Electric Shower

Iano_128

Hi All,
Sorry if this is something thats been asked before, but at home we have a shower that runs off the immersion, and as I'm sure anyone whose had one knows it's a pain in the arse waiting for water to heat up/water running out mid shower etc etc.

The house is around 25 years old and as far as I know cabling regulations for showers have changed since then, so I'm wondering how much someone thinks it would be, and how much work would be involved in having an electric shower put in? (Shower is upstairs, fuse board is downstairs, cables run through the attic, and immersion is pretty close to the shower).

Also, would the electricity charges take a big jump with the electric shower?

QBE

Iano_128 wrote: »

Hi All,
Sorry if this is something thats been asked before, but at home we have a shower that runs off the immersion, and as I'm sure anyone whose had one knows it's a pain in the arse waiting for water to heat up/water running out mid shower etc etc.

The house is around 25 years old and as far as I know cabling regulations for showers have changed since then, so I'm wondering how much someone thinks it would be, and how much work would be involved in having an electric shower put in? (Shower is upstairs, fuse board is downstairs, cables run through the attic, and immersion is pretty close to the shower).

Also, would the electricity charges take a big jump with the electric shower?

many factors to consider. what kind of heating system (can you just heat hot water?) and what size cylinder have you got?
need to know the above before you can determain the kw usage against an electic shower and cost factors .

John T Carroll

Iano_128 wrote: »

Hi All,
Sorry if this is something thats been asked before, but at home we have a shower that runs off the immersion, and as I'm sure anyone whose had one knows it's a pain in the arse waiting for water to heat up/water running out mid shower etc etc.

The house is around 25 years old and as far as I know cabling regulations for showers have changed since then, so I'm wondering how much someone thinks it would be, and how much work would be involved in having an electric shower put in? (Shower is upstairs, fuse board is downstairs, cables run through the attic, and immersion is pretty close to the shower).

Also, would the electricity charges take a big jump with the electric shower?

"Normal" Electric shower of say 9.5 KW, will supply, depending on the incoming mains temperature, between 4 and 5 Litres/min at 40 to 45C. Irrespective of the water temperatures an electric shower (normal type) has a fixed electrical consumption of 9.5 kw per running hour. The amount of time spent in the shower varies widely for individuals....I have two showers per day but the total time I spend under the shower ( for 2 showers) is less than 5 minutes, at 23 cent/Kwh, this costs the princely sum of (5/60*9.5*23), 18.2 cents/day. If one assumes a 4 person family at 10 mins/shower each (one shower daily) then the cost becomes , (4X10/60*9.5*23), 146 cent or €1.46/day. Now because of the limited power available, a flowrate of 4 to 5 Litres/min cannot be exceeded if one wants a hot shower, the shower heads are all designed with this in mind and the spray pattern can be adjusted to give 3 or 4 or more spray patterns which are all quite pleasant.
On the other hand if one is using hot water from the domestic hot water cylinder, irrespective of how its heated then one can have a shower head designed to give any flow rate desired, the so called "power" shower, which is, I would guess approx 20 litres/min, the hot water delivered then depends on the cylinder capacity and the heating power available (coil etc).
From the above its quite obvious that, for the same time spent under the shower, that the energy consumption is 4 to 5 times that of the electric shower so even if a Nat Gas boiler is used to supply the heat then it is still far more expensive.
In your case, I would get a 5 litre bucket, adjust the shower temp and flowrate to your norm and then simply measure it, you can then work out the flowrate in Litres/min. If the flowrate is approx 5 Litres/min, then CONSIDER installing an Electric shower, but bear in mind that the energy consumption used in heating the cylinder will not be hugely different to the electric shower consumption, it depends on whether you are just using the "top" half (30 to 50 Ltrs) of the dual Immersion, if fitted, or if you are keeping the whole cylinder hot at all times. You must also bear in mind that you will need hot water for other uses....where will you get it if you turn off the cylinder immersion?
Plumbing in an Electric shower is generally, no big deal, but the electrical side can raise all sort of questions, a 9.5 KW electric shower will be drawing around 40 Amps so make sure that you have spare capacity, ie you might have electric night storage heaters which might mean overloading the mains if you decide to have a refreshing shower late at night.
Should also have said that if you think you would be happy with a flowrate of 5 LPM (have a shower in a friends Electric shower) then why not keep your existing set up and fit a shower head that is tailored to your existing pressure to give that 5 LPM. If the existing flowrate is, say, 10 GPM, then the existing shower head will not give the proper spray pattern if you simply throttle the flowrate by whatever means, you can also get the shower head tailored to any flowrate you require, just ensure that the actual water pressure at that flowrate is within spec for the showerhead. JTC