Can I power an electric shower from my solar batteries?

[JohnD]

in addition to that .... I never seem to see (but would like to see) is what the 'cost saving' calculations would look like if one factored in paying for the capital cost ) of PV, batteries, fancy control systems etc.) over a period of a few years.

I realise that their are considerations of things other than (monetary) cost saving, but they are presumably not in the forefront of the minds of those who primarily write about, and calculate/estimate, thopse 'cost savings'.

Kind Regards, John

I did a calculation for £6k worth of batteries over 10 years, and it was was a money-loser.

I also did it for a £250 solar immersion controller. Money-loser.

People unlucky enough to have no gas supply may do better, because heating by electricity is so expensive.

 

[Mister Banks]

Family of four, showering 3 times a week is £6 a week at 50p. That said I think we take longer than 10 minutes to be honest, more like 20.
We have full batteries for over half the year, 26 weeks, makes that a potential cost saving of £156.
In reality it would be almost double that, so more like £250 to £312 a year.
That’s not a bad saving ?

A 20 minute shower! Is that possible? I shower daily in under 3 minutes.

 

[JohnW2]

A 20 minute shower! Is that possible? I shower daily in under 3 minutes.

You've obviously never lived with teenage daughters, who would probably regard a 20 min shower as 'a quickie'

Kind Regards, John

 

[StephenStephen]

If you're filling your battery by lunchtime - I would think the easiest way to reduce your bills would be to go onto the Octopus Flux tariff, and get paid about 35p/kWh for exporting between 4 and 7pm

 

[JohnD]

You've obviously never lived with teenage daughters, who would probably regard a 20 min shower as 'a quickie'

Kind Regards, John

A small cylinder will fix that.

I stayed as a place in Australia where each bathroom had its own cylinder, all solar powered, so no one user could take it all. They also wanted to reduce water use.

 

[JohnW2]

A small cylinder will fix that.

Oh, they used to empty the (average sized) cylinder quickly enough, but then demanded that the immersion be put on (during 'peak hours'), so that they could have "a proper shower later"

Fortunately, they are no longer (anything approaching) teenagers and no longer living in my house!

Kind Regards, John

 

[Rodders53]

Can I power an electric shower from my solar batteries?​

well I did a quick Google and I found: https://www.deegesolar.co.uk/best_solar_battery_storage/

Most common UK and EU households will use low voltage batteries with a discharge/charge rate of 3kW. High Voltage solar batteries, which are not common residentially, have a 5kW charge/discharge. A higher charge/discharge rate means that your solar battery is capable of handling higher base loads and surges. We are seeing these types of batteries becoming more popular in the home, as the energy demand within the home is constantly rising.

Now you need to look at the spec of your particular battery store for the charge/discharge rate... and compare that to the electric shower rating.
But it doesn't look likely to me that most domestic storage will be able to supply the needed current: so some will have to be imported during a shower.

Further reading suggests that any domestic battery-inverter system will be limited by the grid/dno to 3.68 or 5 kW output anyway.

A 7.2 kWh battery may only have around 6kWh of usable storage without battery damage due to too deep a discharge?

So the answer is, basically, no. While it may have enough stored energy to do so, it can't supply the energy fast enough. Probably. { Seek advice from a professional? e.g. the supplier-installer of your system. }

If there is a HW storage cylinder then that can be electrically heated by surplus solar and/or battery stored power. Costs of installing a HW store to replace combi gas HW for the shower is likely to have a rather long payback timescale though.

 

[SpecialK]

That sounds ideal.

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What boiler do you have? Some combis will take a hot water input...

 

[JohnD]

A combi can heat a cylinder or heatstore. You just make it like an additional zone.

HW from gas is so cheap that if you put a cylinder in, it will not be worth the extra cost of getting a solar immersion controller

 

[JohnW2]

HW from gas is so cheap that if you put a cylinder in, it will not be worth the extra cost of getting a solar immersion controller

Probably true at present.

However, although I may be wrong, I suspect that, in the longer term, the gas/electricity cost differential will probably progressively reduce, and may eventually even reverse. Traditionally, rises in electricity prices have been driven primarily by the cost of fuels, in recent times mainly gas and oil, and dramatically so over the past year or so. However, as the proportion of electricity generated from such fuels gradually decreases, that link will be progressively eroded, so that electricity prices should be determined only by actual cost of generating it (infrastructure and 'running'), regardless of what happens to the price of fuels.

... and, of course, in the very long term, domestic gas usage will probably become 'a thing of the past'!

Kind Regards, John

 

[JohnD]

Hurrah for windfarms!