No Power To Either Shower In House

griffin100

I have two Triton T90 showers in the house. One of them started running cold yesterday with no hot water flowing. I had a spare TCO that was never used before so I replaced this to see if this would fix the issue (I've done this before with no problems) and when I turned the power back on at the board neither shower was getting any power at all. I disconnected the repaired shower from the mains just to see if the second shower would power up but it wouldn't. Is it likely that the MCB has failed and if so what could have caused this? Board and all MCB's are about 20 years old.

John.G

You have/should have a non priority relay which doesn't allow the second shower to start once you are using one, or a priority relay which does as it states, if the non priority shower is running, then when you start the priority one, the non priority one switches off, more than likely you have non priority switching so maybe post a photo of your CU showing these relays.

tomhammer..

You might have tripped an rcbo working on the shower with power off , hard to say

At least try resetting whatever it is u turned off

John.G

Heres the info I have (probably from here), if non priority then only one sensing relay, I think??.

Priority Shower Switching.docx

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878480#Comment_121878480

When you say CU do you mean the control unit for the shower mounted on the bathroom ceiling or the distribution board? The Board is below.

Seth Brundle

Your showers don't look as if they are on that panel. I'd expect to see another panel then with something like mine (or John.G's above)...

This contains a trip switch for each shower and a mechanism to prevent overload of the main fuse if/when both showers are on.

Seth Brundle

(off topic)

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121878480#Comment_121878480

Ours only kicks in when the thermostat in both is above a certain level therefore preventing the overload. It took our electrician a while to figure this out.

We still follow the principle of only one shower on at a time, to be sure to be sure.

John.G

The CU (consumer Unit) is what you have shown, it shows a 32A MCB for the shower(s), a 9kw shower draws over 39A, the 32A is marginal at best but thats not your problem just now, its shown in the tripped condition??, can you post a photo of this control unit mounted in the ceiling, is it just a pull cord?.

tomhammer..

That's only a B32 which isn't ideal anyway

At a guess you've a control board fired in the attic or hot press

Chances are you tripped the RCD/RCBO shorting N-E with power off or it has simply tripped

At a guess

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879021#Comment_121879021

I left it in the trip position myself. The control unit in the bathroom is a pull cord. That pull cord had been acting up recently with getting stuck. If this were damaged would that impact power flowing to both showers and not just the local shower?

The only other panel I know off is the one for the garage below and I don't see a shower controller in that.

I will check the attic this evening to see if there is a control panel fitted there.

Could it be something as simple as the MCB in the main board malfunctioning?

tomhammer..

The board above is a priority board

RCD/rcbo is off

You're saying that's the garage board ?

tomhammer..

That's your shower board in the pic above with RCD off

greasepalm

I have a pull chord for each shower in the room , i know 1 has a faulty switch as can power on but not off unless i have a ladder to flick it off.

I would have imagined both are independent of each other.

I have a led on the ceiling telling me power on or off.

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879175#Comment_121879175

Yes, the RCD on the left of that Board only affects the garage so I assumed that this whole box was just for the garage (there is a second box inside the garage itself) but now I see now that the RCD on the right has tripped.

I got my wife to reset that switch showing red and the shower MCB on the main panel but still no joy.

I will check for another control panel in the attic but I don't recall ever seen one there.

Just on the issue of the ceiling pull cord, if that were broken an power wasn't flowing through it would that impact on both showers? Is the power to both showers from a single circuit that if broken anywhere would cut the power to both showers?

tomhammer..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879236#Comment_121879236

That's a shower board above anyhow not a garage board

griffin100

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879251#Comment_121879251

Thanks, that makes sense as I'm pretty sure I have no other panels in the house. Not sure why the garage works off it as well.

I'll replace the pull cord on the bathroom ceiling tonight and see if that helps as well as resetting all the switches I can find.

tomhammer..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121879307#Comment_121879307

They've probably looped off the shower board for the garage

Not great You've a few issues here

The issue above garage/shed and shower isolator issue you said

Also B32 MCB is undersized. Time to call in a REC.

John.G

The pull cord switch only should supply one shower, if the unbroken pull cord is pulled to the on position a LED should be illuminated and a little mechanical indicator that shows Off should have disappeared.

griffin100

Thanks for all the help, got it sorted tonight.

Learned today that the little fuse box in fact does not control the garage (don’t know how I got that idea), it controls the showers.

I also learned that a red indicator on that RCD means it’s working fine.

I replaced the pull cord unit that was damaged (looks like I had broken the live connection into it when I yanked it out of the ceiling last night 🙄) and I replaced the TCO on the shower that had been running cold and all is well now.

Luckily for me given I had a line of mucky kids post training waiting for showers this evening!!

Once again thanks all for the advice, everyday is a school day!!

tomhammer..

I think only a REC allowed work in a bathroom

Those

diy shower connections dont always stand up

There's so many of them simply not tightened sufficiently and you're back to fix it again