Electric shower or bath tap mixer
- Thread starter Fallout
- Start date
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'fraid not. You can get more that a 10deg swing winter > summer with the mains especially up here in the north. See it all the time when completing Benchmarks. Lowest I've had was 3Deg in the winter, highest, if I remember rightly was 14Deg.
Guess location does play a role though
Yorkshire!
Not too far south then but we do get significant temp swings with our cold water up here, as suggested. I only know as mentioned due to the benchmark figures for H + C water we have to take when commissioning and it can be quite a swing summer to winter.
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Variation will depend on how deep the pipes are in the ground - the deeper, the less the variation, irrespective of location in the country - apart from maybe soil conditions.
Variation will depend on how deep the pipes are in the ground - the deeper, the less the variation, irrespective of location in the country - apart from maybe soil conditions.
Electric has disadvantages too.
If it's a new installation it needs heavy supply cable.
It costs more to run than gas. Per kWh elec is ~ 4x dearer than gas, admittedly more losses with gas, but gas still more economical.
For my money, a stored water shower, gravity or pumped, or via an unvented cylinder, has a lot going for it.
With an electric or combi, it can fail part way through a shower. Maybe not likely, but if it's winter and you're covered in soap when it happens, it's an unpleasant experience, and not much fun in the summer! Happened to a friend of mine with a combi a few years back.
With stored water, if the boiler fails you still have a cylinder full of hot water to finish your shower. You can then switch on the immersion while you investigate. That happened to me a few years ago, luckily it was springtime so loss of CH while I found and fixed the problem wasn't critical.
My way of thinking is that a combi is the 'poor mans' option. More expensive to install is a stored open vented system, but not necessary the more expensive to run, depending of course on how you use it. I appreciate electric per kwh is more expensive than gas, but an e-shower is much more economical of both water and kwh for the time it is in use - quicker to temperature, quicker to cool, unless you insist on long, luxurious showers the e-shower wins. They are also more reliable than gas heated, as well as serving as a backup to gas.
Neither of us spend long in the shower, in washed, rinsed and out - a bath is for a relaxing long soak. We each have a daily shower, usually first thing and with other things lined up to get on with.
Combis and electric showers aren't likely to be options at all in the future, as if gas goes away so does the combi boiler, and switching on a 10kW electrical load in every property isn't likely particularly once a large number of heat pumps and electric vehicles are connected, and isn't compatible with solar panels, battery storage and similar either.
Stored hot water heated at a relatively low power over a longer period is far more likely - it's literally the old ways are best.
Stored hot water heated at a relatively low power over a longer period is far more likely - it's literally the old ways are best.
It really comes down to what you want. You know what an electric shower feels like, do you know anyone with a combi fed mains shower that you can try? You'll then see the difference, I know which one I would want.
I've had all three, 10.8Kw Mira sport with aquaboost with a good cold mains, 32Kw combi with a good cold mains and now I am spoiled with an unvented cylinder with a 3bar dynamic mains. I like a nice strong shower and an electric shower just doesn't quite get there, especially in winter.
I've had all three, 10.8Kw Mira sport with aquaboost with a good cold mains, 32Kw combi with a good cold mains and now I am spoiled with an unvented cylinder with a 3bar dynamic mains. I like a nice strong shower and an electric shower just doesn't quite get there, especially in winter.
Agreed, the few I've had experience of gave poor temperature control at the shower.
That depends where you're starting from, anywhere from an old house with no central heating, up to a house with a CH system that you want to tag a shower on to. And the detailed layout.
Not for a given volume of water used. A combi with 30-odd kW to go at has a much higher maximum flow than a 10.5 kW electric, but no need to run it flat out (if you're trying to economise). Though the cost of a shower, gas or electric, is unlikely to be a concern.
They install combi's for simplicity in installation and the amount of pipework. Simplicity means a lot lower cost. None of that extra pipe work to the F&E, no F&E, no cylinder needed and boiler can be a one box solution, until it goes wrong.
If a 30Kw flow is available, people will tend to run it flat out. However, everytime there is a demand for hot water, even a cup full the system has to fire up, so lots of extra wear and tear. I agree cost of either type is quite negligeable.
I agree, I'm against combis too! What I was also thinking was if there is CH a system in place and you want to add a shower, there's a choice to make between electric and mixer (fed from a combi or stored water)
I have a gravity shower, not a blistering job but quite adequate. It has temperature control only as you always want it at maximum available flow so separate flow control unnecessary, and more expensive. I suppose people might run a high-flow shower at maximum, but that defeats the object of a dual-control mixer.
D
Deleted member 292770
electric showers are ridiculously expensive to run , especially if theres a few using it every day.
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