Showers, is it cheaper to have electric shower or from gas boiler?

lynrosie

At the moment run shower via mixer taps therefore hot water from boiler, in process of having bathroom refit do I stick with what I have now or change to electric shower to save money these energy rises is a nightmare trying to save here and there in the household!

jimjames

Using existing water heated by gas will be cheaper than an electric shower. Having said that an electric shower is a useful backup in case the boiler stops working and you can still get hot water.

theoretica

Another thread had some numbers - 20-25p cheaper a shower for gas at current prices, I think they were.

btr30

Electricity is 27p/KWh, gas 7p/KWh
i would be sticking with gas to heat water 

Snwps

I hate seeing my IHD when someone takes a shower in my house (electric) so I make sure everyone is quick, no long showers allowed in my house.

northernsoul

I have done some tests. I have a Vaillant 837 28kw combination boiler. The water temperature is set at 45C.

At the new rate of 7.33/kWh these are the costs I found for various lenghts of showers ( from gas meter readings)

I use a large rainforest shower head and the shower temperature is too high for some people so plenty hot enough (they turn it down from maximum temperature)

3 min shower  1.32kwh , 9.7p (one reading)

4 min shower 1.88kwh , 13.8p (average of 9 readings)

5 min shower 2.14kwh , 15.7p (average of 6 readings)

6 min shower 2.39kwh ,  17.5p (one reading)

Do not take showers longer than 6 minutes.

Note that after the 4 minute shower costs go up per 1 minute extra about 1.9p (so approximately 1.9p for every extra minute in shower - I guess)

The temperature is also hot enough for a very hot full bath (to overflow) which now costs 5.84kwh , 42.8p.

I believe the following calculation is correct for a 10kw electric shower for a comparison
6 minute shower = 10kw* 0.1 (6 minutes/60 minutes)*27p = 27p for a 6 minute electric shower

Hope this helps

Ultrasonic

The true cost of a shower needs to factor in the not insignificant cost of the water, but gas will still be cheaper than electrcity.

northernsoul

Depends whether you are on a meter. I am not so does not matter to me in terms of cost.

Ultrasonic

northernsoul said:

Depends whether you are on a meter. I am not so does not matter to me in terms of cost.

Fair point. What matters of course is whether the OP has a water meter or not. 

BooJewels

I did my own brief informal tests last week (using a tap based shower extension hose) and the difference was nowhere near as large as I'd expected and nowhere near as significant as the difference in the per kWh price between gas and electric.  I probably take longer than average showers too.  Largely because the gas boiler generated much more hot water and therefore more energy to heat it.  I'm not metered for water, but if I were, that would have gobbled up a chunk of the difference too.   On average, I use 1.2kWh of electricity for an electric shower and around 3kWh of gas - bringing them within 12p of each other.  My figures tallied with @northernsoul above - if you extrapolate to an 8 minute shower.

My personal conclusion was that the boiler shower was more pleasant and enjoyable, but didn't save me more than a few pennies.  I want to get my bathroom re-worked at some time, so will change my shower over at that time, but it's not worth the plumbing work to change for the sake of such a modest economy - I'd be doing it because I preferred it, if I did.  I also like the idea of retaining the electric shower if possible, as a back up.  I'd love to have 2 bathrooms, with one of each!

Ultrasonic

Another factor here is if someone has a combi boiler that heats water on demand or a tank full of hot water that would largely go to waste if not used for washing.