Keeping water warm in winter

Brallaqueen

Hello everyone

With help from this board, it is clear that electric showers suffer in winter as they can't heat the water up. Is there anything I can do to combat this, as my current shower really struggled this time round. I don't fancy 3 months of lukewarm scrubbing if I can at all help it.

Would insulating my cold water tank help?

Ben84

Brallaqueen wrote: »

Would insulating my cold water tank help?

Most the time, quite the opposite! When it comes to the tank from a buried pipe under the street it's cold, probably colder than your attic, so insulating the tank will slow it absorbing heat from the surrounding warmer environment. However, many people do insulate the water tank if it's in the attic as you don't want it to freeze during very adverse weather. Insulate the top and sides, but not below as heat through the ceiling will help it avoid ever freezing.

For a better shower, you really need a higher wattage shower, or there are heat exchangers you can fit to the drain that transfer heat from the waste water to the incoming cold water. Both involve money and disruption to your house, but I might be most tempted by the latter as it saves electricity rather than uses more.

Brallaqueen

Thanks Ben

I live in a flat (1st floor) and have an old fashioned floor mounted boiler with large water tank in the bathroom cupboard. Will this set up affect whether I can use a heat exchanger

Ben84

Brallaqueen wrote: »

Thanks Ben

I live in a flat (1st floor) and have an old fashioned floor mounted boiler with large water tank in the bathroom cupboard. Will this set up affect whether I can use a heat exchanger

The shower is electrically heated? If so, the type of boiler you have is not an issue as it would only involve the cold water supply to the shower and the drain being changed.

You'd really need a plumber to say for certain about fitting one as there are many possibilities. I do however know there are slimline heat exchangers, for example built in to a shower tray, so you don't need lots of space below the shower drain. There could be other concerns with pipes though.

The product I'm thinking of is: http://www.shower-save.com/pdfs/Recoh-Tray%20grey%20water%20heat%20recovery.pdf

A number of companies make this kind of thing and I have not tried one yet, but they do claim to be independently tested and have found roughly 50% energy recovery. Conditions will vary in each situation I expect, but even assuming energy recovery at the lower end of the scale suggests you'd add a good few kW of power to the average shower for no extra energy consumption.

Brallaqueen

You beaut, thank you

macman

All you can do is fit a more powerful shower, what is the kW rating of yours?
This may involve the cabling and circuit being uprated to cope with the heavier load.