Hi all
I know what you're probably thinking - first time forum poster, a question about an electric shower and DIY....here we go again.
I've done a lot of searching and reading so far and have learnt this is a bit of an annoyance here, so I just want to reassure everyone - I fully plan to get my local electrician in for the wiring up / turning on the power.
With that to one side, I do want to be as armed with as much information as I can be.
I recently had someone around to give me a quote for what I wanted and it was a rather bad experience. Conflicting information, a silly price (only for this to keep changing) and not being convinced he actually knew what he was on about ("Don't worry about part P mate") have caused me to read up on this a lot more.
I really just want to check that my idea is sound, before getting another guy in who has been personally recommended and has good reviews.
I have a 9.5kw shower. I can't run the power through the walls - it would need a huge amount of work doing and disruption, which just isn't an option.
Am I correct in thinking this is an acceptable solution:
A 10mm² cable from the shower straight up into the loft, with a metal shield covering the front facing side of the cable towards the room. This section will be embedded in the wall and plastered over. Space will be left around the cable for cooling.
This cable will go across the loft directly to a 50A pull cord switch that will be mounted in the same room as the shower.
A cable will then go from the isolation switch, across the loft (short distance), outside via a hole in the wall and into plastic conduit that goes down the side of the house. This will end level with where the fuse box is internally, which should allow the cable to come back through the wall and be wired up in the fuse box. Each end of this conduit would have terminators on to help keep waster and moisture out.
This entire run of cable is probably no more than 10 meters, with the isolation switch to the shower being another 3 at most.
I am aware that the cable has to be proper 10mm² for the internal wire and not the width of the sheath.
The walls are insulated, but it would only be travelling through them inside<>outside and not running within. I'd make sure the plastic conduit outside wasn't tight and the cable had some room within. With a 10mm² cable, I'm hoping overheating wouldn't be an issue here?
The consumer unit is a Memera 2000. Getting new MCBs for this seems very difficult from what I've read. I'm hoping that a 40A MCB will suffice, as I can obtain these from Ebay without too much difficulty. I worked it out as 9500/240 = ~39.6 amps.
Does this all sound fairly....sound? The last guy I had in wanted to rip out the consumer unit and replace it, even though the house is only around 8 years old.
I'd like to do most of this myself due to mass decoration going on.
Assuming everything above seems fine, I take it this is okay as long as it's never attached to the consumer unit (I wouldn't dare)?
Would the electrician want to see that the cable is a single run / anything else at all places? If so, it would mean I can't just put the cable in and plaster over it - which is fine, as long as I know.
The idea is to do as much as I possibly can, safely, before getting someone in to check and certify it and getting them to wire up the CU / turn the power on.
Thanks for any input
I know what you're probably thinking - first time forum poster, a question about an electric shower and DIY....here we go again.
I've done a lot of searching and reading so far and have learnt this is a bit of an annoyance here, so I just want to reassure everyone - I fully plan to get my local electrician in for the wiring up / turning on the power.
With that to one side, I do want to be as armed with as much information as I can be.
I recently had someone around to give me a quote for what I wanted and it was a rather bad experience. Conflicting information, a silly price (only for this to keep changing) and not being convinced he actually knew what he was on about ("Don't worry about part P mate") have caused me to read up on this a lot more.
I really just want to check that my idea is sound, before getting another guy in who has been personally recommended and has good reviews.
I have a 9.5kw shower. I can't run the power through the walls - it would need a huge amount of work doing and disruption, which just isn't an option.
Am I correct in thinking this is an acceptable solution:
A 10mm² cable from the shower straight up into the loft, with a metal shield covering the front facing side of the cable towards the room. This section will be embedded in the wall and plastered over. Space will be left around the cable for cooling.
This cable will go across the loft directly to a 50A pull cord switch that will be mounted in the same room as the shower.
A cable will then go from the isolation switch, across the loft (short distance), outside via a hole in the wall and into plastic conduit that goes down the side of the house. This will end level with where the fuse box is internally, which should allow the cable to come back through the wall and be wired up in the fuse box. Each end of this conduit would have terminators on to help keep waster and moisture out.
This entire run of cable is probably no more than 10 meters, with the isolation switch to the shower being another 3 at most.
I am aware that the cable has to be proper 10mm² for the internal wire and not the width of the sheath.
The walls are insulated, but it would only be travelling through them inside<>outside and not running within. I'd make sure the plastic conduit outside wasn't tight and the cable had some room within. With a 10mm² cable, I'm hoping overheating wouldn't be an issue here?
The consumer unit is a Memera 2000. Getting new MCBs for this seems very difficult from what I've read. I'm hoping that a 40A MCB will suffice, as I can obtain these from Ebay without too much difficulty. I worked it out as 9500/240 = ~39.6 amps.
Does this all sound fairly....sound? The last guy I had in wanted to rip out the consumer unit and replace it, even though the house is only around 8 years old.
I'd like to do most of this myself due to mass decoration going on.
Assuming everything above seems fine, I take it this is okay as long as it's never attached to the consumer unit (I wouldn't dare)?
Would the electrician want to see that the cable is a single run / anything else at all places? If so, it would mean I can't just put the cable in and plaster over it - which is fine, as long as I know.
The idea is to do as much as I possibly can, safely, before getting someone in to check and certify it and getting them to wire up the CU / turn the power on.
Thanks for any input