Fitting Solar but my shower is electric..!

richiek67

Hi Folks

I've come up against a bit of a conundrum. I was thinking of getting solar in but now that I think of it my shower in the bathroom is electric. This , I think, kind of scuppers things a bit. I have a shower in the main bedroom, ( just a cubicle type, not an en-suite, we never use it, old house!) and its fed from the hot water tank ok but we never use this.
Now showers use quite a bit of electricity, as we know, but when the solar kicks in I was hoping that this hot water would supply the shower. Surely there must be dual type showers ( electric) that can take both from the tank at the flick of a switch or use the main ( shower in my case is fed from the rising main, ideally would prefer if it was from the tank, any reason why not?? can anyone tell me)
Anyway, I'd be glad of any ideas, advise or anything like that.

Cheers

Rich

heinbloed

There are many 'electric showers' commonly available which are suitable for pre-warmed water.
Read the manual for max. allowed inlet temperature and the recommended pressure and flow rate.

JohnnieK

richiek67 wrote: »

Hi Folks

I've come up against a bit of a conundrum. I was thinking of getting solar in but now that I think of it my shower in the bathroom is electric. This , I think, kind of scuppers things a bit. I have a shower in the main bedroom, ( just a cubicle type, not an en-suite, we never use it, old house!) and its fed from the hot water tank ok but we never use this.
Now showers use quite a bit of electricity, as we know, but when the solar kicks in I was hoping that this hot water would supply the shower. Surely there must be dual type showers ( electric) that can take both from the tank at the flick of a switch or use the main ( shower in my case is fed from the rising main, ideally would prefer if it was from the tank, any reason why not?? can anyone tell me)
Anyway, I'd be glad of any ideas, advise or anything like that.

Cheers

Rich

Mira, Triton do electric showers that take a hot and cold supply. You will still need to run a new hot pipe from the cylinder.

heinbloed

Here for example:

http://www.clage.com/en/product-range/solar-heat/Solartronic.php

Joey the lips

Depending on the flow of water you are looking at something like a power shower. This is where the water is only pumped and not heated.

However if your pressure is strong enough save yourself some money and dont bother with an electric shower. Just get a shower valve.

I am guessing your refered solution would be to have a shower that can detect the temperature of the water coming in and heat it as necessary(ie say its not warm enough) however the t90 is not suitable for this application when solar is involved.

Its been a couple of years since i researched this but if you check out on line catalogues you might find that mira or triton have a shower dedicated to solar.

richiek67

Good thinking Joey. thanks for the other comments too, good advice...
Cheers all:D

Rich