Electric shower vs power shower

[Pieface]

Hi,
Just had a huge shock at what my gas and electricity bills will look for the next 12 months after going to bonkers.ie. I have a choice of using the electric shower or a power shower. Which one costs less to run?

Thank you.

 

[ClubMan]

Check the wattage of each and that should give you a good idea of which is the heavier user of electricity. E.g. a 1kW device run for an hour uses one unit of electricity (ignoring thermostatically controlled or < 100% duty cycle devices for simplicity).

 

[Early Riser]

Check the wattage of each and that should give you a good idea of which is the heavier user of electricity. E.g. a 1kW device run for an hour uses one unit of electricity (ignoring thermostatically controlled or < 100% duty cycle devices for simplicity).

A power shower should use very little electricity. It is heating the water for the shower that may do so. Is it from the immersion tank? Is it well insulated? Do you need to switch on the immersion heater for the shower or is water heated from the central heating system, backboiler, etc?

 

[argolis]

Power showers use far less electricity than electric showers. If you have gas, almost certainly it's cheapest to heat the water with that. You could experiment with using the immersion during the night on the cheap rate. Gas or night rate are going to be a lot cheaper than 7kW showers usually running during peak electricity times.

 

[lff12]

Might depend on what kind of shower exactly you have, but bonkers (https://www.bonkers.ie/guides/gas-electricity/which-appliances-use-the-most-electricity/) suggests that its cheaper to use a power shower for 5 minutes than to run the immersion from cold to hot for 2 hours.

 

[Early Riser]

cheaper to use a power shower for 5 minutes

You mean "electric shower" for 5 minutes. Anyway, the power shower cost does depend on the source of your hot water - how it is heated.
Also the bonkers estimate of €0.34 for a 5 minute electric shower does seem cheap. Is it up to date?

 

[Leo]

See here for explanation of shower types.

Electric showers usually range from ~8.5 to 11kW. A 5 min shower in a typical 9kW electric shower will consume 0.75 units of electricity, delivering ~4 to 5l per minute. A power shower will just have an internal pump rated at about 150 Watts, so will consume 0.01 of a unit running for 5 minutes.

Heating water with oil or gas, or even night rate electricity will cost significantly less than peak rate electricity with an electric shower. However, to work out which is cheaper is a little more complicated as you have to factor in losses in the heating system and significantly higher water flow rates with power showers (often 8-14l per min).

 

[galway_blow_in]

Power shower all the way, electric shower are a dribble by comparison