rising main water temperature

[RJH]

I think it comes down to preference. My 8.5kW shower is fine. I mean, it's no power shower, but does me.

I could quite easily tap in the combi but have never felt the need.

[tabbypurr]

ting_the_Power

In winter I generally appreciate a more vigorous hotter shower, and use abo ut 4kW. In summer I'm not looking for hot and am comfortable with 3kW. (Hav ing used higher power showers many times I don't know why so many people li ke them.)

NT

[John Rumm]

How long is a piece of string? The reality will vary hugely depending on where in the country you are, and the nature of the supply arrangements.

Having said that, around 5 degrees does seem reasonably typical for winter. The upper limit will probably vary more.

Its cold at the moment, but has not been for that long.

Its easy enough to do the sums yourself.

The SHC of water is around 4200 J/kg/C.

So if you have a 10kW shower, that's 10000J or energy available per second or 600kJ / min.

If you want a 35 degree rise in water temperature that will give you:

600,000 / 4200 / 35 = 5 kg/min (i.e. 4 lpm)

With many electric showers you start with "not really enough" flow rate, so losing a third of that can have quite an impact.

If you start from the POV that generally electric showers are "adequate" at best, you may as well cable and provision for the most powerful available (the cost of the cable etc is an insignificant part of the overall cost). That way you have options in the future.

[John Rumm]

Its very subjective.

Experience and expectations vary enormously. Some people like the physical sensation of a force of water from the shower, others not so much. It also depends allot on the type of shower head etc.

Personally I like quite a powerful (and fairly hot) shower, but don't find the need for more than 8 or 9 LPM, or to have it actually flay skin from the body!

I my last place I had a 35kW combi that would do one excellent shower at a time, or two "ok" ones. To be fair, if you had not experienced the excellent version, you would not have really noticed. However if you were half way though a shower, and someone then got in the other shower, then you were aware in the drop off in flow rate and it felt "not as good".

I am just about to commission two extra showers here, so it will be interesting to see how two run in parallel from the unvented cylinder.

[ARW]

I am just trying to think of a recent British summer where the incoming water could be at 15 deg:-)

[Andrew]

Is there a sort of sweet sickly smell in the air ?.