gas to electric

[madcatladyforever]

Does anyone know how hard it is to switch a gas shower to an electric shower. I'd prefer an electric shower in case the boiler goes and I'm left without hot water. At least then I can either have a bath or a shower if one or the other breaks down.
i don't know how much mess it would make, I'm guessing all the tiles will have to come off.

You haven't got a hot-water cylinder then?

An electric shower needs a powerful dedicated circuit, and (usually) a cold-water pipe at mains pressure. It will not deliver much hot water, especially in winter.

It will take an intolerably long time to fill a hot bath, especially in winter.

We had an electric shower put in, with a powerful pump - yes it made a ton of mess, although the bathroom was being redone anyway so it didn't matter. But it's the best shower I've ever used, I still appreciate it 4 years after fitting. We Definitely would recommend!

An electrically-heated shower can never provide a substantial amount of hot water, because of the limited amount if energy the electrical circuit can provide.

They are usually in the 10kW to 12kW range and can deliver around 4 litres per minute

A modern combi boiler is often around 30kW and can deliver around 12 litres per minute (less in winter)

A modern unvented cylinder may hold around 250 litres of pre-heated water ready for use and may be able to deliver 12 to 20 litres per minute, regardless of season. An older cylinder with a pump may be able to do the same but is usually not as big.

We have one electric shower and one shower from the com I boiler . As you say we do find it handy if anything was wrong with the boiler we can still have a shower. It's just a standard triton shower and was put in when we had the extension with our en suite. I remember had to have a higher electrical supply cable than standard . It's been great !

Electric shower needs one pipe supplying cold water and one electricity feed.
Whilst the cold water pipe can be visible, surface mounted (If that’s ok with you ) as far as I know , the cable has to be the wall for safety reasons.
So there’s one hole going to be made as far as ‘mess’ is concerned.
As @PigletJohn says , that cable needs to run to a consumer unit, aka fuse box, and have its own dedicated circuit breaker when it gets there.
Probably more mess down at the consumer unit than the shower end to put one in.

Is the wall where you want the shower a solid wall or a stud partition ?