The lights go dim???

davedeb

Can anyone help? When I put my shower on the lights go dim throughout the house. The shower is on a separate MCB so it is not that they are on the same circuit? Incoming main fuse is 100AMPs.
We are on an overhead supply.
Any ideas??????

robnye

same here.....

i put it down to the fact, that an electric shower requires a large amount of power to heat the element/water and pump it through to the shower head.

i will be due to the rating of the shower which will be in kilowatts......!

an electrician will probably confirm this.

VH

Yes, an electric shower is usually the single biggest drain on your consumer unit. Same in my house, the lights dim a little when you turn it on, then go back to normal when you turn it off.

The sheer amount of current drained from your supply slightly starves everything else of power.

davedeb

I'm not sure that this should happen because there should be a supply of 100 Amps coming into the house and staight onto the consumer unit. It seems strange that other people don't have this problem. Perhaps it's just us?????(PARANOIA!!!!)

robnye

it is still down to the fact that an electric shower requires a large amount to run

ie radios...... require watts

shower requries kilowatts (1000x more)

another way is check out electricty costs for individual items

ie washing machines, fridges etc..... there should be some web sites with the info

that way you will see the cost of running a shower is high against washing machine/fridge etc

RedOnRed

Yeah, we have the same problem when we put our electric shower on. So i'm sort of pleased every one else seems to have it too.

I advised the electrician of this issue when he was changing our fuse box. He didn't seem surprised and sort of said that's the way it goes.

shrek101

I remember seeing a program on TV not so long ago about how much things costs and what impact it has on the environment. Apparently showers costs more to run and are more environmental damaging than having a bath. Still you cant beat a good soak once in a while.

robnye

i remember seeing an article a little while about, a family that if the children wanted to watch tv, they had to peddle a bike, to make enough power, that was then stored in a battery......

maybe this could be utilised to subsidise electricity in all houses......?

perhaps this is the answer to couch potato kids....!

VH

I remember seeing a program on TV not so long ago about how much things costs and what impact it has on the environment. Apparently showers costs more to run and are more environmental damaging than having a bath. Still you cant beat a good soak once in a while.

I thought it was the other way around, a bath uses around 5 times more water than a bath and it takes a lot longer to heat the water, so more energy is used.

N9eav

Are you saying that it's cheaper not to wash? :P

robnye

you could always wait until it rains, then rush out into your garden stark naked with your soap on a string and loofah .........  :o