Instant electric showers

Instant electric showers

Instant electric showers are very convieneient appliances which have become popular with today's busy lifestyle. They operate by passing the water through a heated electric element which heats the water instantly and passes it through to the shower head. Modern electric showers are very safe and offer a comfortable shower. Electric showers come in two main forms

Water mains connection

A mains electrical shower is connected to the rising main which comes direct from the city supply up to the storage tank in the loft. They are suitable when the incoming pressure is succiently high to operate the shower.

Pumped tank connection

A pumped electric shower has a small pump inbuilt to deal with low pressure. They are always connected to the main plumbing water storage vessel in the loft or under some circumstances they can have thier own storage vessel. They must NEVER be connected to the rising main

Some of the pro's and con's of this type of shower are listed below

Water mains connection Pro's first

	Quiet in operation
	Cost efficent as they only heat the water you use
	No internal pump so less parts to break down
	Frowned on by the local water authorites ( Let them explain this )

Water mains connection Con's

	Tend to have a loss of pressure when a mains fed water point: ie the cold tap in the kitchen is opened.
	Can be very expensive to install especially the electrical work so get a quote first

Pumped tank connection Pro's first

	Cost efficent as they only heat the water you use
	Constant controlled pressure when connected to a sufficent storage supply
	Unoffically recommended by the local water authorites

Pumped tank connection con's

Can be very noisy in operation especially when they are mounted on a stud partition wall due to thr running of the internal pump. They have improved but think about 6 o clock in the morning when the kid's are asleep.

Electric/Instantaneous Showers

These are available with built-in pumps for low pressure stored supplies, but normally they take high pressure cold water only, and heat it up instantaneously with an electric element. They are simple to install plumbing-wise, and allow you to take showers continuously, because they require no hot water supply. In the simpler devices, water temperature is controlled by a choice of two powers (plus no heat at all!), and by varying the flow rate. On the snazzier models there is electronic control of the heating element, giving variable output.

The main disadvantage with instantaneous electric showers is the power output. The largest I have seen is 10kW, which not only requres hefty cable from a separate fuse-way in the consumer unit, but is also less than half the power of even a low-end combination boiler: if you want a decent temperature, especially in the winter when the incoming water is colder, the flow rate will be quite low. They may also be quite expensive to run, as they are electrically operated and won't be on at cheap rate unless you shower in the small hours. However, this may be offset by not having to store hot water with consequent losses.

A characteristic of these showers is small but strong jets. This is an example of high pressure, but low flow rate. The shower head is designed in conjunction with the flow rate adjuster, and so the head supplied should be used.