Aqualisa Quartz shower isolation...

[MattChan]

Quick question about these digital shower things such as the Aqualisa Quartz, basically they are an electronically controlled mixer valve located in the loft with a SELV control switch mounted in the shower enclosure.

Should these have a pull cord isolator switch mounted in the room with the shower or is that only required for the electric showers with a heater built in?

 

[Chri5]

You need an accessable isolation method, if you intend to run the unit via the lighting circuit I would suggest a fused spur as the isolation outside the bathroom.

 

[ericmark]

A good question. The isolator is normally fitted within sight of the shower so anyone working on it can see it is isolated. So maybe it should be fitted in the loft? Of course most showers are supplied from their own MCB so the whole circuit can be isolated at the consumer unit and I don't know of any rule which says you must have an isolator. However the MCB is single pole so does not isolate in many cases so to fit one in the loft would make some sense.

However unless lockable in theory you would still have to switch off whole supply and lock off or remove fuse. Since the DNO fuse is not removable by you and many consumer units do not have lockable lids this does bring to question the whole health and safety issue and the only way to safely work on the shower would in many cases be to remove the wires at the consumer unit. And one should not remove the lid of the consumer unit unless isolated else where. That brings us back to removing DNO's fuse which is also not allowed.

Quite obviously one has to take some risk but one needs to assess that risk and decide if it is acceptable. And although sticking tape over the MCB is against the rules I would guess that is the method used by many and if some one really wants to turn the power on while your working on it the locks that fit on MCB's are not going to stop them so may as well use tape on MCB after all anyone removing tape knows what it is there for so would be just as likely to remove a lock.

Which brings us back full circle have the isolator where it can be seen from the position of the shower. In your case the loft.

I would wait to see what others say but I am considering why we fit an isolator to a shower. And local isolation means local to current using equipment so in the loft.

 

[seco services]

i always fit them to 3 amp switched fused spur either in the airing cupboard or next to the unit.

 

[MattChan]

Cheers guys I have used a switched FCU with a 3A fuse in the airing cupboard with a 5A round pin socket mounted near the mixer in the loft. Then a 5A round pin plug on the end of the mixer power supply lead so that it can be totally disconnected at times of service / replacement!

I just wondered if there was a requirement for there to be an isolator in easy reach of the shower enclosure incase it wont switch off if the unit fails. One of the opto triacs died in mine which meant once on the unit never stopped until you killed the supply. Easy enough to fix but I had to get dry before I could stop it!