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Decent electric shower

14 replies

humblesims · 03/09/2017 09:56

I'm planning to remove the bath from our bathroom. We have no central heating so we dont use the bath at all in the winter (we use a shower from the mixer taps). I want to replace it with a decent cost efficient electric shower and heater. I dont even know where to start in terms of finding a reliable person to do the work (handyman/builder to remove old ceramic bath and remove tiles and windowsill) and a plumber to fit the shower and radiator. I guess I'll need an electrician too? I have never had to do anything like this. I thougt I'd start by looking at showers. Can anyone recommend a good make or somewhere to start. As we wont have a bath it needs to be up to the job of showering four people everyday.

OP posts:
JT05 · 03/09/2017 10:00

We've always used Mira showers, they've been well made and reliable.

humblesims · 03/09/2017 10:23

thanks JT05 I'll start there....

OP posts:
PigletJohn · 03/09/2017 11:19

no such thing, sorry.

All electric showers have a feeble flow of water, which will be lukewarm in winter.

For example, a typical combi boiler will have about 30kW of power, and can deliver about ten litres of hot water per minute. A typical electric shower will have about one-third the power and deliver one-third the hot water.

A modern unvented cylinder can deliver about twenty litres per minute, if your waterpipes are adequate.

If you already have a shower, use it to fill a bucket. Time it to full and calculate how many litres per minute it delivers. Ask yourself how much water you would consider "good."

WhereAmIGoingWhatAmIDoing · 03/09/2017 11:23

We have Mira too, an electric boiler and storage heaters. Shower works very well, lasted years and lots of pressure. And had a Mira one in my last house, was fantastic then too

PigletJohn · 03/09/2017 11:25

p.s.

As you may know, energy from electricity currently costs more than four times as much as energy from gas.

For example, I am now paying just over 12p per kWh for electricity, so a 10kW electric shower would cost me £1.20 per hour. My gas is 2.75p per kWh. Your prices may vary.

PigletJohn · 03/09/2017 11:27

pps

By "electric shower" you mean one that heats its own water, right?

Not a hot-water cylinder heated with an immersion heater, and feeding a shower mixer?

humblesims · 03/09/2017 11:43

I have a hot water cylinder heater with immersion heater so both are an option. I figured an electric shower that heats its own water would be more efficient but, as I said, I know nothing which is why I was asking. Thanks for your input.

OP posts:
PigletJohn · 03/09/2017 12:21

An immersion heater warms water at the rate of about 1 litre per minute. Unless you have an unvented (white) one, the pressure is quite low, but you can get a shower pump to use with any mixer, or some showers include their own pump (tends to be more expensive). With a pump, the cold water has to be pumped from your loft tank, not the watermain.

You can get a good forceful shower using a pump, and because the water is heated in advance, you might get, say, ten minutes at ten litres per minute before it runs out. Longer if it is mixed e.g. 50:50 hot and cold.

This would be the most economical way of changing from bath to shower.

When you have several people wanting showers, there can be an annoying delay before the cylinder re-heats.

(modern gas boilers have about ten times the power of immersion heaters, so they reheat the cylinder faster)

Because unvented (white) cylinders can deliver hot water so fast, people usually have rather big ones. 250litres is quite common. This is rather heavy and they are often installed on the ground floor. If you are considering one, you may need your incoming water pipe upgraded to deliver water fast enough. This is a very good solution, but probably the most expensive, especially as you do not have a gas boiler.

Because electric showers are so weedy in water delivery, they are often fitted in a "second shower room" to avoid queues for the bathroom, when you might accept the weak flow.

humblesims · 03/09/2017 14:30

Thanks Piglet for taking the time to go through that with me, it's really really helpful. I will digest it....

OP posts:
WhereAmIGoingWhatAmIDoing · 03/09/2017 15:45

Pretty sure my mira 'thermostatic' uses pre heated water from water tank as water goes cold if we have very long showers, like 30 mins plus showers. Both me and partner have showers every morning and it's fine, extremely strong water pressure and hot. Not sure 100% how it works as was here when we moved in, but its a great shower and probably quite a few years old. We have no gas as live very rural, economy 7 heating and storage heaters

WhereAmIGoingWhatAmIDoing · 03/09/2017 15:56

Hey OP the Mira website has loads of help on it, you can find out what sort of shower to use for water supply/boiler too so check it out.

PigletJohn reading through your post still not sure what kind of shower we have but it is effective at least 😊 we have an old green hot water tank, all electric heated through economy 7 over night. Takes ages to heat up sometimes but once hot we seem to get a decent amount of showers. If hot water hasn't been 'on' the shower seems to run cold.

RandomMess · 03/09/2017 15:59

Just go the whole hog and improve your hot water and central heating... Grin

RandomMess · 03/09/2017 16:02

Decent electric shower is relative, if you've had an awful one then the best one is going to seem decent? Best electric versus ours from mains pressure hot water is no comparison (we have ace mains pressure and some unvented cylinder thing as per pigletjohns recommendation).

namechangedtoday15 · 03/09/2017 18:23

We have a normal shower in the main bathroom (which comes off the combi boiler) and a very good - after much research - electric Mira shower in the ensuite.

As Pigletjohn describes, the electric shower is perfectly adequate and if timings mean the children are all in and out of the bathroom when I want a shower, no problem using the ensuite.

But, if I have a choice, I'd have a shower in the main bathroom every time. Much more powerful flow, seems to get hotter.

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