Shower set up - what is more efficient

artyboy

Many thanks to everyone that took the time to respond here. What I'm taking from this is that it's not a clear cut decision one way or the other (sort of what I had thought might be the case...)

As it turns out, this is now all moot for the foreseeable, because I've had a bit of a reality check on what a full bathroom refurb is likely to cost, and it's going to get parked for now. No way would that ever pay back in terms of property appreciation, so we're going to focus on other stuff in the shorter term. Like switching to a cheaper tariff for starters!

I do however get the argument that an electric shower means you have hot water backup even if the immersion packs up, and also I've looked around and a lot of modern variants are pretty indistinguishable from 'regular' showers, in that you can hide the heater box so it's not sitting on the wall, and also get the mixer rainfall and side on head fittings. So my aesthetic issues are also gone and I think when we do get around to it, electric might be what we stick with...

Bendo

The problem with electric showers is, they are all absolutely rubbish unless you like a weak shower. Once you have had a mains pressure shower there is nothing worse than an electric dribble. 

QrizB

Bendo said:

The problem with electric showers is, they are all absolutely rubbish unless you like a weak shower. Once you have had a mains pressure shower there is nothing worse than an electric dribble. 

y parents had an instantaneous electric shower in their old house. It was only *really* disappointing in the depths of winter when the supply water was in single digits Celsius and you had a choice between a poor cool shower and a terrible warm one!

Spoonie_Turtle

QrizB said:

Bendo said:

The problem with electric showers is, they are all absolutely rubbish unless you like a weak shower. Once you have had a mains pressure shower there is nothing worse than an electric dribble. 

y parents had an instantaneous electric shower in their old house. It was only *really* disappointing in the depths of winter when the supply water was in single digits Celsius and you had a choice between a poor cool shower and a terrible warm one!

Yes, in the height of summer ours is too powerful for me, it hurts on any showerhead setting (the previous one we used to use the eco setting at the controls to reduce the flow, but that's not possible with the new one the Housing Association put in for the wet room).

SAC2334

GingerTim said:

wrf12345 said:

 the benefits of taking a cold shower each morning and consider not heating water at all

Life's too short.

Dr Michael Mosley the TV health Doctor  was recommending cold showers as a health benefit just before he died on a Greek Island in a heat wave . Definitely too short a life for that lark 

spenderdave

Your question depends very much on how  you  heat your domestic hot water. I have a traditional hot water cylinder with a large header tank in the loft, heated by my gas boiler which is set to do in a couple of shortish  sessions morning and evening. Shower fed directly from the bath hot water feed, works fine though  flow  could be a bit better as there is no  pump. I do not even notice the shower hot  water use, there is adequate hot  water for the whole day regardless. In  this case a direct shower is by  far the cheapest way. If you use an immersion heater using electricity it is less clear cut.

artyboy

spenderdave said:

Your question depends very much on how  you  heat your domestic hot water. I have a traditional hot water cylinder with a large header tank in the loft, heated by my gas boiler which is set to do in a couple of shortish  sessions morning and evening. Shower fed directly from the bath hot water feed, works fine though  flow  could be a bit better as there is no  pump. I do not even notice the shower hot  water use, there is adequate hot  water for the whole day regardless. In  this case a direct shower is by  far the cheapest way. If you use an immersion heater using electricity it is less clear cut.

And a tank with 2 immersion heaters is exactly what we have here - there is no gas. Otherwise I'd agree that it would be a much easier call to make.

I'm also hoping that there are sufficiently powerful electric showers on the market now that can cope with winter temperature cold water without significantly affecting flow rate. Yes they will use more energy to heat the water, but so would the tank immersion heaters.

One for me to research further next year when we pick this up again!

QrizB

artyboy said:

I'm also hoping that there are sufficiently powerful electric showers on the market now that can cope with winter temperature cold water without significantly affecting flow rate.

I'm used to showers being 7.2 or 8.4 kW, but I see there are now 10+ kW showers so you might be in luck.

Example:

https://www.screwfix.com/p/triton-enrich-white-10-5kw-manual-electric-shower/85818

Scot_39

One national trade / retail small warehouse type chain has showers rated 7.5 to 10.8 kWh, quite a range, with 9.5kW most common and 8.5kW second most.

My old shower was replaced c2 yrs ago but stuck with the 8.5kW rating due to CU MCB - only 40A, being borderline for 9.5kW (45A recommended iirc these days). It was one of the cheapest - a Triton -  at local outlet - but offered higher flow at its quoted 1 bar rating tban some others.

It was a bad outlay month too - car insurance, breakdown cover, service, mot work etc 

I think it could do with more power in tge coldest days in winter - but most of the time its usable but not exactly refreshing / invigourating after a hard day or bike run on colder days.  

But more than warm enough in summer (too hot initially in summer so always have to start on low power mode until house pipe run content cleared through.)

I'll definitely think about going higher next time, funds and mcb availability pending and cable sizing checked properly.