Hi
This is the start of an ongoing problem that needs to be resolved shortly. Normally this would be an easy one, I'd go for a thermostaic boiler fed one any day but...
I run a youth hostel, a huge sprawling 70 bed victorian mansion. Sounds fantastic (and it is) but I also have to maintain the place on a ridiculously small budget. I'm supposed to use "builders" and so-on but quite frankly if I did the place would be bankrupt pretty quick taking into account the amount of work it needs just to come up to standard.
One of the main problems is the ladies showers and loos. They were last updated in 1978 and even have painted plywood lining the showers instead of tiles. Therefore I'm ripping the whole room out and starting from scratch. The new window goes in this coming week and the skip has just been delivered. Tonight I'm working out my basic materials order for the local BM.
Part of the plan is to install 4 new showers, replacing the existing 2 electric ones. Part fo the problem is that these showers (both 7.5Kw) are painfully cold in the winter months. To my reckoning its a combination of things, first the water fed into them is extremely cold so doesn't get past
30 deg. C (measured last year) and the room is like a freezer so it feels cold anyway.The easiest option would be to replace these with 4 x 10.5Kw showers and stick a storage heater in the room but I have just lifted a few boards and discovered an easily accessible 22mm hot feed. Running off it there is a T to the main kitchen sink, a T feeding 3 basins and another feeding 3 more in other rooms.
The first question (and I'm sure there will be more) is... what are the electrical implications of a 4x10.5Kw load (the existing showers are on seperate RCDs in a CU outside the room) vs. 4 showers fed from an already heavily used hot feed?
Electric or boiler fed?
Any comments?
Tony