Purpose of shower switch

[Clare Snyder]

Most of the world does not use elrctric point of use heater "widowmaker" showers.

[NY]

About the only advantage of a fuse over a circuit breaker is that you can physically remove a fuse and keep it with you while you are working on the appliance, safe in the knowledge that almost certainly no power can be restored. A circuit breaker can be restored to the on position by someone who doesn't know that it is off for a reason.

I heard of a case years ago of a woman who called out an electrician. The electrician turned off one circuit and started work. The husband got home from work, saw that the ring main was off, thought it had tripped and turned it back on. The electrician died even though the RCD tripped within the regulation time, probably because it was an hand-to-hand across-the-chest shock and he had had a heart attack previously which left him more susceptible.

[Steven Watkins]

It's illegal to have an electric shower in the USA? I doubt it.

[Steven Watkins]

The other advantage is no nuisance trips. That's one of the main reasons why I still have fuses in my house. That and I see no point in replacing the consumer unit with circuit breakers. My tradesman neighbour is constantly called out to work out why houses keep tripping for no reason. It's often just something tiny leaking a little bit of current to earth.

So RCDs aren't that good then. Anyway, they don't protect against live to neutral shocks, which is what my neighbour got when he was up a ladder fixing a light. No harm from the electricity (healthy people don't die from 240V), but he did sprain his ankle falling off the ladder.

[Steven Watkins]

But that wrongness isn't so urgent.

Makes even more sense to do the repair properly in the first place.

[George]

The husband must have been a real "maroon".  Apparently seeing the Sparky's Electric Service van in the driveway not a big enough clue? =-O

[Steven Watkins]

Maybe he lived in one of those dodgy areas where nobody has their own driveway, and the electrician was parked some distance away?

And why was someone with a heart condition being an electrician?

[gfretwell]

I don't but when you hire someone, it is usually a good idea to have it inspected. There are plenty of shady contractors out there.

[Rod Speed]

Some do actually.

[Rod Speed]

Can still burn it out so you need a new one and may not do any unfixable damage if you notice it as soon as its switch on and switch it off.

Sure, but most have enough of a clue to realise that they arent perfect.

[Aaron]

Most do allow what are usually called instant electrical hot water heaters on showers as an alternative to stored hot water that is heated electrically.

Widowmakers are a different thing entirely with an electrical element in the shower head itself, with the electrical connections to the element actually in the water. Those are in fact allowed in quite a bit of europe.

[Rod Speed]

Likely because that happened as he got older.

The taxi driver who drove me home from the airport after I had come back from the state capital after having a stent after the heart attack had also had the same.

[devnull]

Christmas is coming up.  I might get one of these for the mother-in-law.

[Steven Watkins]

Why are you in this group if you hire people? Most of us tend to do stuff ourselves. Cheaper, fun, and you get it done the way you want.

Anyway, if I hired someone, I don't care if it meets silly little rules, I just want it to work.

[Steven Watkins]

Bollocks. Funny how I've had several of them, some across the chest.

[Steven Watkins]

You'd have to be pretty stupid to connect it up so it destroyed it.

[Steven Watkins]

His fault for continuing a job he was unfit for.

[hah]

[snip]

You can use HV water as long as you've verified the integrity of your plumbing isolation devices :-)

[Rod Speed]

The don?t actually kill anyone, regardless of the name and you clearly want a widowermaker anyway.

[Rod Speed]

Fact.

No one said it was certain to kill you. And you arent a healthy person anyway.