Installation of Electric Water Heater All aspects of plumbing questions and answers, help, tips and information

[Huggy26]

We want to install electric water heating in an outbuilding to supply a shower and a sink in a small bathroom. There is an ample supply of electricity.

One possibility is to install an electric shower and a small (2kW) unvented electric water heater - basically a 10lt mini immersion heater - but we think this is too many boxes in a small space and and too wasteful.

We are also looking at a Heatstore Multiflow instant water heater at about 10kW which would supply both shower and sink and which is smaller and cheaper. BUT. The Heatflow shower kit is nasty white plastic, it appears, and over £130 for what appears to be just a mixer tap with a shower attachment where turning the hot on full establishes the flow and the cold then is used to adjust the temperature.

Can we just use any shower mixer taps, thermostatic or otherwise, in this system? There may be a pressure difference between the hot and cold, so do we need something that can cope with that, such as a pressure reducing valve? Does a standard single-lever mixer tap achieve the same result? Are we being really dense?

Any help and advice much appreciated.

[ericmark]

There are vented and non-vented main pressure storage tanks which can be electrical heated and will allow all functions. Non-vented needs some one with special knowledge and needs yearly test. Vented however does not. As far as I can see it is a tank full of water which stores heat through which your hot water pipes travel through heating the water as it travels through the internal pipes and is becoming more popular as it can also have solar power connected to it. never seen one but was considering up-grading my central heating system and it was recommended as being able to use solar in future. Not convinced I would like to see one working but loads of web sites saying how good they are. But electric showers are useless always have been and always will be as you can't get enough power from electric. My gas powered shower is connected to a 27Kw boiler no way can you do that with electric so for a good shower you must store energy one way or another if using electric.