Cheapest type of shower

horsewithnoname

I have two showers in my home; an electric shower and a mixer shower that runs off the hot and cold water from the boiler. Is there generally a massive difference in the cost of running them?
thank you

The_Fat_Controller

What is the power rating of the electric shower ?

Does the mixer shower use instantly heated water from a gas combi boiler or pumped water from a already heated tank ?

If instant from the combi, what is the rated output of the boiler ?

Generally, gas is a cheaper option.

MattMattMattUK

horsewithnoname said:

I have two showers in my home; an electric shower and a mixer shower that runs off the hot and cold water from the boiler. Is there generally a massive difference in the cost of running them?
thank you

How is your hot water heated? If your hot water in the tank is heated by gas then that will always be cheaper, exactly how much cheaper depends on how hot the water in your tank is, how far the tank is from the shower, the efficiency of your boiler, how hot you have your shower and the input temperature of your cold water. In general the electric shower will cost around 2-3 times more than the shower using water heated by a gas boiler. 

horsewithnoname

I have a combi boiler. I don’t know the output, sorry. The electric shower is 9 kw. 

But if in general the mixer shower is cheaper, I’ll favour using that. 

Thank you👍

Alnat1

And all showers are cheaper if you don't stay in there too long 

SAC2334

Depends how long you have the electric shower on for. Since beginning of Oct I ve been using the shower on/off technique  Works well and avoids 8000 watts and water being wasted  

The shower is only on for between 40 sec s and 50 secs at the most  .I take as long as I like washing myself properly 
 The shower itself is only used to wet and rinse off instead of it  pointlessly doing nothing but wasting a lot of electricity sending hot water down the plug hole 

horsewithnoname

Yes, I was sort of working on the basis that I’d spend the same amount of time whichever shower I used 😁

littleteapot

I find a cold shower is always the cheapest. I only have a hot shower in middle of winter if/when I'm feeling particularly cold e.g. been outside all day.

Apodemus

SAC2334 said:

Depends how long you have the electric shower on for. Since beginning of Oct I ve been using the shower on/off technique  Works well and avoids 8000 watts and water being wasted  

The shower is only on for between 40 sec s and 50 secs at the most  .I take as long as I like washing myself properly 
 The shower itself is only used to wet and rinse off instead of it  pointlessly doing nothing but wasting a lot of electricity sending hot water down the plug hole 

I like that technique, and use it whenever I can, but I find that when I switch the electric shower back on, you get a blast of warm water, then a period of freezing water, then scalding hot, before it settles down (the electric shower was new last year and its been like this from new).  Also with the shower being over the bath rather than a cubicle, when you switch the shower off to soap-up, you are exposed to the icy-blast that is our bathroom temperature!  So while I agree with the principle, I find the practice much more tricky!

EssexHebridean

Apodemus said:

SAC2334 said:

Depends how long you have the electric shower on for. Since beginning of Oct I ve been using the shower on/off technique  Works well and avoids 8000 watts and water being wasted  

The shower is only on for between 40 sec s and 50 secs at the most  .I take as long as I like washing myself properly 
 The shower itself is only used to wet and rinse off instead of it  pointlessly doing nothing but wasting a lot of electricity sending hot water down the plug hole 

I like that technique, and use it whenever I can, but I find that when I switch the electric shower back on, you get a blast of warm water, then a period of freezing water, then scalding hot, before it settles down (the electric shower was new last year and its been like this from new).  Also with the shower being over the bath rather than a cubicle, when you switch the shower off to soap-up, you are exposed to the icy-blast that is our bathroom temperature!  So while I agree with the principle, I find the practice much more tricky!

This is a very valid warning - our shower (installed in 2016) actually came with a warning about this very thing. Had it not done I would have questioned whether it had some kind of fault to be honest. 

Spoonie_Turtle

Apodemus said:

SAC2334 said:

Depends how long you have the electric shower on for. Since beginning of Oct I ve been using the shower on/off technique  Works well and avoids 8000 watts and water being wasted  

The shower is only on for between 40 sec s and 50 secs at the most  .I take as long as I like washing myself properly 
 The shower itself is only used to wet and rinse off instead of it  pointlessly doing nothing but wasting a lot of electricity sending hot water down the plug hole 

I like that technique, and use it whenever I can, but I find that when I switch the electric shower back on, you get a blast of warm water, then a period of freezing water, then scalding hot, before it settles down (the electric shower was new last year and its been like this from new).  Also with the shower being over the bath rather than a cubicle, when you switch the shower off to soap-up, you are exposed to the icy-blast that is our bathroom temperature!  So while I agree with the principle, I find the practice much more tricky!

We've had two electric showers in the past couple of decades, both bought new (!!! oh the decadence!  Extremely unusual for us) and they've both done that.

One poster evangelical about this method said about pulling the external switch off and on again to prevent it, but a) our switch is outside the bathroom, b) my friend's switch is nowhere to be found (so really wouldn't work for everyone), and c) there's the little matter of the cold bathroom air if you are able to get out to do the switch. 

[Part of the reason I can't have a strip wash is because I get cold too easily anyway, would be much worse if I've made my skin wet then sit there with the water off, even if it were otherwise possible.]