We are currently on holiday on the Red Sea in Egypt (see the C-Map chart below) and have left Old Nick under the watchful eye of friends, back in the U.K.
But even though we are over 3,000 miles away, we can still keep an eye on what’s going on aboard. Which is a good thing because it looks like we are in for a run of cold temperatures in the coming few days.
Using the “Easy Access” app, which is supported by Ortomarine’s unique and very whizzy boat monitoring and control system “Ortomate” – we can check the daily temperature in the interior of the boat and in the engine room from the comfort of our hotel room or the beach.
Having checked the temperatures – currently 8°C and 3°C respectively. – we can set the heating to come on when the cabin temperature dips below 5°C and turn off, once the temperature exceeds that setting.
We can closely monitor this heating pattern, using the clever Victron VRM app, which, although it cannot control Ortomate, provides a very good historical analysis of the data. For instance, we can look at cabin temperature over the last 24, 48hrs or even a whole week’s usage.
We will still monitor things closely to avoid the danger of frozen pipes, but can relax somewhat, knowing that all will be well for our return. Isn’t tech a wonderful thing?
As you can see from the red circle on the screenshot below, this is what happened last night. The temperature dropped below the trigger point we had set, the heating came on and brought the cabin temperature back up to 6°C and the water in the tank (the calorifier) up to 15°C.
Uncanny. I have just done almost exactly the same thing. The only difference was that I set 4C as the temperature threshold! Great minds think almost alike.
With the emphasis on great! 😎
Technology makes life easier sometimes and this is definitely one of those times ! Enjoy your holiday 😀
Indeed it does. X