It’s easy to tailor your caravan’s heating, as Nigel Hutson explains
WEEKEND WORKSHOP
I MAKE NO APOLOGIES for being a fan of the Alde heating system. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with the others, but in many respects, the Alde system is more controllable and has more features.
You can add lots of useful accessories, too.
One of the best features of the Alde heating system is the Night Mode. This allows you to input overnight settings, in addition to those for daytime.
For example, you might like the caravan to be a cosy 20°C during the day, but that could be too warm for comfort at night. And there’s really no point in heating the water overnight, especially if you’re running on gas, as you’d hear the burner operating – to say nothing of the wasted energy.
The Night Mode settings can take care of all that, and more. Here’s how to set them up.
Default settings
On the Control Panel, starting from the Home screen, press the Menu button, which will show you the default settings; that is (picture 2, right), temperature set at 20°C, water heater on, and using electricity only, on the 3kW setting.
You don’t need to alter your preferred settings when you set up the Night Mode. You’ll find that whenever you turn off the heating system, it will always return to those settings when you turn it on again.
Touch the Settings icon at the bottom right of the screen, which will take you to page 1 of the Settings.
On page 1, you will see a Moon (night-time) icon at the top left, and next to it a Sun (daytime) icon.
You can ignore the Sun icon and settings. You don’t need to do anything with them, because they are for a different purpose. I have lost count of the times I’ve been asked if the daytime settings need to be set for the night-time setting to work. The answer is a definite no. Do not touch them!
Set temperatures
Touch the Moon icon and you will see the Night Mode menu page displayed. First, set the overnight temperature.
We tend to set ours to 15°C, but you can choose anywhere between 5°C and 30°C; it’s up to you. Touch the Back Arrow (bottom right) to return, and now set the time that you’d like Night Mode to start.
This is when the system will change from your default settings (20°C, water heater on, and so on) to the new chosen night-time settings (15°C in our case). Bearing in mind that the caravan will still be the higher temperature when Night Mode takes over, you might want to set the time to half an hour or so before you go to bed, so that there’s time for the interior to
