Help please - My new house has a mysterious red switch and I don't know what it is for

fryderykchopin

Not sure if this is the right place for this question, but I hope someone can help me.
I recently purchased a house and there is a mysterious red switch in the master bedroom:



The other side of the wall is an en-suite and the other two buttons are for the en-suite light and air extractor.
I'm trying to contact the old owners through their estate agent but everybody seems to be on holidays at the moment.
The old owners left a red tape, apparently suggesting not to touch it and I have not been brave enough to try it and see what happens.
The house has an alarm system so I thought this could be a panic button to trigger the alarm manually? No idea...
Anyone knows what this switch is for?

theoretica

Electric shower?

fryderykchopin

theoretica said:

Electric shower?

There is a shower in the en-suite, but I suspect it works with the main boiler of the house.
The switch seems to be in the off position and the water in the shower comes out hot.

oh_really

Immersion element?
Does it have a neon indicator? (cant see one from that image).
Any clue from your consumer unit markings.

flashg67

Possibly for an old immersion or shower? Give it a go, go on ! 

victor2

I'd suspect an old electric shower unit in the en-suite too. In which case there may be a circuit breaker on your distribution unit marked accordingly.

Rosa_Damascena

flashg67 said:

Possibly for an old immersion or shower? Give it a go, go on ! 

fryderykchopin

oh_really said:

Immersion element?
Does it have a neon indicator? (cant see one from that image).
Any clue from your consumer unit markings.

It might be but the shower does not seem to be electric. Maybe there was one in the past. There is no neon indicator.

fryderykchopin

victor2 said:

I'd suspect an old electric shower unit in the en-suite too. In which case there may be a circuit breaker on your distribution unit marked accordingly.

You are right! There is a circuit breaker labelled as "shower" and it is crossed out. It seems that the old owners had an electric shower. Glad to know that my new house doesn't have a self-destruction button! Thank you

cymruchris

It's for nuking Russia - Donald Trump has one - and now you've pressed it????

I'm interested to know why there's tape holding it in the off position though - there must have been some original cabling when they did have an electric shower - I wonder where that cabling is now?

Doozergirl

The shape of it compared to the one next to it totally messes with my chi!