I'm thinking of doing away with the immersion heater in my bathroom, and getting a power-shower in its place. I'll also have to get a small heater for the wash-basin.
I'm wondering if the power supply to the immersion heater will be suitable, or if this will have to be replaced? It is on its own circuit-breaker.
Any views on the merits of this? The main reason is to give more space, perhaps for a separate shower.
It depends on the size of cable, isolators and the circuit breaker. Most im mersion circuits I have seen have used 2.5 T&E with 20A switches and 15/16A circuit breakers, as long as your instantaneous heater current draw does n ot exceed these parameters then I cannot see a problem. In the UK this inst allation is probably notifiable as the bathroom is considered a special pla ce - do you have Part P in Ireland?
Richard
20A is only ~5kW, which isn't nearly enough for a shower. 7kW is about the smallest you can get IIRC, but that's a bit of a dribble. A 10kW (40A) shower is more reasonable.
Cheers
Unless you want to wash under one of those tiny heaters that dribbles warm water over your hands, you present wiring will be completely inadequate. Existing immersion is probably around 3KW. For an instantaneous heater, 7KW will sort of work in summer but be miserable in winter.
If an immersion heater is your only source of hot water, it's going to be expensive to upgrade. Lots of new wiring needed.
if you have gas, a combi boiler would probably be a better bet for you.
Tim
Syd the OP is talking about running an instant heater for a wash basin not a shower. Mind you the current draw could be similar to an electric shower hence the comment about current draw and cable sizes etc.
Richard
I'm thinking of doing away with the immersion heater in my bathroom, and getting a power-shower in its place. I'll also have to get a small heater for the wash-basin.
Judging by the answers received so far, I think we're all a bit confused by the terminology you have used - and are unclear as to what you
*actually* want to do.I'm not sure whether by "immersion heater" you mean that literally, or the hot tank which it heats. Similarly, I'm not sure whether by "power shower" you mean a shower booster pump for stored hot water, or something which heats the water as it passes through. The questions below should help to clarify the situation.
Do you: a) want to get rid of your hot cylinder - heated by an immersion heater
- and install an electric shower which takes mains cold water and heats it in "real time", or b) want to retain your hot cylinder - heated by some other means (gas?)
- and simply use the existing immersion heater wiring to power a booster pump to give you more flow to the shower?
If the answer is (b), there shouldn't be a problem. However, if the answer is (a), it's extremely unlikely that a circuit designed for a (3kW?) immersion heater will be adequate for a (10kW?) electric shower.
If your motivation is to create extra space, I rather suspect that the answer is (a)!
for a hot tap water heater, yes. to power an electric shower, debateable but probably no.
NT
snipped-for-privacy@gmail.com wrote in news:b709006c-2a46-442d-83dc- snipped-for-privacy@googlegroups.com:
Power Shower is the accepted term for a pump to give additional flow to an existing hot mixed with cold water supply.
I take it you mean an electric shower rather than a power shower (the latter does not heat the water, just pumps it for greater pressure / flow rate)?
You could use the immersion heater feed for that.
Nope, not a chance.
Added to, you will need the exiting feed for your inline basin heater...
Could you cite the cylinder somewhere else? (loft even)
Could you use a combination boiler?
Indeed. And Immersion Heater is the accepted term for the electrical element which fits inside a hot water cylinder to heat the water.
But I suspect that the OP is talking about an electrically heated shower and a hot water cylinder. [See my earlier post seeking clarification].
If he has hot water storage for the pumped shower why can't he use the same source (un-pumped) for the basin hot tap?
Unless he *does* mean an electric shower after all, in which case he will need a new cable to the CU.
Over to you OP.
You could use something like this which will do a shower and a basin:
Not 'warrantied' for baths or 'large kitchen sinks'.
Owain
It's not called Part P but I think it is more or less equivalent: "It is illegal for anyone other than a Registered Electrical Contractor (REC) to carry out electrical work in your home. Minor electrical works such as changing switches, sockets or light fittings are not covered by this legislation."
That is what I meant. I guess that would mean a new wire back to the CU, which would be rather expensive in my case.
Yes, unless you can use a low power unit. Last shower I measured was using 3kW in summer, 4kW in winter, and that should be no problem on an immersion feed. I don't know if you'd need to look at non-shower heaters for that.
NT
it is, but that doesn't make sense here
NT
Apart from hand washing units, where can you get such a low powered shower? My experience of one rated at 7KW was that it could only be described as "barely adequate".
Tim
Not only that, but it would also need a hefty breaker in the CU - and some CUs only have one suitable slot for that, so all of the other wiring could need re-arranging.
Caravan suppliers possibly, intended for use on a 13A / 16A supply.
Come complete with chinese lettering and australian plug :-)
Owain
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