best point of power supply for a power shower

[chris11]

i am installing a power shower but would like to know the best place to draw electricity for it. i have been told that you can just gain electricity from the airing cupboard but is that a bit dodgy.
i was also told that its best to gain it fron the main ring of the house and just use a junction box and a rcd but i dont know what an rcd is.
please any help will be grand.

 

[breezer]

It is very nice of you to ask, but i am sorry to say that from what you have said so far you instill no confidence in me what so ever.

I would suggest that you either:

get several quotes to do the job.

learn more about electricity before you kill your self

would like to know the best place to draw electricity for it.

you also said

i dont know what an rcd is.
please any help will be grand.

remember this: electricity has no prejudices, it kills anyone

 

[nstreet]

i i have been told that you can just gain electricity from the airing cupboard but is that a bit dodgy.

Would be from my airing cupboard, theres no electrickery in it.

 

[GRC]

i am installing a power shower but would like to know the best place to draw electricity for it. i have been told that you can just gain electricity from the airing cupboard but is that a bit dodgy.
i was also told that its best to gain it fron the main ring of the house and just use a junction box and a rcd but i dont know what an rcd is.
please any help will be grand.

GRC - I saw an installation recently where the householder still had the instructions/installation manual for the shower concerned, which explicitly said (roughly) - "Power for this appliance should be taken from the household ring main, and additionally protected by an RCD" - the previous (supposedly competent) installer had taken power from the back of the lightswitch outside the bathroom!

Chris - Do you have the instructions/installation manual for your power shower? If so, where do they suggest you take power from? If you don't have the manual, suggest a visit to the manufacturer's website or phone their consumer helpline to request one. An RCD is a Residual Current Device, a safety device which cuts the power in certain fault conditions. Not a good idea to miss out on this aspect of the installation.....

Regards, Graham

 

[breezer]

If Chris11 can not figure out how to use the internet (i.e. find out what an rcd is and what it is for) then what chance has he of connecting his shower pump correctly and safely

 

[ban-all-sheds]

Would be from my airing cupboard, theres no electrickery in it.

Loads in mine - shower cable, upstairs lighting circuit, radial to sockets in the loft...

 

[andy]

Would be from my airing cupboard, theres no electrickery in it.

Loads in mine - shower cable, upstairs lighting circuit, radial to sockets in the loft...

all that kinda thing into our loft goes up a cavity in the side of the sitting room and bedroom

 

[chris11]

i unfortunatly dont have the owners manual, but will take your advise and contact the manufacturer.
as for there being no ELECTRICKERY in airing cupboards as n street puts it, i'll admit i'm no electrical enginering but i know there is definatly electricity in most airing cupboards as thats where the cylinder is and that has heating elements coming off it. and it also has a light and loads of other electrical appliances as andrew2022 states.
as for brezzer if you didnt notice you are responding to an internet forum. p.s my advise to you is there more to life than being a loser.
regards.

 

[andy]

i unfortunatly dont have the owners manual, but will take your advise and contact the manufacturer.
as for there being no ELECTRICKERY in airing cupboards as n street puts it, i'll admit i'm no electrical enginering but i know there is definatly electricity in most airing cupboards as thats where the cylinder is and that has heating elements coming off it. and it also has a light and loads of other electrical appliances as andrew2022 states.
as for brezzer if you didnt notice you are responding to an internet forum. p.s my advise to you is there more to life than being a loser.
regards.

you asked, he replied. from what you have said in the first post, i tend to agree that you do not know enough to do the job safely. after all, water and electricity DONT mix, and it doesnt have a second though wether it kills you or not. and i said than in my house, i have NO electrical cables in my airing cupboard

 

[GRC]

i unfortunatly dont have the owners manual, but will take your advise and contact the manufacturer.
as for there being no ELECTRICKERY in airing cupboards as n street puts it.......

Take it you weren't a Catweazle fan, then.........?

Regards, Graham

 

[breezer]

as i said you instill no confidence in me what so ever, you now say

......
as for there being no ELECTRICKERY in airing cupboards as n street puts it, i'll admit i'm no electrical enginering

you also say

but i know there is definatly electricity in most airing cupboards as thats where the cylinder is and that has heating elements coming off it.

This also shows you failiure to understand plumbing. not everyone has an imersion heater.

I look at it this way, i do not know you, i don't want to know you , how ever i am pleased that you asked first, but i do not wish to see you or you family killed by your obvious lack of understanding

to your comment

my advise to you is there more to life than being a loser.
regards.

i say this

in life there are 4 types of people:

Those who don't know they don't know

Those who don't know they know

Those who know they don't know

Those who know they know

which one are you?

 

[ban-all-sheds]

which one are you?

He probably doesn't know....

 

[Damocles]

Was that on yes minister?

Quite right. Electricity and water do not mix. water is an insulator. Dirty water now....

You can get electricity from heat, so with the right gadgetry you could generate some electricity from the hot tank. Of course, might be a lot more efficient just to PUMP the HOT WATER....

It is possible you could run a power shower off the lighting circuit as someone suggested, but really not to be recommended.

It is quite likely that there is enough spare capacity in the immersion heater supply to run a shower pump as well as the immersion. This is not recommended exactly, but is feasible. It would be safe and doable. You would need to do (or have done) something like adding a separate fused switch into the circuit to power the pump. If this is inside the airing cupboard, and if inside the airing cupboard does not count as being in the bathroom, then this would even be a job free from the dreaded part pee.

Is this pump the sort which also goes in the airing cupboard or is attached to the wall under the shower? If it is a free standing pump in the cupboard or wherever then RCD becomes rather less of an issue.

 

[bonebill]

i am installing a power shower but would like to know the best place to draw electricity for it. i have been told that you can just gain electricity from the airing cupboard but is that a bit dodgy.
i was also told that its best to gain it fron the main ring of the house and just use a junction box and a rcd but i dont know what an rcd is.
please any help will be grand.

No neither of these will work.

I think a bit of background might help you decide if you are confident about doing it. (For what follows, I have slightly simplified the terminology.) (I am not an electrician.)

A shower uses a lot of Amps; think 50 Amps or so and you will not be far off.

You can't safely get enough Amps from either your immersion heater circuit or a ring main.

A ring main will probably only be rated for 30 or 32 Amps total and you need some of those Amps for the things on the ring main, let alone trying to draw Amps for a shower. The immersion heater circuit will probably be rated even lower than the ring main.

The only way to get enough power for a shower is to take it from whereever your "main fuse board" is.

This will involve either using a separate "fuse" (it may be an actual fuse or a circuit breaker) in your "fuse board", or if your "fuse board" isn't big enough, then they will have to put in another one (in fact what they put in will be a "consumer unit") alongside your existing one.

(Doing work on your "fuse board" is an easy way to get yourself fatally electrocuted.)

Also, you need to be aware that a shower uses so much power that in an old house, your incoming supply for the whole house might not even be able to carry enough power to feed a shower. You need to get this checked by the man.

You are right about needing an RCD.

The wire from the "fuse board" to the shower will need to be really thick to be able to carry the 50 Amps. Maybe 10mm2 cross-sectional area for each of the live and neutral, but for this large amount of Amps the man will calculate the required thickness of wire depending on the conditions (total amount of Amps required, length of cable, what kind of things the cable passes through). If the cable is too thin you would risk burning the house down.

Unless you really know what you're doing, you should at least get a man in to do the electrical bits, even if you want to do the rest yourself.

 

[plugwash]

power shower generally refferes to a pumped unit fed from the hot water system

electric shower generally reffers to an instant heater shower like you just described

the original pster said power shower.