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

k_man

BooJewels said:

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Zandoni said:

btr30 said:

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

It's not as simple as that, gas will be cheaper but not that much.

Indeed, my own brief experiment (in more detail on page1) showed that the gas powered shower used much more water, so heated more volume and used around 3kWh, compared to 1.2kWh of electricity for the same length of shower - if you add water and drainage costs to that - there doesn't seem to be very much in it.  Maybe if you only take a 2 minute shower, the difference might be greater.

I'm struggling to believe this is really the case. You have a combi boiler, right?

I don't really care if you believe me or not, but yes, that was my finding with gas meter readings - 3 decimal places - on a combi boiler - average use over the 3 showers measured = 0.28m³ = 3.16kWh.  But I can't manage to shower in 15 seconds like some people.  

Are you really sure about your numbers?
280 litres!
That is 2 baths full of water.


And my my maths ( or more accurately a calculator on the Internet), that should use about 10kWh  - 15kWh to heat to 40c

k_man

Just realised, you meant 0.28m³ of gas!

Ultrasonic

BooJewels said:

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Zandoni said:

btr30 said:

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

It's not as simple as that, gas will be cheaper but not that much.

Indeed, my own brief experiment (in more detail on page1) showed that the gas powered shower used much more water, so heated more volume and used around 3kWh, compared to 1.2kWh of electricity for the same length of shower - if you add water and drainage costs to that - there doesn't seem to be very much in it.  Maybe if you only take a 2 minute shower, the difference might be greater.

I'm struggling to believe this is really the case. You have a combi boiler, right?

I don't really care if you believe me or not, but yes, that was my finding with gas meter readings - 3 decimal places - on a combi boiler - average use over the 3 showers measured = 0.28m³ = 3.16kWh.  But I can't manage to shower in 15 seconds like some people.  

I queried what you wrote because I'm struggling to understand why what you described might be true. How confident are you that the water temperatures, flow rates and shower durations matched?

BooJewels

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Zandoni said:

btr30 said:

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

It's not as simple as that, gas will be cheaper but not that much.

Indeed, my own brief experiment (in more detail on page1) showed that the gas powered shower used much more water, so heated more volume and used around 3kWh, compared to 1.2kWh of electricity for the same length of shower - if you add water and drainage costs to that - there doesn't seem to be very much in it.  Maybe if you only take a 2 minute shower, the difference might be greater.

I'm struggling to believe this is really the case. You have a combi boiler, right?

I don't really care if you believe me or not, but yes, that was my finding with gas meter readings - 3 decimal places - on a combi boiler - average use over the 3 showers measured = 0.28m³ = 3.16kWh.  But I can't manage to shower in 15 seconds like some people.  

I queried what you wrote because I'm struggling to understand why what you described might be true. How confident are you that the water temperatures, flow rates and shower durations matched?

I didn't claim that they did match - I just 'took a shower' for about the same duration and said that the gas powered shower used more hot water, hence it was more pleasant, but wasn't for saving money.  I posted more in this post on page 1 - sorry that you're struggling to grasp it.

Ultrasonic

BooJewels said:

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Zandoni said:

btr30 said:

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

It's not as simple as that, gas will be cheaper but not that much.

Indeed, my own brief experiment (in more detail on page1) showed that the gas powered shower used much more water, so heated more volume and used around 3kWh, compared to 1.2kWh of electricity for the same length of shower - if you add water and drainage costs to that - there doesn't seem to be very much in it.  Maybe if you only take a 2 minute shower, the difference might be greater.

I'm struggling to believe this is really the case. You have a combi boiler, right?

I don't really care if you believe me or not, but yes, that was my finding with gas meter readings - 3 decimal places - on a combi boiler - average use over the 3 showers measured = 0.28m³ = 3.16kWh.  But I can't manage to shower in 15 seconds like some people.  

I queried what you wrote because I'm struggling to understand why what you described might be true. How confident are you that the water temperatures, flow rates and shower durations matched?

I didn't claim that they did match - I just 'took a shower' for about the same duration and said that the gas powered shower used more hot water, hence it was more pleasant, but wasn't for saving money.  I posted more in this post on page 1 - sorry that you're struggling to grasp it.

Just clarifying for the benefit of the OP and others. If you aren't matching other variables then it's misleading to tie the results to the energy source. 

BooJewels

That was rather my point (and I'd mentioned it in at least 2 posts before you started querying my facts)  - it's like comparing oranges to apples.  Unless the flow rate and temperature match like for like, it's not that easy to make a direct comparison of energy use, especially if you then factor in metered water and drainage too.  The headline fact that gas is less than a third of the price of electricity is misleading in this regard - yet it's cited very frequently in this forum as a reason to ditch electric showers.

Electric showers vary in their flow and consumption - even the shower head can make a difference - but gas powered showers have even more variables on top.

To answer the very simple question posed in the subject line of this thread - "it's not that simple - there are so many variables".  I would generalise that gas powered showers are probably, on balance, a bit cheaper, but possibly by not as much as you'd think.  But I'd also guess that they're more enjoyable too.  That was certainly my own experience.

Workerdrone

SAC2334 said:

Snwps said:

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.

I ve got my electric  shower on now for only 1 minute 15 secs simply by using the on/off technique .I can then not rush myself and not have the shower on for the full 10 minutes blasting out wasting water as well .Switch on to wet yourself , then off..Then back on again for 45 secs to rinse off..Plus I use normal soap and don t get involved with the liquid soap/shower gel  con .Cost of my shower at 27 p /kwh is around 5 p .Much cheaper than a gas powered shower 

Ah the caravan shower technique

Workerdrone

matelodave said:

BooJewels said:

Ultrasonic said:

BooJewels said:

Zandoni said:

btr30 said:

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

It's not as simple as that, gas will be cheaper but not that much.

Indeed, my own brief experiment (in more detail on page1) showed that the gas powered shower used much more water, so heated more volume and used around 3kWh, compared to 1.2kWh of electricity for the same length of shower - if you add water and drainage costs to that - there doesn't seem to be very much in it.  Maybe if you only take a 2 minute shower, the difference might be greater.

I'm struggling to believe this is really the case. You have a combi boiler, right?

I don't really care if you believe me or not, but yes, that was my finding with gas meter readings - 3 decimal places - on a combi boiler - average use over the 3 showers measured = 0.28m³ = 3.16kWh.  But I can't manage to shower in 15 seconds like some people.  

You could try fitting a low flow eco shower head - ours delivers 6 litres/minute and I can shower in less that two minutes so that's only 12 litres of hot water.. My wife can shower in a lot less than five minutes. 

In our caravan we can get away with two of using the shower (independently, not shared) using only eight litres of hot water using the same technique as Utrasonic - we've fitted a trigger operated shower head.

Can't wait to get away in our van for a few days. As the lecky is included in the site fee I intend to be very warm for a few days and relax not having to look at our IHD. Plus our whole house will be in hibernation mode.

Crazycatlady2

We have both in seperate bathrooms. I make everyone use boiler fed one now and other will be changed when we can

in house metre jumps from about 23p to over £2 last time someone used elec one

gas went upto 60p other day when 4 showers was used 

BooJewels

Crazycatlady2 said:

We have both in seperate bathrooms. I make everyone use boiler fed one now and other will be changed when we can

in house metre jumps from about 23p to over £2 last time someone used elec one

Perhaps you need to discourage that showerer from not being in there for 42 minutes then - that's 6.3kWh - even I can't take that long!  (assuming a fairly average 9kW shower).