Alde control - battery backup

+1

It should be standard fit, but for £20ish it is a no brainier just from the point of view convenience. 

Agree, though ours is wired direct to the van battery, rather than using a battery pack.

I don't think that I could be faffed setting up the time. Theoretically it would be useful for 4 days out of 5 whilst away I suppose. However Heating is not turned down at a specific time. When away OH may go to bed either 10pm or as late as 11.30pm. 

in the morning the heating is turned up when I get up. That is anytime between 5.30am and 6.45am. Turned down when we go out if it is cold out and up when we return. (off in summer probably). 

Do you have Alde heating ET?

If so it is well worth IMO to get to grips wit the night set back thing.

We set ours up to step down to 13 degrees at about 11pm, then step up to 18 degrees in the morning.

For us, morning starts at about 7am.

Otherwise we set it manually when we go out

The battery back up saves the time settings, and the power monitor  is also useful IMO.

Yes K. We have Alde. Love it. Just that I can see no point in setting the clock when we want to turn it up and down at different times everyday. In the evening it is often set for 21c or 22c depending how bad my spine is. When OH decides to retire I often make up her front bench seat whilst she is getting ready for bed. I will either open the caravan door or the main roof light wide (depending on weather) and turn the heating down to 16C. We use sleeping bags and only use the lightest summer weight ones usually fully unzipped.

When I wake up I will put heating up to si and off to shower to give the heating a chance to warm up by the time I have had shower, beard trim etc and probably watched any local birds. So I want the heating on when I get up, not when I might get up as it varies. I get up as soon as I wake. Can be any time from 5.45 to 7.00 as a rule.  

I think that you are missing out on one of the best features of the control panel. Taking your example you say you can get up anytime between 5.45 to 7 00am so set it to come on at 7.  If on a given day you get up earlier you simply increase the temp like you are already doing.  For this to be worth while you do need the backup imho because you don't want to have to reset all the settings every time you go out.  Overnight ours is set to 15C so if it's very cold it may come for a short time to keep the temp up. 

Our last van had the Truma ultra heat system, without the time clock the Alde system doesn't offer any significant advantage with it, it is for us a great system. 

" For this to be worth while you do need the backup imho because you don't want to have to reset all the settings every time you go out."

But with my Alde, the older 3010, that is not the case without a battery back-up. The only setting lost is the clock's time setting; all the tedious other settings are retained without the need to have the battery backup. Realistically setting the time on arrival does not present much of a challenge, what 20 to 30 seconds?

I have though now fitted a battery back-up lead though yet to get away to use it. I agree it is a pity it is not a standard fit, but living without it for ten years was nowhere near the difficulty some paint the picture of having "to reset all the settings every time."

My mistake, I hadn't realised that it was only the clock that was reset.  However I do think that a lot of people use the system in the way that EasyT describes. To me that seems like driving a Porsche and never getting out of 3rd gear. (Other opinions are available 😀)

Not sure what version ours is, but as with Ocsid we have to reset the clock when we move sites, plus reset the overnight setting to on, as this reverts to off. It does not seem to matter if I leave the 12 volt circuit on or not. Plugging in the car seems to switch it off. The whole process only takes about I minute, so to date I have not got round to fitting a back up. 

I agree given the £2000+ cost of the whole installation it does seem penny pinching not to fit it as standard. However, that is a mode the manufacturers seem well entrenched in. Why else fill it with 2 year rather than 5 year fluid, which saves them a few pence.

Ours is also the 3010, and all the times for other features were retained, only the actual day and time were lost, plus as Steve said the night time feature got turned off.

Having the back up prevents that.

However, as ours is wired to the van battery, if  the battery is disconnected then we lose them.

Steve, the habitation relay in the van automatically cuts the 12v when being towed, you cannot prevent it.