Electric showers

There are some important issues here, before you bite...

#1 - Instant Water Heaters

Instant water heaters provide limited temperature rise.

- 8.8kW == 38oC @ 4.8L/min flow

- 9.6kW == 38oC @ 5.5L/min flow

Temperature rise is dependent on CW inlet temp.

- Those figures assume 12oC

- Jan 12th was 6.7oC at 10am, very much lower

High kW means lots of amps which means big cable sizes for an outbuilding.

- First you need sufficient size for the amps - 10mm to begin with

- Second you need sufficient size to prevent voltage drop, 9.6kW at 240V be comes 8.8kW at 230V - 16mm or larger may be needed

The positive is they can be quick to fit n compact.

- ZIP ILX / CEX provide 9.6kW digital temp control - fit any fixed or mobil e shower head @ 5-6L/min, add a wash basin off the same heater

- Many off the shelf flashier shower units

#2 - Stored Water Heater

Vented... Stiebel Eltron do an EB15SL, an unvented 15L shower-only water heater, prov ides 45L at 37oC which with a 6L/min head is a reasonable 9 minutes showeri ng. It only requires a 2kW or 3kW supply - vastly less of your cable size f or instant ends up huge/long and thus costly.

You MUST use them with a TMV, mixing with cold water to get than 45L at 37o C. Essentially they work by you turning on a tap to SUPPLY both tank CW fee d & TMV CW feed - so pushing out hot water from the tank. This could be a s imple Grohe shower stopvalve (on/off) or a remote solenoid valve SELV suppl ied (low voltage re zones).

The EU gets a better version of this, think it goes larger with computerise d display of capacity remaining - France & Spain. I think the UK system bec ause it is 15L gets a PRV etc due to recent regulation change, ask Stiebel. An interesting idea for a shower because you COULD use a better 10l/min he ad and TMV set to 38oC to get a proper 4 min good blast. Avg time in UK sho wers is about 7 mins so whilst short it is pretty good.

Another form of vented is a simple CW/HW cistern & shower pump if you have no head (about 1m height difference is needed re tank to shower head). New legislation I think mandates 15mm pipework to shower (no longer 22mm) and l imits on flow rate too for a new shower - not checked but lots of eco-comin g through.

Unvented... Many solutions here, but G3 plumber or BCO involvement required. Powerflow

Electric hits a problem in winter, I guess you could fit a very large coil of 50mm copper pipe in a warm place... plenty of pik^^^people would offer t o store it for you if they found out :-)

Why should it?

Tim

They probably realised you don't need to. In fact it's been shown you should only bathe once a week. Every day rubs off friendly bacteria.

Queen Elizabeth (the previous one) "took a bath once a year, whether she needed it or not"

Blocked outlet.

That does not make any sense - the temperature is not dictated by the rate of heat input (i.e. power) alone - you need to know the flow rate as well.

Now there is a mental picture I could have done without ;-)

As I said elsewhere in this thread, you must be using torrents of water. And here was me thinking showers were supposed to save water....

Oh for heaven's sake, you trying to argue with a troll! Just killfile him!

Tim

I've never measured mine, but I can make it too hot at a reasonable flow rate.

Lol.