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Electric shower, anything I can do?
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IanB:

--- Quote from: paulca on July 23, 2019, 06:55:35 pm ---So, new house, has electric shower.  Shower has three settings, cold, low, high.

On low, when I turn it up enough to get good temperature, I get sod all flow/pressure.

On high, I have to turn it down to minimum or I get scalded and even then it can overheat and cut out occasionally.

So I guess this is because my upstairs water pressure is absolutely rubbish.  On low it uses a smaller element and when I turn it up it reduces the flow to make it hotter.  However on high there isn't enough water pressure to supply the element with enough flow to keep the temp reasonable.

I assume there is nothing I can do with that, like adjust the flow restrictor or something?

I'm planning on upgrading the whole heating system to a pressurized setup, so this is a temporary problem, but an annoying one!

--- End quote ---

The usual solution to low water pressure is to install an electric booster pump. Since UK houses commonly have a header tank in the loft to supply the water there is not enough head available to drive water through an upstairs shower.  The booster pump fixes this problem. Any competent plumber would be able to install one.
paulca:

--- Quote from: IanB on July 28, 2019, 10:29:07 pm ---The usual solution to low water pressure is to install an electric booster pump. Since UK houses commonly have a header tank in the loft to supply the water there is not enough head available to drive water through an upstairs shower.  The booster pump fixes this problem. Any competent plumber would be able to install one.

--- End quote ---

I have now come to the conclusion that the bathroom does indeed run off the mains.  I found the stop cock was partially closed, although opening it fully still didn't make the shower tolerable on HIGH mode but a new shower head did make it feel better pressure wise on LOW.

Anyway, heating engineer is calling this morning to give me my options for the upgrade.  I let them give me details  for both Combi boiler with on-demand tank-less hot water and also the system boiler with hot-tank that I can solar-ify later.
DTJ:
Someone has probably already said it (bit I have not read all the replies....).

Try replacing the shower head with one with more flow (less back pressure). I think I have that right way around.

This seems to be a common fix with what we call 'instantaneous' hot water systems here in Australia.
paulca:
So to paraphrase the heating engineer.

"If you have plenty of money to throw at it and want to redesign your heating system, you can do whatever you want.  I recommend you go Combi boiler, it's easier, cheaper, more efficient and if you want to you can add a unvented reserve tank later for solar heating."

Basically the system boiler would add over £1000 to the installation cost.  Combi is circa £2700, system boiler circa £4000.

So I can later remove the electric shower and replace it with a power shower replumbed onto the hot water.  In the meantime there is a shower fitting on the normal hot tap which when fed from the combi boiler will be fine.
SteveyG:

--- Quote from: paulca on July 29, 2019, 09:49:50 am ---So to paraphrase the heating engineer.

"If you have plenty of money to throw at it and want to redesign your heating system, you can do whatever you want.  I recommend you go Combi boiler, it's easier, cheaper, more efficient and if you want to you can add a unvented reserve tank later for solar heating."

--- End quote ---

I would be interested to see the evidence behind that statement. It's easier for the installer to put in a combi and offers greater profits. If it's a boiler replacement only, I would get additional quotes. Those are BG prices!

As mentioned before, I'd also suggest a heat only boiler over a system boiler if you choose that route over a combi.

What did he measure as the water parameters? (Flow, dynamic & static pressure etc)
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