Gas Showers

Nanako

Hi all. My Electricity consumption is about 50% above average, and my gas consumption is abnormally low (about 15% of expected levels). One of the major factors in this is that i never use baths, but take long showers, and my shower is entirely electric.

To add to this, my Electricity PPKWh is over twice that of the gas price, and will rise to over 3x the gas price when i switch to Ebico soon (who, despite that, still work out cheaper for me in the long run)

Anyways, because of these factors, i'm thinking it's about time i got a gas shower. One that runs off the hot water in the boiler, rather than heating its own seperately (but still uses electricity to pump the water). But i would like some thoughts on this:

As far as i'm aware, burning fuel for heat is a generally far more efficient way than creating electricity with it, and then using that to generate heat. But that factored in with the massive difference in price ratio makes it seem an even more logical choice. I can't see any possible downside to this move..

Except the cost of installation. That's something i don't know about. What is it likely to cost to buy a new shower unit that is electrically pumped, but pipes hot water from the boiler?

The shower i currently have is a pressurised one, but not very much so. I've definitely seen far higher pressure ones, and getting higher wouldn't matter too much, although going lower would be unacceptable. I'm not sure how to check the water pressure exactly, though.

Please give me thoughts on the matter

lstar337

Hot water tank or combi?

With a combi you can just get a thermostatic mixer shower.

HappyMJ

Quite a bit...and remember burning gas is inefficient. You need to look at your boilers efficiency rating to see what it's hot water only performance is. Although the electric shower looks like it costs more the boiler will have heat losses between the boiler and the shower and may cost more.

A 8.5kWh electric shower might just end up costing the same as a 24kWh boiler.

Then you need to think about the savings. You can have an electric shower in 3 minutes (only taking 5 seconds to get hot water through) and that would use 0.425kWh of electricity costing lets say 7p. The boiler without preheat would take 30 seconds to get hot water through and would use about 6p worth of gas to do the same job. So....you'd save a penny per day. You figure out your savings yourself but I never did see the economy of changing the shower to gas.

Nanako

lstar337 wrote: »

Hot water tank or combi?

With a combi you can just get a thermostatic mixer shower.

It's a combi boiler, i believe. It hangs on the wall in the boiler cupboard and is rather small.

Nanako

HappyMJ wrote: »

Quite a bit...and remember burning gas is inefficient. You need to look at your boilers efficiency rating to see what it's hot water only performance is. Although the electric shower looks like it costs more the boiler will have heat losses between the boiler and the shower and may cost more.

will try to find that and report back

A 8.5kWh electric shower might just end up costing the same as a 24kWh boiler.

again, my electricity prices will be 3x the gas price, which has to be taken into consideration

Then you need to think about the savings. You can have an electric shower in 3 minutes (only taking 5 seconds to get hot water through) and that would use 0.425kWh of electricity costing lets say 7p. The boiler without preheat would take 30 seconds to get hot water through and would use about 6p worth of gas to do the same job.

None of these things you are saying, gel with my experience at all. I'm a woman, i use the shower for washing my hair, shaving all over my body ( i hate bodyhair), applying facial scrubs, etc. I spend an absolute minimum of 15 minutes in the shower each time, unless it's my second one of the day.

Also my electric shower takes an average of about 10-20 seconds to figure itself out and settle on a steady temperature, during which time it's basically untouchable or i get burned.

If these factors are what you're basing the assessment on, they're way wrong, and i'm even more certain a gas shower would be better for my usage situation

Cardew

Welcome to the forum.

I am a little confused by your statements that:

i never use baths, but take long showers, and my shower is entirely electric.

The shower i currently have is a pressurised one

As far as I am aware no electric shower is 'pressurised' i.e. is a form of power shower. Even the most powerful electric shower(10.5kW) does not provide sufficient hot water for a 'power shower'.

i'm thinking it's about time i got a gas shower. One that runs off the hot water in the boiler,

By 'boiler' do you mean Hot Water tank(lots of people on MSE refer to their hot water tank as a 'boiler') or water direct from a Combi boiler.

Whist a shower with water heated by gas will be considerably cheaper than an electric shower, the costs involved in retro-fitting such a shower might be considerably more than you envisage - have you had any estimates?

P.S. why is your gas consumption so low?

Cardew

Posts crossed. What output is your combi boiler.

Nanako

HappyMJ wrote: »

You need to look at your boilers efficiency rating to see what it's hot water only performance is.

My boiler is a Modena 80 E, the site won't let me post any links so maybe someone can google it. The technical information is way over my head, this is a new field for me

Also, RE HEat loss: The absolute distance between the boiler and shower is extremely small, they're basically just divided by one internal wall.. I live in a ground floor flat

Nanako

Cardew wrote: »

P.S. why is your gas consumption so low?

because i do a lot of cooking with the microwave, use hot water very judiciously, and almost never turn the central heating on at all. That last one is the most important, really. I only turn it on rarely to keep the house from getting damp, or to heat it up for visitors. Me and my roommate just dress warm and wear dressing gowns at home, mostly.

HappyMJ

Nanako wrote: »

My boiler is a Modena 80 E, the site won't let me post any links so maybe someone can google it. The technical information is way over my head, this is a new field for me

Also, RE HEat loss: The absolute distance between the boiler and shower is extremely small, they're basically just divided by one internal wall.. I live in a ground floor flat

23.8kWh and you'll get 11.3 litres per minute of water heated up by 30 degrees.

Nanako

HappyMJ wrote: »

23.8kWh and you'll get 11.3 litres per minute of water heated up by 30 degrees.

I have no frame of reference for this data.

Also, my shower is a Triton T80si