Safety is paramount when dealing with any form of DIY, but never more so than when dealing with electricity. If you are unsure about anything, or not confident you can complete the job safely, always consult a Professional Electrician, to not do so could be risking your life and that of your family. Regulations now insist that all domestic DIY electrical work is checked by a qualified electrician and a minor works certificate issued. Failure to do this could render your house insurance invalid and make selling your home very difficult.
All the advice contained here is in accordance with BS7671: 2002 The IEE Wiring Regulations, and if followed will ensure a safe installation that will last many years.
Before you even decide you want an electric shower, you should check your consumer unit (fuse box) and the size of the supply coming in to your property.
Large showers use a lot of power (load), and this can cause issues on older installations that may have consumer units that are not capable of handling this extra load.
As a rule of thumb, if you have a 60A or 63A main switch, then your supply fuse will likely be 40A or 60A, if it is 80A or 100A the supply fuse will likely be 60A, 80A or 100A, quite often a phone call to your supply company can resolve this.
NEVER break the seal on your incoming fuse holder to look at the fuse, this is illegal and could lead to prosecution.
For a great range of showers, shower enclosures, shower accessories, shower trays and shower pumps, together will all manner of bathroom fittings, click on the images at bottom.
Common Shower Ratings and Protective Devices
Table 1 below gives figures for Common shower ratings and the Protective device and cable required to install them safely.
A short video explaining what a Kilowatt rating of an electric shower means in terms of the flow of water from the showerhead. The second part highlights what you need to check before upgrading your electric shower to a higher kilowatt rated unit.
Instantaneous Electric showers are still one of the most popular types of shower sold in the UK today, which is why Triton manufactures an extensive range to suit all tastes and budgets.
If you haven't already noticed, they come in a variety of different kilowatt ratings from 7.0kW up to as high as 10.5kW.
But what does this mean to you? Basically the higher the kW rating -- the higher the flow of water from your showerhead.
For example — a 7.5kW shower giving a 40-degree Celsius shower in winter will deliver a flow rate of around 3 litres per minute. That's around this much water.
By comparison, a 10.5 kW shower can give 50% more flow from the showerhead than a 7.5kW shower.
That's around this much.
If you are thinking of upgrading your shower, you will need to check out a few things before you choose a higher kW rating.
You will need to check the water pressure and flow rate, the rating of the miniature circuit breaker or fuse in your consumer unit, and the size of electric cable running to your shower.
Why?
Well, a 7kW shower, for example, is likely to need 1 bar of water pressure delivering 8 litres of water per minute to the shower.
an MCB rated at 32A
and a cable size of 6mm2
On the other hand a 10.5kW shower will need 1.5 bar water pressure delivering 11 litres per minute to the shower
an MCB rated at 45A
and a cable size of 10mm2
Therefore you may need to upgrade your shower's electrical system to support a higher kilowatt shower.
For more information on this, take a look at our videos detailing the plumbing and electrical requirements for installing an electric shower.
Instantaneous Electric showers are still one of the most popular types of shower sold in the UK today, which is why Triton manufactures an extensive range to suit all tastes and budgets.
If you haven't already noticed, they come in a variety of different kilowatt ratings from 7.0kW up to as high as 10.5kW.
But what does this mean to you? Basically the higher the kW rating -- the higher the flow of water from your showerhead.
For example — a 7.5kW shower giving a 40-degree Celsius shower in winter will deliver a flow rate of around 3 litres per minute. That's around this much water.
By comparison, a 10.5 kW shower can give 50% more flow from the showerhead than a 7.5kW shower.
That's around this much.
If you are thinking of upgrading your shower, you will need to check out a few things before you choose a higher kW rating.
You will need to check the water pressure and flow rate, the rating of the miniature circuit breaker or fuse in your consumer unit, and the size of electric cable running to your shower.
Why?
Well, a 7kW shower, for example, is likely to need 1 bar of water pressure delivering 8 litres of water per minute to the shower.
an MCB rated at 32A
and a cable size of 6mm2
On the other hand a 10.5kW shower will need 1.5 bar water pressure delivering 11 litres per minute to the shower
an MCB rated at 45A
and a cable size of 10mm2
Therefore you may need to upgrade your shower's electrical system to support a higher kilowatt shower.
For more information on this, take a look at our videos detailing the plumbing and electrical requirements for installing an electric shower.
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