electric shower V bath??

ladyrebecca

Hiya. There seem to be alot of money savers on here who know statistics that i could never dream of!! Is there anyone who knows what the cost of taking a shower (electric) would be compared to the price of having a bath (heated by gas)? Thanks

Magentasue

Depends on efficiency of your boiler and kwh rating of your shower but people have worked out that, for them, more than 10mins in the shower is more expensive than running a bath.

1carminestocky

Totally depends on many variables, including the length of the shower, its power etc. We have a 10.8kwh electric shower and our rule is '10 mins max. or take a bath'. No real idea of the cost of a bath in gas usage, I'm afraid but our rule was prompted by our eldest son's girlfriend who once spent 45 mins in the shower (we have an Owl monitor and I was doing my nut downstairs watching it but my wife stoppoed me from banging on the door, lol). That shower would have cost approx 90p in electric! Can't imagine a bath costing that in gas!

ladyrebecca

ha ha, i can just imagine you dying to go up and bang on the door! That has made me smile!

space_rider

When I was all electric and relied on the immersion heater for hot water the children had baths all the time as they were little and we had showers. The tank was well lagged and the 4 hours use of the immersion heater on the economy 7 timer lasted until bed time for my 3 children. The shower was electric but we would always have our showers before the economy 7 time finished at 8am.

When I moved to a house with gas central heating and the water was hot all the time my daughters again had baths. I would have a shower (electric fed) before the E7 time and rather than have a shower in the evening I would have a bath rather than using the shower at peak electric cost.

Now I have a newish house with central heating and water meter we have showers. The shower is fed from the hot water but having a water meter would make baths more expensive. I have my hot water on for 1 hour in the morning and 1 hour in the evening and the hot water is ample for a family of 4 including 2 teenage girls with long hair!

dannymccann

space_rider wrote: »

having a water meter would make baths more expensive.

Not necessarily! I did a crude test the other day where I simply put the plug in the bath when I turned the shower on, did my normal routine (about 6/7 minutes according to the clock) and had to pull the plug out right at the end as I had reached overflow, so technically (in my bathroom anyway) it would have been cheaper to have a bath. My OH is a fan of wet shaving etc during her shower so sometimes is in there for up to 15 minutes, so can imagine it would cut my costs down quite well if she were to have a bath instead (and she has the water hotter than me :eek: )

Cardew

This link gives more information.

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/homeandleisure/drought/38531.aspx

A 9.8kW electric shower(that is about an average rating) will heat the incoming cold water by 30C at a flow rate of 4.7 liters a minute.

So they say this amount of water in a 5 minute shower is 39% of an average 70 liter bath.

So according to them a 12 minute shower will be an average bath.

However in winter when the incoming water is cold you will have a flow rate below 4.7L and in summer a higher flow rate.

As for heating costs, lots of variables – cost of gas/electricity, efficiency of gas boiler etc – but I guess a 5 minute electric shower will be about the cost of an average bath - which is rather less than the 10 minutes in post #2 - but that is a very rough guess on my part.

storminbalder

dannymccann wrote: »

Not necessarily! I did a crude test the other day where I simply put the plug in the bath when I turned the shower on, did my normal routine (about 6/7 minutes according to the clock) and had to pull the plug out right at the end as I had reached overflow, so technically (in my bathroom anyway) it would have been cheaper to have a bath. My OH is a fan of wet shaving etc during her shower so sometimes is in there for up to 15 minutes, so can imagine it would cut my costs down quite well if she were to have a bath instead (and she has the water hotter than me :eek: )

If you were truly into saving money you'd make her have hairy legs!

dannymccann

storminbalder wrote: »

If you were truly into saving money you'd make her have hairy legs!

:rotfl: True, however I would rather she didnt scratch me everytime I get near her Wouldn't be much of a relationship would it :T

1carminestocky

LOL at the direction this thread has taken. Mr Celine Dion obviously put his foot down.

space_rider

dannymccann wrote: »

Not necessarily! I did a crude test the other day where I simply put the plug in the bath when I turned the shower on, did my normal routine (about 6/7 minutes according to the clock) and had to pull the plug out right at the end as I had reached overflow, so technically (in my bathroom anyway) it would have been cheaper to have a bath. My OH is a fan of wet shaving etc during her shower so sometimes is in there for up to 15 minutes, so can imagine it would cut my costs down quite well if she were to have a bath instead (and she has the water hotter than me :eek: )

Not if you only use the water to get wet then turn it off whilst you apply soap and then put water on again to rinse. Cuts down on water.:rotfl: Also reduces time.:D

That`s how I do it but don`t know about my teenage daughters. But I think they pretty good as it`s one less thing for me to moan at them for.