Low Flow head for electric shower ?

[swiftgti]

Hi All,

I'm trying to figure out if it's possible to fit a low flow head on an electric shower.
We have a Mira Zest 8.5kw and have been getting very high electricity bills since moving into our first house (~£160 p.q.) and there is only two of us both working, and the whole house is fitted with energy saving bulbs etc..
So we got one of those eletricity monitors and have found the shower pulls ~8-9 kw (as expected) when set to 'High' however it's only using about 4.5kw on Medium.. this is fine as Medium does get the water hot enough but I found I had to turn the mixer dial nearly all the way over to the 'hot' side in order to get it warm enough but when it's set that far over the water pressure drops from the head.

So I was wondering if fitting one of those 'low flow' heads would help?
I figured that it may give the feeling of a higher pressure and possibly help save electricity because there will be less cold water flowing to cool the heating element in the shower ?

But after a bit of googling I can't find any definitive answers as to if these heads can be used on an electric shower (I read the Mira branded one can't..) and I don't want to go damaging the shower by fitting one if it's not designed to work with them.

Any advice ?

Sorry for the long post

 

[seco services]

you'll more likely end up blowing the prd on the shower if you restrict the water flow out of the shower.

 

[Gavin77]

Share a shower, it worked for us!

seriously though, £160 a quarter seems a bit steep, even with the shower. We pay £160 a year for electricity (2 people, work during the day, energy efficient bulbs everywhere, appliances not left on, etc. gas shower though)

a 10 minute shower each at 10kw, would be approx 3.3kwh per day which is £30 per quarter.

As for your question about the shower head, dont know. If you could find a head that reduced the flow *a little* it would probably work, but too much and the shower is likely to overheat. (i think)

 

[swiftgti]

damn I knew that solution would be too easy!

Looks like I'm stuck with it on high then!

 

[JohnD]

off topic a bit, but what did you find was the energy usage from your fridge/freezer/washing machine/tumble drier/computer? I suspect these to be using a fair bit, I have a meter on order but not arrived yet so I would be interested to compare my use to yours.

 

[swiftgti]

its quite scary when you can see it all adding up.. lol

At idle, so just fridge/freezer, wireless router, cable modem, microwave on but not running, we are using 0.22kwh
So even at idle we are getting on for nearly 5.5kwh in 24hrs !
Computer seems to use about 180w
Electric oven is about 3 kw @ 150'c while its heating

Not checked much else, only got it yesterday... I too would be interested to hear what everyone elses 'idle' reading is who has one of these boxes.

 

[GRC]

Take shorter showers, shower together or take fewer showers.

"Ah cannae change the laws o' physics, captain!"

The electric shower works on the principle of heating the water as it passes through a tank. As you've found, the heating is variable between two settings; Med & High.

You adjust the temperature within the constraints of these settings by varying the flow rate through the tank. Lower temps the water flows faster, higher temps require the water to stay longer in the tank and hence flow slower.

You can juggle with flow rate, power, etc but at the end of the day, if you want the water a certain temperature, with a certain flow rate, with a set rating of heating element, there's a limited range of possibilities......

 

[Gavin77]

I too would be interested to hear what everyone elses 'idle' reading is who has one of these boxes.

80 Watts .That is fridgefreezer, Cordless phone and the humax PVR. Everything else which has a standbye current such as the wifi router, cable modem, hifi and microwave is switched off at the plug when not in use.