloor system but Hymer have installed convectors at various places in the double floor, so that helps keep the floor warm. The one we like the best is the one under the shower tray. It really is nice stepping onto a warm shower tray in the morning.

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[CazPaul]

We had 3 heating systems in our Hymer S class 820, wet system was never used as we just used the blown air, so much easier we felt.

 

[zac]

I have something on my Rapido 10000 i.e. it is to the right of the steering wheel and it is a knob that you turn 180 degrees, it has no display on it but it does send heat to the rads from the engine. not sure about it heating the water though as never thought to try it but it does do something to heat the rads. Is this the same thing as you are talkig about i.e. heat exchanger as someone mentioned a setting on it to a certain degree c....?

in our last 2 MH's we had truma and after having ALDE heating i would never go back, no need for silver screens anymore as it is always nice and warm everywhere in the MH. It does take a while to start up though and get warm. Be nice if i could control it remotely

 

[bigtwin]

We had 3 heating systems in our Hymer S class 820, wet system was never used as we just used the blown air, so much easier we felt.

I think I know what you mean; the switch on our wet system was a right bu**er to operate!

Ian

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[CazPaul]

I think I know what you mean; the switch on our wet system was a right bu**er to operate!

Ian

Yes, but just like the simple, easy things in life, turn a know, instant heat, sling the chocks down and get somewhere near level.
We also had an expensive levelling system on it that was never ever used.

 

[jongood]

We had 3 heating systems in our Hymer S class 820, wet system was never used as we just used the blown air, so much easier we felt.

better or easier is a simple choice for me. better and easier might tempt me though.

 

[peterc10]

better or easier is a simple choice for me. better and easier might tempt me though.

Without knowing what wet and blown systems @CazPaul had it is difficult to comment. We find that our Alde Compact 3020 easier to use than the Truma Combi 6 we had before. Simple touch screen display shows exactly what is happening and press one button and you get to the settings menu that shows everything we normally need to change. Not sure it could be much easier. And we find that the Alde is much better at maintaining an even temperature than the Truma.

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