House with Solar Panels and Oil- what type of showers?

canogadub

The house we moved into has solar panels and oil central heating. There are two broken electric showers (one in main bathroom and one in en suite). Currently we are using a shower head plugged into the bath for shower - which is pretty rubbish. When the solar panels are working they provide the hot water but otherwise we need to turn on central heating for the whole house to heat water for the shower.

Grateful for recommendations as to what type of showers we should replace the defunct electric showers with. Should we just upgrade with new electric showers? Or are there other showers which would utilise hot water from solar panels when available but when no solar panel heated water available can heat the water for the shower without the need to turn on the central heating for the whole house.

punisher5112

Get one electric shower.

That way you aren't running the heating.

Is there no option to just heat the hot water though?

Water John

The solar panels should do for 8 months of the year and more. If the oil can be isolated to heat the top of the cylinder, that would be the next cheapest option for the rest of the year.

canogadub

Unfortunately not - its a pretty old heating system. Eventually we will need to upgrade it but until we can afford to that it would be great to just be able to have proper showers that we can stand underneath.

Shefwedfan

canogadub wrote: »

Unfortunately not - its a pretty old heating system. Eventually we will need to upgrade it but until we can afford to that it would be great to just be able to have proper showers that we can stand underneath.

Get a shower off the hot water if possible

Sleeper12

One electric shower for when you don't have hot water & one power shower off the solar is the perfect solution

strandsman

I thought you could get a combi type shower. I have solar which is no good in winter so then I need an electric. but having both in a 900mm shower is tight i reckon.

Sleeper12

strandsman wrote:

I thought you could get a combi type shower. I have solar which is no good in winter so then I need an electric. but having both in a 900mm shower is tight i reckon.

Put both on the same wall. One above the other. It will be no tighter with two than with one

strandsman

ya just searching for a shower unit that will cater for water from solar tank in summer and a cold supply in winter. I would have thought that one would be on the market. If you had a hot/cold supply in and when theres insufficient hot water a heater in the shower kicks in!!

strandsman

my oil boiler heats the water in the solar tank in the winter but is that expensive to heat water??

Sleeper12

strandsman wrote:

ya just searching for a shower unit that will cater for water from solar tank in summer and a cold supply in winter. I would have thought that one would be on the market. If you had a hot/cold supply in and when theres insufficient hot water a heater in the shower kicks in!!

The average lifespan of an electric shower is 10. The average lifespan of a cartridge shower/bar mixer is 20ish years. It wouldn't make sense to make a combo shower. It would be expensive & have a 10 year lifespan

mickdw

Solar should give lots of hot water for at least 6 months of the year.
The other 6 months will likely need heating to be on for some period each day anyway so should have a ready supply of water from the heating.
Id fit power showers as you should have enough hot water.