Replacing Triton shower

[custardbomb]

Hello,

I've recently purchased my first house, and have moved from having a gravity fed system on a combi to a Triton electric shower on a conventional system. It's quickly become apparent quite how expensive these are to run, so although this isn't a job I'll be undertaking myself I'd appreciate some advice on what options may be open to me. I know I could simply opt for a pumped power shower e.g. an Aqualisa however are there any middle of the road options that mean I would be able to benefit from the hot water supply from the tank heated by gas boiler. I appreciate that it may take a while to break even but I'm wiling to consider all options as I don't envisage moving house anytime soon.

Thanks.

 

[CBW]

What are you saying is expensive, the shower or boiler?

 

[custardbomb]

Hello, in this case I'm referring to the options for an upgraded shower system.

 

[CBW]

So, you could replace the electric shower with a thermostatic mixer shower, and this can be run from the combi.

 

[blup]

I would keep the electric shower, a power shower can empty the tank, with electric you only heat what you need and it's available for use if the boiler goes down.

Blup

 

[Madrab]

You mentioned that you had a gravity system on a combi - that would be a rare beast indeed, not the normal setup but have done a couple.

If you have a conventional hot water cylinder and gravity fed hot and cold water and a heat only/system boiler then there are a few options

1) Replace the electric shower with a new one - cheapest option and uses what's currently in place re the leccy supply and mains cold water as per your current shower. I hate them though, they're terrible in the winter and not very cost effective with a larger family.
2) Power shower - looks like your electric shower but has an in built pump. The shower will need 2 new H&C supply pipes run, one from the cylinder and one from the cold water cistern. Could use the current leccy supply but they tend to be quite noisy but it is a pretty compact system.
3) Remote power shower - like the aqualisa that uses a remote processor that houses the pump, it is a quieter option but it's expensive and would need it's own gravity fed hot and cold supplies. Need to make good with the wall when leccy shower removed
3) Whole house/shower stand alone pump, usually sited next to the HW cylinder, quite expensive and still needs new H&C supplies to be run like the power shower. Again need to make good.

If you want to use the gravity system for the shower then regardless of what system you go for it will need it's own hot and cold supply (apart from a like for like leccy of course).

it's available for use if the boiler goes down.Blup

As you have a gravity system and a hot water cylinder just now, then just for clarity, if the boiler did 'go down' then you would normally have an immersion element in the cylinder to heat the HW as a fail safe/back up.