How cold is too cold for electric AH?

[buddy110]

Originally Posted by kgchampagne

Buddy, I can understand how this can be confusing. I don't know exactly how yours is set up, or what the switch on the wall says, but the electric water (switch) heats the coolant in the Aqua Hot tank. If you set your thermo to use the AH for heat, you will have heat that is being generated from the electric element. Try running the system with your burner off, and your electric on....you will have heat coming from your heat exchangers....thus...electric heat. The only thing the thermostat does is send a signal to the zone pump and the heat exchanger fans, it doesn't care which heat source was selected on the AH.

Will try

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by buddy110

Will try

Part of your confusion is because much of the information on how to use the system prior to the 2017 models is irrelevant to your 2018. Forget about zones and gas versus electric. The Vegatouch makes using the HVAC system very easy.

There are two Aquahot buttons on the home page and on the HVAC page - one says electric, one says diesel. These turn the heat sources on and off. Forget about water versus heat - they're the same thing. The Aquahot system prioritizes water so if Aquahot heat is on and you turn on the hot water the Aquahot blowers will shut off to ensure the water stays hot.

Personally, my system is set to never use the heat pumps. They're noisy, don't work below about 45 degrees and will blow cold air in some circumstances - they're just not needed. Turn them off on the HVAC page by touching the icon near the bottom.

Generally, I only use the Manual setup page, but the Schedule Page works well if you're going to be away from the coach for an extended time. I choose my front settings, press Sync All to set the mid and rear to the same settings and then tweak the settings as necessary.

[Victory Blue]

Originally Posted by wa8yxm

Most RV's are only rated to around 20 degrees. Much lower than that and things start to freeze (Fresh water system and possibly even the waste water ssytems though that can go a bit colder)

The Aqua Hot is goign to keep working far lower than that. as it is heated. HOWEVER.. the air will get less and less warm if you go too low.. But I don't think you will ever go that low less you blow out your water lines and drain all (other) tanks.

The Aquahot boiler fluid lines in the Entegra go around the tanks to keep them warm. Plus, the basement temperature can be set so the Aquahot blows hot air into the basement. Basement freezing isn't an issue unless the Aquahot system fails.

[Magic-carpet]

Originally Posted by Tall Tex

This past October while at Middlebury for AIR/PDI I learned from PJ that if you have the burner on and you set the thermostats for electric heat (heat pumps on) and the ambient temperature drops below the capability of the AC units, the system will automatically switch to gas heat. This is a feature I did not know we have. I have struggled with using the heat pump setting when the weather forecast was calling for lows around 40 degrees because I didn’t want to have to change the setting in the middle of the night. I’m anxious to try this out.

On the 17's and VT they changed this up and created an "Auto On" for the AH burner. I'm not sure I like this because it could start the burner in a location you don't want it running in such as a storage building. You would have to have the heat pumps selected for this to occur. This happened yesterday to us. We installed a new component to communicate with the dash Xite system and while testing that out and playing with the temperature setting for the two front units it started the heat pumps and then a few minutes later it fired up the AH burner. Once you are aware of what it does, its okay but its not good if someone just fiddles with the xite system an unknowingly sets it in motion and walks away.

[buddy110]

Originally Posted by Victory Blue

Part of your confusion is because much of the information on how to use the system prior to the 2017 models is irrelevant to your 2018. Forget about zones and gas versus electric. The Vegatouch makes using the HVAC system very easy.

There are two Aquahot buttons on the home page and on the HVAC page - one says electric, one says diesel. These turn the heat sources on and off. Forget about water versus heat - they're the same thing. The Aquahot system prioritizes water so if Aquahot heat is on and you turn on the hot water the Aquahot blowers will shut off to ensure the water stays hot.

Personally, my system is set to never use the heat pumps. They're noisy, don't work below about 45 degrees and will blow cold air in some circumstances - they're just not needed. Turn them off on the HVAC page by touching the icon near the bottom.

Generally, I only use the Manual setup page, but the Schedule Page works well if you're going to be away from the coach for an extended time. I choose my front settings, press Sync All to set the mid and rear to the same settings and then tweak the settings as necessary.

Exactly. This is how I understand the system. From the previous posts it appeared that an electric boiler option was available. I too don't use the heat pumps, only the AC /AH as needed. With todays high efficiency heat pump technology, you would think higher end motorhomes would use them. My brothers household Mitsubishi HP's are 90% efficient to 0 degrees. Even my Trane is good to 25. Sheesh!

[Magic-carpet]

Originally Posted by buddy110

Exactly. This is how I understand the system. From the previous posts it appeared that an electric boiler option was available. I too don't use the heat pumps, only the AC /AH as needed. With todays high efficiency heat pump technology, you would think higher end motorhomes would use them. My brothers household Mitsubishi HP's are 90% efficient to 0 degrees. Even my Trane is good to 25. Sheesh!

Buddy, There is a heating element in the Aqua Hot, it does heat the water for use at the sinks and showers, and it also will heat the floor and the registers. Its only good down to a certain point but its all we run in the storage building to keep the coach from freezing up. This is the "electric boiler" part of the AH.

The other "electric option" is the heat pumps on the roof/ac units. As others have said, that's only good to about 45F and then its blowing cold air.

[Gary.Jones]

Don’t you just love how clear this all is to everyone!

And secondly, everyone needs to have a signature on each of their posts so everyone knows what equipment they own and are using, and then thirdly, those of us that comment need to be aware that our set-up is not necessarily the OP’s set up and withhold our comments unless the OP is using the same equipment.

And finally, a real owners manual that would fully discuss the operation and interaction of our systems would be a great help and nn excellent task to assign to someone in Middlebury to honcho (PJ for example). A manual that explains would be a big step forward ( but might make this forum less essential) (videos are nice, but an owners manual would be nicer).

Gary

[FOSJ]

Ditto!

[Dieselgem]

Originally Posted by Gary.Jones

Don’t you just love how clear this all is to everyone!

And secondly, everyone needs to have a signature on each of their posts so everyone knows what equipment they own and are using, and then thirdly, those of us that comment need to be aware that our set-up is not necessarily the OP’s set up and withhold our comments unless the OP is using the same equipment.

And finally, a real owners manual that would fully discuss the operation and interaction of our systems would be a great help and nn excellent task to assign to someone in Middlebury to honcho (PJ for example). A manual that explains would be a big step forward ( but might make this forum less essential) (videos are nice, but an owners manual would be nicer).

Gary

Gary,
I accidentally replied and then deleted a reply to this post which was meant for another similar issue. There is another op having issues with a 13 Aspire's aquahot that evidently was updated, I assume midyear. Which is a whole other set of issues. His setup is different that what I had on my previous "13" Aspire. But your idea's here are right only. But as I put in my deleted post, I would prefer the forum on a rainy night or anytime , when I have a problem in which my safety or the the coach could be compromised. I've added "Classic" to my sig following Brobox, it is also a good idea.

[hdgoldie]

Well...a question from the gallery here. And please remember this is a non-mechanically inclined gallery. Moving from our Classic Aspire with LP to a new Aspire with the diesel - do the new Aspires with their smaller AQ unit still circulate heat from the engine since it is a diesel model? I haven't seen any reference to that in any of the manuals that we have been reading. And that could be because my eyes had glazed over by the time we got to that section....[emoji849].

And a second question - does my signature show up when I post (as now) from my iPad. I know that it's there when I use the computer but I don't see any signatures from any posting when I use the iPad. TIA

[757driver]

Originally Posted by hdgoldie

Well...a question from the gallery here. And please remember this is a non-mechanically inclined gallery. Moving from our Classic Aspire with LP to a new Aspire with the diesel - do the new Aspires with their smaller AQ unit still circulate heat from the engine since it is a diesel model? I haven't seen any reference to that in any of the manuals that we have been reading. And that could be because my eyes had glazed over by the time we got to that section....[emoji849].

And a second question - does my signature show up when I post (as now) from my iPad. I know that it's there when I use the computer but I don't see any signatures from any posting when I use the iPad. TIA

Rick,

No, the 400D does not have the engine pre heat loop.

Yes, your signature is showing up.

[hdgoldie]

It's Linda (aka Goldie) - I was reading the thread and got curious. Thanks for the response!

[voltdoc]

Originally Posted by hdgoldie

Well...a question from the gallery here. And please remember this is a non-mechanically inclined gallery. Moving from our Classic Aspire with LP to a new Aspire with the diesel - do the new Aspires with their smaller AQ unit still circulate heat from the engine since it is a diesel model? I haven't seen any reference to that in any of the manuals that we have been reading. And that could be because my eyes had glazed over by the time we got to that section....[emoji849].

And a second question - does my signature show up when I post (as now) from my iPad. I know that it's there when I use the computer but I don't see any signatures from any posting when I use the iPad. TIA

Yep, the 400D in the Aspire's has no preheat loop, also no dedicated stir pump. But other than that the "size" is the same as the 450D, same burner, tank, etc. It provides the same heat output, just doesn't have all the bells and whistles.

[hdgoldie]

With the problems some have experienced...maybe not having all the bells and whistles will be a good thing. Our LP version was trouble free - and didn't require the big annual service. The only issue we had was a kink in the line - the AQ worked great, it just couldn't send the fluid to the back of the coach. Ted Cook turned out to be the only one that could solve that one.