Power shower

[pbahia]

I am thinking of installing a power shower in my upstairs bathroom.. i have a combi boiler and was told that i cannot fit a a pump to the combi boiler..

Is this correct.. if not what type of pump would i need..

 

[breezer]

a combi heats water as and when required, with the flow rate being directly from the mains.

Power showers pump the STORED hot and cold water you have no stored hot and cold

 

[taydo]

you cant have a pump, its illegal to pump mains water.

 

[AdamW]

Not to mention pointless: The combi can only supply so many watts of power to the water. If you pump the water through quicker, you will get a lower output temperature.

E.g if you have water going through at 8 litres/min and the combi heats it from 15 degrees to 45 degrees, pumping it through at 16 litres/min will give you water at 30 degrees but twice as much of it.

 

[pbahia]

so the only way around this would be to fit a hot and cold water tank in order to use a power shower

 

[peter anderson]

taydo, you said it was illegal to use a pump on a mains water supply but in the water regs guide G6.1 says that you only need written approval from the water undertaker if a pump connected directly or indirectly to the supply pipe draws more than 0.2 litres per second.

 

[peter anderson]

pbahia, how do you know that a thermostatic shower wouldn't provide enough pressure? I have an electric shower that provides enough pressure and that isn't pumped at all and I live in a flat with the hot water cistern at head height. But I do have good cold water pressure because I live on the ground floor.

 

[taydo]

it may say that.

But im not risking my head, not to mention the stonking great fine I will get if the water board in there infinite wisdom say I cant do that.

I think I read somewhere that the fine for getting it wrong was £2000.00 11 years ago.

As far as im concerned you cant pump mains water. Unless you live in an area with extremely low water pressure. even then I would get permission from the water board in writing.

 

[pbahia]

thanks for your help ... I think i will try the thermostatic shower route and suck it and see