Shower struggling to heat water up

[Chris2001]

I confess I know little to nothing about plumbing here, so please bare with me.

We have an electric wall mounted shower in our bathroom (Aura LX200)and for the last 2 winters it really struggles to pump any hot water. We go from having it set to 6 or 7 in the summer to 9 or 10 in the winter and even then its not exactly toasty.

Now I am not sure if this type of unit heats the water up as it comes through or it takes it from the hot water tank. But I am assuming it heats it up on the way through.

So would that mean the water is fed directly from the header tank in the loft? I have been in the loft and checked the tank and of course the water is icy cold and there is no insulation around the tank.

Would this be the cause of the shower unit struggling to heat our water up? And is there anyway to improve the heat coming out of the unit?

 

[Agile]

At this time of year the water comes in at about 4 degrees compared with about 14 degrees during the warmer months.

You only have about 6-10 kW of power to heat that water so during the winter it cannot manage more than about 2-4 litres per minute.

Thats the problem of electric showers!

Tony

 

[Chris2001]

Thanks for the reply Agile. So pretty much there is nothing we can do then?