electric showers causes lights to dim in bedrooms?

moomoo2

hi I live in a 1940's 3 bed semi...it needs work..we have an electric shower but whenever its turned on the lights in the bedrooms flicker / dim for a few seconds..is this ok? or should we do something about it?
thanks in advance.

Captain Chaos

That's normal. Electric showers draw alot of power, for example if you have a house you two of them they are interlocked so they can't turn on at the same time as the ESB does not provide that much power to a domestic installation. You would blow the local switch fuse at the mains if you tried it and would have to call out the ESB to reset it.

2011

I agree with Captain Chaos, a certain amount of dimming is normal.

When was the house last rewired?

You'd really just want to make sure that your shower has its own source and fuse!!!!!!! After that you can check the age of the wiring and how the lights are wired!!!!!! But the main thing is that your not directly drawing from the lights electricity source!!!

aido79

murraychrisg wrote: »

You'd really just want to make sure that your shower has its own source and fuse!!!!!!! After that you can check the age of the wiring and how the lights are wired!!!!!! But the main thing is that your not directly drawing from the lights electricity source!!!

I'm guessing you're not an electrician? The reason for this in older houses is usually because the incoming cable from the pole is too small for the load. (6 or 10 mmsq instead of 16mmsq) You should be able to ask the Esb to upgrade the cable size.
If the shower was on the same breaker as the lights it would trip as soon as the shower is switched on (assuming they were on a 10amp breaker)

Bruthal

Some dip of voltage is normal with a higher loading, even with up to date cable sizes. Its just more noticable if the supply setup to the premises is too small.