Shower Switch Location

[Stuart]

My present electric shower is presently powered by a 45 A Fused Connection Unit near to the CU and then has a pullcord switch mounted near the shower . As part of my bathroom renovation I am putting in 10mm cable and will either replace the existing 6mm or juust leave it in place for future use to avoid any upheaval ,probably the former . What I was wondering ( but not necessarily adopting) was whether the pullcord switch is really necessary .Could the shower not be operated by using the switch on the FCU when the shower was to be used ?....just a thought .

Stuart

[Mungo]

Dunno Stuart, but if I remember correctly the pull switch has to have a mechanical indicator whether it is ON or OFF, so in my books that means it is essential as far as the regulations are concerned.

Mungo

[Stuart]

Thx Mungo .What I was thinking of was you can have a wall switch outside the bathroom ...which presumably has ON/OFF indications.... but so does my FCU switch .I can understand the neeed for an inbetween switch when the supply comes direct from the CU as there would be no such switch with those indications .

Stuart

[John White]

You need an isolator between the supply and your shower unit. This is a very specific sort of switch. Regulation 537-02-02 has the details but in this case you need a suitably rated switch that breaks both the Live and Neutral conductors and which has a mechanical indicator showing when an appropriate contact gap has been achieved.

The switch on your FCU might be such an isolator - the pull switch will almost certainly be one. It's also considered good practice to put the isolator where it can be supervised by anybody working on the circuit in order to guard against the equipment being switched on while it is being worked on.

The use of a MCB in the consumer unit as a means of switching equipment on and off is discouraged.

John

[Stuart]

I've just realised that I misled you by saying FCU when I mean a Wylex type 104

45 A Switchfuse like this one only it is lower rated .I'm not sure that it is DP as I can't see that either on the unit or in any description .It had the original cartridge fuse replaced by an MCB

[John White]

I would still keep the pull switch.

John

[Christian McArdle]

The switch needs to be close enough to the shower so that someone working on the shower can supervise it (i.e. preventing some muppet turning it on). Alternatively, the switch must be lockable in the off position.

If the switch is by the consumer unit and not lockable, any electrician working on the shower could get a nasty surprise when Ethel comes home and flicks the switch.

Christian.

[Billy The Kid ( The Original )]

Not strictly true, isolation of a circuit should be made at the CU if working on a circuit, it should be isolated means of a method stated in BS7671. With regards to the Electricity at work regulations 1989.

Many showers have wall mounted switches, these are usually mounted outside the bathroom, how would you monitor that when working on the circuit..

DONT GIVE OUT ADVICE UNLESS YOU KNOW WHAT U TALKING ABOUT.

IS THE BEST PLACE TO GET ADVICE.

Information concerning your queries can be found there.

[Bob Eager]

LOL!!!

[John White]

I don't normally comment on this sort of thing, but wasn't the original Billy the Kid a cowboy ?

Perhaps you could tell us the correct way to do this then. I always like to learn from an expert.

In precisely the same way that you would monitor any other circuit you were working on where the control switch was out of sight.

No need to shout,.

Could you please point out where the answer to the original poster's question can be found on the NICEIC web site. A URL would be nice.

Thank you

John

[Christian McArdle]

I'm not deaf, so I can hear if someone is walking past the nearby door.

I'm not deaf, so don't use caps.

You seem to take strong offence to the advice that I've given out, yet have failed to mention anything wrong with it. Could you be specific as to what was incorrect. My advice was that the isolator for a shower should either be close enough to the appliance to be supervised, or alternatively have facilities for locking in the off position. Please point out why this advice is dangerous.

Christian.

[Andrew Gabriel]

What's not true? Please learn to quote properly so we know what you're talking about.

The shower isolator is for the _appliance_, not the _circuit_.

That's a question for you to answer. Christian already answered it in the posting which you are following up, so if you somehow missed the answer, try reading it again.

That's really good advice for you to follow. For your information, Christian's post which you are following up is exactly and precisely correct in every respect.

It's one source of information, but your reference is rather useless unless you can point to a more detailed URL. People here tend to get the information directly from BS7671 though.