Cheapest type of shower

jrawle

SAC2334 said:

Yes, mine was doing that..very annoying but I tried switching it off and on quickly at the pull switch just before the final rinse off stopped that happening and now it's ready for final rinse off in just a few secs...Basic £50 Triton 8 kw from Screwfix..My pull switch is very handy to reach just one pace from the shower..

You do have to wonder what that will do to the longevity of the unit, though. It could be a false economy if it means the heating element or other component goes much sooner. I assume (as you say pull switch) this is a cord operated switch for safety. When I had an electric shower, the switch was a rocker switch in the airing cupboard, so doing this while in the shower would have been impossible (and dangerous to attempt with wet hands anyway). Don't you find reaching for the switch means a puddle on the floor?

Also, as others have pointed out, showering like this is all very well if you have a well heated bathroom. I never heated my bathroom when I lived in an all electric flat, so a hot shower was a well earned and necessary luxury!

dharm999

Dodges turning the temperature down on an electric shower whilst showering make a  difference to the energy usage, or does it draw the same energy usage regardless of how hot the shower is?  If it’s the latter then I won’t bother turning down the heat of the shower when I use it.  I turn the heat down at the end to get a colder blast of water, supposedly good for you, but i also thought it saved energy, maybe I am wrong?

BooJewels

My understanding of an electric shower is that is uses the same electricity regardless of what temperature you choose (other than actually cold, then it's just the pump I think) - it changes the level of heat by adjusting the flow rate of water through the heating element.  So a warm shower will have a better flow than a very hot one, where you get less water coming through.  So if your water is metered, you might argue that it's potentially cheaper to run it hotter?

I've always worked on the assumption that my 9kW shower uses 150Wh per minute regardless of how hot I set it - so about 5.1p per minute at the moment.  Happy to be told otherwise if I've got it wrong.

I've also been pondering a similar question whilst considering dimmable LED smart lightbulbs.

QrizB

BooJewels said:

My understanding of an electric shower is that is uses the same electricity regardless of what temperature you choose (other than actually cold, then it's just the pump I think) - it changes the level of heat by adjusting the flow rate of water through the heating element.

You're right, although pretty much every electric shower I've seen in the last thirty years has had four settings - off (no flow), cold (flow but no heat), low power (3-4kW) and high power (whatever the rated output is, 6-10kW).

At either low or high, the power is constant and the temperature is varied by adjusting the flow rate.

Apodemus

BooJewels said:

My understanding of an electric shower is that is uses the same electricity regardless of what temperature you choose (other than actually cold, then it's just the pump I think) - it changes the level of heat by adjusting the flow rate of water through the heating element.  So a warm shower will have a better flow than a very hot one, where you get less water coming through.  So if your water is metered, you might argue that it's potentially cheaper to run it hotter?

I've always worked on the assumption that my 9kW shower uses 150Wh per minute regardless of how hot I set it - so about 5.1p per minute at the moment.  Happy to be told otherwise if I've got it wrong.

I've also been pondering a similar question whilst considering dimmable LED smart lightbulbs.

Yes, except most electric showers have two heat settings, with the lesser running at a lower power level.  We can almost get away with the lower power level in summer, when the incoming cold water temperature is at its highest, but in the depths of winter, with incoming temp at 4C, even the 9kW setting struggles to give us enough flow for a decent shower.  So in summer, you can get the same temp and pressure at the low setting that you might in winter at the high setting...if you are lucky!

RobM99

I don't know if my shower is 6.85 kwh @ 2.83 litres per minute at 39.06 °C @ 763MM Hg barometric pressure. I really don't care much. But...

Smart meter says it costs me 14p a go. As (humourously) stated before, hot water down the plug hole costs.

If the cost of a shower gives one palpitations then I suggest there are far bigger financial issues to be resolved.

BooJewels

QrizB said:

BooJewels said:

My understanding of an electric shower is that is uses the same electricity regardless of what temperature you choose (other than actually cold, then it's just the pump I think) - it changes the level of heat by adjusting the flow rate of water through the heating element.

You're right, although pretty much every electric shower I've seen in the last thirty years has had four settings - off (no flow), cold (flow but no heat), low power (3-4kW) and high power (whatever the rated output is, 6-10kW).

At either low or high, the power is constant and the temperature is varied by adjusting the flow rate.

Thanks for the clarification and to @Apodemus too.  I totally forgot about the 'medium' setting on mine until after I posted and saw it - mine's too cool to comfortably use, so it didn't come to mind.   Good to know how it works though.

Spoonie_Turtle

We did notice it on our bills when we were using the electric shower in eco mode (we have cold, eco, and hot).  I e-mailed Triton to ask the power rating for the eco mode, it's 4.5kW (9.5kW model shower).

theoretica

Another thing that makes a shower cheaper -per minute- is to have one with a lower water flow - either not turn it up to full, or have a flow restrictor fitted. You can get shower heads which are designed to give a decent shower with less water.