Power Shower - how much ?

50Twuncle

In light of current (ongoing) problems with our central heating system (and hence hot water system) - we have decided to look into getting a power shower fitted in our 3 bed semi
What sort of money are we looking at ?
Our bathroom is at the back of the house - with the meter being in the porch at the front of the house
Obviously - water is there - just no supply.....
What brand should we be looking for ?
Any more advice welcome...
Thanks

mishkanorman

I've just had a power shower fitted where we only had a mixer shower previously, We purchased a triton thermostatic power shower from amazon - which was £180.

We had the electrics for that connected up to the immersion heater switch which is in the airing cupboard behind the wall where the shower was fitted, a plumber then did the pipework for the shower - he needed to add a pipe from the header tank in the loft which was directly above the airing cupboard.

I've yet to have the final invoices for the work, they were here just over 4 hours in the end. The electrician quoted £138 + VAT and the plumber estimated around £130 including parts (thats with a VAT discount though as the original estimate was £80)

So thats around £475


Another electrician quoted around £200 more than above for the same work. Our quotes for an electric shower came in at £400 & £650 just for the wiring, we would need to upgrade our main fuse box and also purchase the shower.


HTH

victor2

By "Power Shower", you presumably mean an electric shower running directly off the main water supply and not a pumped one.
The units themselves vary tremendously in price, but a more important consideration is the necessary wiring and plumbing. Assuming you have enough water pressure, it would need a feed in direct from your supply and not a header tank. The electricity needs to be a dedicated feed with its own breaker in your distribution panel, using cable sufficient to take the load drawn by the shower.
You should get a few quotes from qualified electricians/plumbers. Too many unknowns to even give you a ballpark figure.

southcoastrgi

you can't have a "power" shower you have a combi boiler
however you could have a normal electric shower with a single pipe connected to the cold mains, the cable would need to go to a pull switch & then back to the consumer unit on it's own circuit

50Twuncle

southcoastrgi wrote: »

you can't have a "power" shower you have a combi boiler
however you could have a normal electric shower with a single pipe connected to the cold mains, the cable would need to go to a pull switch & then back to the consumer unit on it's own circuit

That's what I have discovered - I hadn't realised that power showers needed a header tank - but we do have good water pressure, so if we get a decent shower (high power/heat) - it should be almost as good as a pumped shower.... ??
So a cable needs to be run from the fuse box - and the water feed can be taken from a tee off the bath ?

macman

No, it should be fed from the rising main. You need a dedicated circuit (and RCD if applicable) running from the CU.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbLxjmwsdPo
But even a powerful electric shower won't match the flow rate of a power shower.

victor2

Can recommend one of these Mira showers. We had one last year and are very pleased with it. We already had the wiring and plumbing in place, so installation was just a few hours work.
The "Airboost" simply makes the water flow pulsate by injecting air into it. Does feel like there is an increased flow of water, even though you know there isn't!

keystone

In my humble you'd be far better of concentrating on one taskette at a time. Muliplexing can be challenging. Ask your "plumber" when he visits you to look at your boiler tomorrow.

Cheers

Lelito

I don't consider myself a lucky person and for another good reason... again! This time I bought one of these Mira sporta max with airboost and after less than a month the button got stuck and now my airboost is always on. Any suggestions on how to unstuck it?

macman

Call the manufacturer, it's still under warranty...