Burning Shower Electrics

[SUNRAY]

I was able to do a comparison between electric and combi both on pre-pay meters and for the sort of shower we have there really wasn't a difference between them. Can't find details now sadly.

 

[chuckalicious]

Now, I like a long shower, but even I wouldn't be in there for 30mins....

Swap the shower for a thermostatic one that runs off the boiler.

I did that with ours and never looked back.

Mira do a great range of magnaflo showers that work really well on our low pressure.

And it will be much cheaper to run!

To be honest I wish we had put one in when we built the extension, but we we sometimes have our main shower (off the combi) plus the electric at the same time and we’re worried the boiler wouldn’t cope with that rate of hot water at the same time, so we went for electric.

To run hot water to the shower now would require a whole lot of work and redecoration which can’t be justified right now.

 

[SUNRAY]

I was able to do a comparison between electric and combi both on pre-pay meters and for the sort of shower we have there really wasn't a difference between them. Can't find details now sadly.

Silly Sunray, In the same thread as my XL list: https://www.diynot.com/diy/threads/are-electric-showers-expensive-to-run.596162/

I automatically fit an electric shower in my properties. If nothing else, as Harry says it's a plan B for hot water.

There are numerous threads on here offering conflicting advice however an electric shower IS almost instant and wasted water in minimal. For me a shower is about 2 minutes and owning a rental property with an electric shower and a combi with prepay meters it was very easy to do comparitive tests AT PREPAY PRICES with a Worcester combi. About spring last year so not current prices:
Starting electric from total cold and directing to a bucket took about 3-4 seconds to be warm enough to get under. Filling 2 buckets with water (including warming up) took 2min 15 seconds. =6p
Shower mixer tap took 30 seconds to get hot and best part of 20 seconds to set the temperature, that was a whole bucket then 2 more buckets took 1 min 40 seconds = 7p

An hour or so later did a complete repeat, gas was quicker to regulate temperature so not quite a wasted bucket full =6p, electric =7p

Another hour gas = 6p, electric = 5p. Continuing for a repeat straight away G = 4p, E= 6p.

Totals for 3 showers from cold G = 19p, E=18p. Including the 4th shower G = 23p, E = 24p.

Times for filling were not measured for subsequent tests.

What I didn't think to check was the cost of gas powered shower for 2 mins 10 sec which will have to be more than my readings for 1 min 40 sec.

The resolution on the meters is to 1p so I can't be more accurate than that and hopefully explains variations, however bear in mind the electricity cost for running the boiler is not excluded from the reading for electric shower. On no occasion did it register as a cost but of course usage was metered.

My conclusion? from cold electric makes economical sense for my ablution habits of ~2 minutes, added to that less pollution and less water consumed. Also my own usage at home is a 10.5KW heater but I don't like turning into a lobster and it is extremely rare I use it on high power so my costs will be for a lower powered device, something like 7KW possibly.

Anyone spending longer in the shower (someone on here recently mentioned 20 minutes IIRC), gas appears to be more economical, more polution and more water used.

I haven't had a bath for maybe 20 years.

Additionally I have never understood the idea of heating water then cooling it with cold water in a mixer tap... how silly to waste the gas?

 

[securespark]

I was worried about running both at the same time, which is why I bought the Mira Magnaflo ones.

There is a small drop in flow when the second shower comes on, but it's not a disaster.
Considering my piddly water supply, it's not bad at all.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

I can’t agree with the less pollution for electricity. Less pollution at point of use perhaps but overall no considering much electricity generated using gas.

My God you really haven't understood the message have you? The idea is to move towards a) generating electricity without outputting CO2, and b) transporting energy using electricity. And for everyone to do their bit as early as possible. Before the earth is uninhabitable. The idea is not to say that we are still using gas so the whole thing must be a scam. And if you really are Winston1 be aware that the forum rules exclude having more than one user name.

 

[chuckalicious]

Although we are hugely moving away from the original topic, I do agree that the move to electric is in general, a good thing. Demand for a resource will always produce more efficient ways of getting the resource, so we may not have perfect electricity generating tech yet, but we hopefully will soon.

Same for electric cars. Yes they are heavily polluting at the battery production stage but battery tech is constantly being worked on and with investment and demand, will also become less polluting. We do need to move away from fossil fuels in general.

 

[DetlefSchmitz]

At the moment electrics generation is far from CO2 free.

Totally irrelevant - look at the trends, driven by legislation, to see where we are headed. Well... all except for you, and climate change deniers like you.

And who is Winston1?

That's exactly how he used to respond when he was called out about his previous aliases. Food for thought!

 

[securespark]

I can’t agree with the less pollution for electricity. Less pollution at point of use perhaps but overall no considering much electricity generated using gas.

Not sure I mentioned anything about pollution.