Hi, i'd like to install a power shower on the cheap!

Next to my bathroom is a cupboard that was originally intended for an
imersion heater, i've a combi boiler thingy so the imersion is not
needed.

Can i use the electrical wiring from the outlet intended for the
imersion heater to power my shower. It would save any additional
wiring throughout my home. The imersion outlet is seperate on my fuse
box with an 16A fuse.

Cheers.

On 8 Sep 2003 12:45:06 -0700, (Ben)
wrote:

Hi, i'd like to install a power shower on the cheap!

Next to my bathroom is a cupboard that was originally intended for an
imersion heater, i've a combi boiler thingy so the imersion is not
needed.

Can i use the electrical wiring from the outlet intended for the
imersion heater to power my shower. It would save any additional
wiring throughout my home. The imersion outlet is seperate on my fuse
box with an 16A fuse.

Cheers.


Presumably you mean an electrically heated shower run from the cold
water mains....

If so, no the immersion heater supply (neither cable nor fuse) are
adequate.

You would need to install a more substantial cable and increase the
fuse to the appropriate ratings recommended by the shower
manufacturer. *DO NOT* just increase the fuse without uprating the
cable unless you fancy a visit from the fire brigade.

The other type of power shower is simply an electric pump, which you
could run from this electrical supply after adding a fused connection
unit to the end of the cable. However, these showers are intended to
operate with low pressure, tank fed systems, not mains water combi
boilers.

..andy

To email, substitute .nospam with .gl

Hi, i'd like to install a power shower on the cheap!
(snip)
i've a combi boiler thingy so the imersion is not needed.

You are getting confused by terminology here.

1. The term "power shower" refers to a system that use a pump on your stored
gravity fed hot water system. You don't appear to have such a system, so
this is not possible, although the wiring described would be suitable for
such a shower.

2. The term "electric shower" refers to a system which heats water
instantaneously. This takes a lot of electricity and needs huge cables. An
immersion heater is 3kW. A shower around 10kW. The supply intended for the
immersion will be simply inadequete for this.

3. You say you have a combi boiler. This should provide an excellent shower,
vastly superior to an electric shower. Why are you wishing to install an
electric one?

Christian.

"Christian McArdle" wrote in message et...
Hi, i'd like to install a power shower on the cheap!
(snip)
i've a combi boiler thingy so the imersion is not needed.

You are getting confused by terminology here.

1. The term "power shower" refers to a system that use a pump on your stored
gravity fed hot water system. You don't appear to have such a system, so
this is not possible, although the wiring described would be suitable for
such a shower.

2. The term "electric shower" refers to a system which heats water
instantaneously. This takes a lot of electricity and needs huge cables. An
immersion heater is 3kW. A shower around 10kW. The supply intended for the
immersion will be simply inadequete for this.

3. You say you have a combi boiler. This should provide an excellent shower,
vastly superior to an electric shower. Why are you wishing to install an
electric one?

Christian.

Hmm, damn, guess nothing in life is ever simple!

I suppose i thought i wanted an electric shower from what you guys
have said and that my current wiring just aint going to be up to the
job.

I do have a combi boiler, but it doesn't seem to make for a good
shower... is hard to get the temperature right.
I'm quite poor and only had a thingy that attached to the taps, was
quite a posh nice shiny plastic one!
Is there some kind of weird device that would be better?

Thanks.

"Ben" wrote
| Hmm, damn, guess nothing in life is ever simple!
| I suppose i thought i wanted an electric shower from what you guys
| have said and that my current wiring just aint going to be up to the
| job.
| I do have a combi boiler, but it doesn't seem to make for a good
| shower... is hard to get the temperature right.
| I'm quite poor and only had a thingy that attached to the taps, was
| quite a posh nice shiny plastic one!
| Is there some kind of weird device that would be better?

1. Check both hot and cold are being fed from the mains - your hot water
through the combi will be mains, but your cold may still be from a tank
(like the hot was, presumably). You could install a pump to bring the cold
up to a similar pressure, but it would be better to replumb the bath/shower
to run directly from the cold mains. You could keep the loft tank for the
loo cisterns (possibly quieter filling, and also a reserve in case of mains
water failure).

.... then when both the hot and cold are similar pressure ...

2. Fit a proper thermostic shower mixer

Owain

"Owain" wrote in message
...
"Ben" wrote

| I do have a combi boiler, but it doesn't seem to make for a good
| shower... is hard to get the temperature right.
| I'm quite poor and only had a thingy that attached to the taps, was
| quite a posh nice shiny plastic one!
| Is there some kind of weird device that would be better?

---8,---

2. Fit a proper thermostic shower mixer

The one that BES does for about £100 (inc VAT) seems to work nicely on a
combi. You have to install it sunk into the wall, and supply your own hose
and head etc. Screwfix do a surface mounting one (you can recess the supply
pipes) even cheaper including a basic cheapy head etc, which works OK on
mixed gravity hot + mains cold but I haven't tried it on a combi.


hth

--
John Stumbles
-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
-+
Load dropped, paperwork completed: job done.