Hi I am moving into a ground floor flat and would like to have a new electric shower installed above an existing bath tub, unfortunately due to low pressure from the hot water tank a plumber has advised a mixer shower is not an option and neither is a pump. I am rather new to all this sort of thing so apologies if anything I explain does not make sense.
The install itself seems pretty straightforward. Shower on the wall above the tub, isolator pull cord from the ceiling and then approx 10-15m cabling and trunking to the consumer unit which is in an enclosure on the wall of my bedroom.
Here's where I am unsure of the best way to proceed. The flat is setup for economy 7 tariff and as such the meter tails are split in a henley block and feed two Wylex fuse boxes, one rated to 100a and one to 60a. Both fuse boxes are also connected to an RCD rated 80a and 30ma tripping current. Both fuseboxes have a spare way each. The service fuse states 100a. The flat is all electric and has a cooker, an immersion heater, one storage heater.
As a side note once the shower has been installed it will make the boiler redundant and will likely never be used. I'm unsure if that will affect the shower install but just thought I'd mention. This will also mean the only appliance that can take advantage of the economy 7 tariff I'm currently on is the one storage heater and so I would be interested in changing the setup to support a normal tariff but I am unsure of the work needed to do that and any advice is appreciated. Finally I am renting this flat with one other person and its most likely it will just be for 1 or 2 years so while we would like to spend money on the shower and are happy to spend a little bit more if it means getting a more powerful shower. We would not be interested in any major work such as changing to a new CU as the cost will more than likely outweigh the benefit to ourselves in the short term and we are also living on a budget.
So I would like to know if its possible to wire up a shower straight into my existing setup and if so whats the highest strength of shower it can support?
Is it possible to wire up a separate shower consumer unit and would this allow for a higher rated shower?
If I wanted to change my tariff from economy 7 is it a big job or straightforward?
I have had one spark round so far but he seemed rather put off by my fusebox and I got the feeling he didn't want to know. He quoted £400 and said he could install an 8.5kw shower but anything higher and he said he would need to replace the entire CU and would be in excess of £1000.
Thanks so much
Jake
The install itself seems pretty straightforward. Shower on the wall above the tub, isolator pull cord from the ceiling and then approx 10-15m cabling and trunking to the consumer unit which is in an enclosure on the wall of my bedroom.
Here's where I am unsure of the best way to proceed. The flat is setup for economy 7 tariff and as such the meter tails are split in a henley block and feed two Wylex fuse boxes, one rated to 100a and one to 60a. Both fuse boxes are also connected to an RCD rated 80a and 30ma tripping current. Both fuseboxes have a spare way each. The service fuse states 100a. The flat is all electric and has a cooker, an immersion heater, one storage heater.
As a side note once the shower has been installed it will make the boiler redundant and will likely never be used. I'm unsure if that will affect the shower install but just thought I'd mention. This will also mean the only appliance that can take advantage of the economy 7 tariff I'm currently on is the one storage heater and so I would be interested in changing the setup to support a normal tariff but I am unsure of the work needed to do that and any advice is appreciated. Finally I am renting this flat with one other person and its most likely it will just be for 1 or 2 years so while we would like to spend money on the shower and are happy to spend a little bit more if it means getting a more powerful shower. We would not be interested in any major work such as changing to a new CU as the cost will more than likely outweigh the benefit to ourselves in the short term and we are also living on a budget.
So I would like to know if its possible to wire up a shower straight into my existing setup and if so whats the highest strength of shower it can support?
Is it possible to wire up a separate shower consumer unit and would this allow for a higher rated shower?
If I wanted to change my tariff from economy 7 is it a big job or straightforward?
I have had one spark round so far but he seemed rather put off by my fusebox and I got the feeling he didn't want to know. He quoted £400 and said he could install an 8.5kw shower but anything higher and he said he would need to replace the entire CU and would be in excess of £1000.
Thanks so much
Jake
