Electric v Mixture Shower

Can anyone help. I want to install a shower upstairs. The house is located in Brittany. The cold water pressure is high and this feeds into a hot water tank - which presumably is under relatively high pressure. Question 1. Could I install a mixer shower upstairs. The shower head would be approx 4 feet above the hot water tank outlet - would there be enough pressure. Question 2. If there wouldn't be enough pressure I could install an electric shower. The highest rating that I can find locally is 3W. Apparently this is OK so folk say because the water pressure is high - I can't quite get my head around that just yet. Anyway, what do you reckon - what are my options.
My best wishes and thanks.

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lynda, moderator

Its more of a plumbing question, so i have moved it, and it is NOT a UK electric question (since it is related to France)

Billi said:

The highest rating that I can find locally is 3W.

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are you sure about that? my car tail light is brighter than that (3w)

If you have a high pressure unvented system, then that would be a better route to take, it is very rare an electric can better this, especially if you only have access to 3kw. Most uk domestic showers operate at 7 kw upwards.

Are you able to set up a temporary shower off of some bath taps using one of those cheap rubber mixer things?? This can give you an idea of what to expect with a mixer.

Billi said:

Can anyone help. I want to install a shower upstairs. The house is located in Brittany. The cold water pressure is high and this feeds into a hot water tank - which presumably is under relatively high pressure. Question 1. Could I install a mixer shower upstairs. The shower head would be approx 4 feet above the hot water tank outlet - would there be enough pressure.

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Have a look round outside ..is there a tall concrete structure like a funnell shape near to the town? it`s a tour de l`eau........and I was well impressed by the way they deliver water from them while holidaying in France and also their railways, road engineering , bridges etc. ...Tour D`Eiffell ain`t bad either

Nige F said:

Have a look round outside ..is there a tall concrete structure like a funnell shape near to the town? it`s a tour de l`eau........and I was well impressed by the way they deliver water from them while holidaying in France

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not as good as this one

yes it is a genuine water tower, in America, of course

more details are here

The highest rating that I can find locally is 3W. Apparently this is OK so folk say because the water pressure is high - I can't quite get my head around that just yet.

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You're right, that's recipe for a high pressure tepid shower.
The only place I've seen 3kW showers is Belgium, same mentality I suppose.

4ft head gravity showers can be just reasonable, if you have really low resistance fittings - ie pipes and mixer designed for it. May be hard to get in France but OK in UK. Mira 88 comes to mind but is old - I'm not up to date.

grrinc - thanks I did as you suggested and the water pressure turned out to be really good. chrisr - thanks it was as you said the best option - we managed to get good fittings here. I now have a mixture shower fed from the mains cold and pressurised hot water - no need for an electric option - thats why there are no power showers and so few electric showers in the shops. Thanks to you both for giving me the push to do it.

Bill