9.5kw or 10.5kw shower?

Doonhamer · 15 February 2006 at 1:06PM

It's not that it heats the water quicker, it heats it more. The temperature dial on a shower alters the flow of water through the heater. The more powerful the shower the more flow you get at a given temperature.

Browntoa · 15 February 2006 at 1:17PM

kilowatt-hour

The kilowatt-hour (symbolized kWh) is a unit of energy equivalent to one kilowatt (1 kW) of power expended for one hour (1 h) of time.

so basic maths says 8.5 kw will heat water quicker than a 7 kw....

flow has to do with the water pressure

Doonhamer · 15 February 2006 at 1:55PM

The temperature adjustment on an electric shower adjusts the flow of water through the shower, it is just a valve. The heater in the shower is a tiny tank that the water flows through. The more kW the shower has the bigger the temperature increase in the water between the inlet and outlet of the shower at a given flow. So a more powerful shower will heat the water more (faster if you like)allowing you to increase the flow. This means that a shower with more kW gives you more flow of water at the same temperature as a lower kW one.

grumbler · 15 February 2006 at 3:29PM

A few threads with useful information:
Is this electric shower any good?
Electric Power Shower
What's the difference between a Power Shower and an Electric Shower?
upgrading Shower
Approximately how much will it cost to install an electric shower? (further links inside)

BeepBeep_3 · 15 February 2006 at 5:25PM

caveat_emptor wrote:

Electric uses the pressure in the supply pipe, which if from loft tank can be low and power shower is pump assisted.

Would a power shower just use a reservoir between the loft tank and shower with an integral pump? Would it use both cold and hot water feeds? I'm checking the web also for this info; but if anyone can point me in the direction of useful links for power showers, it'll be much appreciated. Thanks.

jennifernil · 15 February 2006 at 11:06PM

As the water is heated quicker you can turn it on more and get more "skoosh" , so a better shower.

bernlyn · 16 February 2006 at 11:46AM

just bookmarking this

Doonhamer · 16 February 2006 at 1:16PM

BeepBeep wrote:

Would a power shower just use a reservoir between the loft tank and shower with an integral pump? Would it use both cold and hot water feeds? I'm checking the web also for this info; but if anyone can point me in the direction of useful links for power showers, it'll be much appreciated. Thanks.

A tank fed thermostatic shower has a hot and a cold feed to it. To ensure that the hot and cold pressures are equal the cold comes off the header tank in the loft that feeds the hot water tank, not direct from the mains. So both sides of the shower have the pressure generated by the hight of the loft tank above the shower head.

To make this a power shower you fit a twin impeller pump. The cold goes in one section and the hot in the other. It goes just before the shower, so it is after the hot water tank.

It effectively sucks the water from the hot tank and from the header tank to give a flow higher than you just get from gravity alone. It is as if you have raised the header tank higher up.

A typical pump is abour 2 Bar and a 1 Bar is 10m of water. So a 2 Bar power shower is like having your header tank 20m above your shower.

fatbobbutler · 5 December 2008 at 6:31PM

I've got the opposite problem, I've had an 10.5kw shower for 3 years and it finally gave up the ghost last week. I looked online for a replacement and noticed the 9.5kw model at half price and so obviously snapped it up. Can I down grade from 10.5 to 9.5 using the existing wiring???

latecomer · 5 December 2008 at 6:35PM

Yup no problems at all.

9.5kw or 10.5kw shower?

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