New shower needed

[Onthespotwelding]

Hi all,

I need a new shower as the one i have in my place is ancient and barely gets warm.

im Unsure of its kw rating.

Photo of the shower and fuse.

Any idea the max kw rating i can get on that fuse?

Thanks in advance.

 

[dan treg]

do you know if the cable supplying shower is 6mm2 or 10mm2 and surface run or enclosed

 

[Mark 2]

9.5kw would be min requirement but, as a bove, depends on supply cable..

 

[Onthespotwelding]

do you know if the cable supplying shower is 6mm2 or 10mm2 and surface run or enclosed

unfortunately i have no idea cable size. Yes its enclosed

 

[Craig-SM]

I had one of those at a previous house and it was only 7kw so was never great. With a 32a breaker max cable will be 6mm and at worse 4mm. 6mm you’ll have some options for replacement but 4mm you’re best to replace with 10mm that will give you a much better choice. Obviously you’d need to change the breaker too for 10mm with a 45a

 

[Onthespotwelding]

I had one of those at a previous house and it was only 7kw so was never great. With a 32a breaker max cable will be 6mm and at worse 4mm. 6mm you’ll have some options for replacement but 4mm you’re best to replace with 10mm that will give you a much better choice. Obviously you’d need to change the breaker too for 10mm with a 45a

Its an old period property so im guessing its only the thinest stuff.

Even an 8.5 kw shower would do.

its just rubbish

 

[dan treg]

you may need to get a sparky to check what cable it is by looking at the cable inside the consumer unit but probably looking at a 7kw shower based on what you have said. if you happen to have a 10mm cable then you have more options

 

[Craig-SM]

Its an old period property so im guessing its only the thinest stuff.

Even an 8.5 kw shower would do.

its just rubbish

Probably stuck with 7kw then. If you’re needing an electrician to connect it they might refuse with good reason anything more powerful. @brightspark might be your best source of advice.

 

[gaz1]

there was 2 models 7.2 or an 8.5 kw model

 

[brightspark]

9.5kw 10.0mm cable and a 45 amp mcb . even an 8.5 kw wont comply on a 6.0mm cable unless its clipped direct on the surface , which is virtualy impossible as some of it is buried in the wall . and requires a 10.0mm cable , go on tlc cable calculator type in the requirements and it will give you the cable size the size of shower and mcb rating required

 

[Erie Fred]

Can you change to something gas fired if upgrading the electrics is out ?

 

[gaz1]

Can you change to something gas fired if upgrading the electrics is out ?

the old corvec britony gas water heater ( not boiler ) could run a shower and with a few adjustments you could get a decent warm to hot shower on user prefs

its no longer applied as economical water heater due to the constant pilot light

but most boilers dont like showers as they fire stop and refire

high pressure areas you need pressure reducers and non return valves to counter the flow of cold to hot otherwise you get a red hot shower with no cold output to it