Electric showers - are they awful?

[Twoshoesnewshoes]

I’m trying to find ways to use less heating oil, to cut carbon emissions.
thinking of getting an electric shower in one of our two bathrooms so we can use this in the summer and mostly turn the boiler off.
but my experience of electric showers has been of standing under some pleasantly warm rain.
does anyone have a powerful electric shower?

We have a Mira shower - 9kW I think - which is decent. It is definitely not as good as the boiler powered shower, but we still use it most of the time cause neither of us really care and it's the one in the main bathroom!

Then just heat the water tank with the electric immersion heater. That’s what we do in the summer because it works out cheaper than firing up the gas boiler just for hot water. We have an a cheap night rate and 100% renewable electricity tariff.

It depends on whether you use the rest of the water. Or whether the current tank is well insulated.

My tank will keep water hot enough for showers for about 3 days which is crazy really when you consider as well as the heat loss the water inside is also being replenished by cold water as you take each shower which cools it down further.

The heat generally is only wasted in summer anyway, as when it leaves the tank it goes into your house meaning you need less heat to heat it ! Same as LED light bulbs.

Modern tanks are very well insulated, but if you have a really old one that is just copper then it will probably not keep the water hot for very long. You might improve it by getting a jacket for the tank.

Gas powered showers generally are more powerful and a lot cheaper than electric. Oil and LPG I don't know because the price fluctuates more. But I doubt whether they ever get as expensive as electric.

There is a reason people use gas powered showers !

It was a brand new refurb with brand new showers.

Something else must have just been cheap and crap.

To the other poster who said "odd, that usually happens with gas" - the house was on oil and I know they were electric because I sat and watched the in home energy monitor ticking up the electric with dismay.

@GasPanic yes the tank is about ten years old- not hot to touch so I guess well insulated?
maybe I’ll try heating every other day this summer and see how that works.
our immersion heater costs a fortune!

If it is 10 years old it should be well insulated and keep the water hot for a long time.

Mine is 20 years old and loses about 1kwh a day.

I don't get this?
Don't you have hot water normally? If your tank is cold then you'll only get cold water whenever you turn on a tap.

I think in summer we only use hot water for showers really.
it takes a while for hot water to reach the tap so it’s usually fairly cold for handwashing.
we have a dishwasher.

Our oil boiler is a combi, so it heats water as we use it and not a big tank.