Not sure whether to choose a power shower or an electric shower?
These showers look much the same from the outside, but their inner workings are quite different, so let’s discuss these functional differences, and how they affect water and energy consumption to help you make the correct choice for your next shower.
The main difference between a power shower and an electric shower, is that electric showers rely on the water pressure in your home to force water out of the shower head, and have an internal heating element to heat the water.
Power showers, on the other hand, use an internal pump to force water to the shower heat, but do not heat the water, instead, they rely on a hot water feed from your boiler to heat the water.
How Electric Showers Work
Electric showers use the cold water from your home’s water supply and heat it with an internal heating element. Since an electric shower doesn’t require a connection to the hot water supply, it may be installed in any house that has a single mains water feed – which is all homes.
Because of the high demand for hot water in family households, electric showers have become increasingly common. They’re particularly common in places where the hot water supply is spotty because they provide constant, on-demand heat.
Why Choose an Electric Shower
The main benefit of an electric shower is that it only needs one cold water pipe to feed it water. It does not need a second hot water supply from a boiler, which means it heats water independently as needed.
The second benefit is the possibility of reduced energy usage. Rather than wasting energy heating an entire tank (or burning gas) for one shower in the morning, you may simply heat the water that you need for that few minutes of showering.
If your property has a water meter, you may also save money by switching to one of these showers because they have a lower flow rate than pump-assisted showers.
For homes that use combi boilers, electric showers are a convenient alternative. Combi boilers are not designed to work with showers that have built-in pumps since the resulting pressure can be unsafe.
There’s no “heat up time” with an electric shower, they work almost instantly. So if the main boiler stops working, you can still take a hot shower and have access to a hot water supply.
How Power Showers Work
Power showers, in contrast to electric showers, do not use an internal heating element to heat water. They function more like a mixer shower, by blending hot water from your boiler with cold water from a separate source.
Water from both the hot and cold pipes is mixed together to create a warm shower. With its own built-in pump, power showers are best suited for homes with weak water pressure as they’re able to increase the “power” of the shower. There ate more moving parts in a power shower compared to an electric, giving them a bulkier look.
Usually, they are set up with a hot water cylinder and a gravity-fed system. They offer a terrific and strong showering experience and can be controlled either automatically by a thermostat or manually.
Why Choose a Power Shower?
Homes that rely on gravity-fed water systems or have low water pressure typically benefit from installing power showers. Since their operation is similar to that of a mixer shower, you should also check that your hot water tank is adequate for your needs to avoid the possibility of a chilly shower after repeated use.
Since the water in a home with a combination boiler is typically already under mains pressure, a shower head such as an electric or mixer kind is not necessary.
Power showers are not suitable for use with combi boilers or pressurised water systems.
While many of these products do require more water, they also provide eco-friendly customizations that allow you to spend only as much energy as is absolutely necessary.
Comparing Power to Electric Shower
Power showers are often misunderstood to be electric showers, and vice versa. Unlike electric showers, power showers don’t rely on an internal electric heating element but rather connect to hot water heated by a boiler plus a regular cold water flow.
Even though both power showers and electric showers do the same job, the power option may be more suitable if you’re looking for a more enjoyable and forceful showering experience.
Just a few minutes under a powerful shower can not just get your body clean, it can also be a rejuvenating and relaxing experience. But if your electric shower water pressure is more like a trickle, getting a good clean is frustrating, and the whole shower leaves you feeling flat.
By upgrading to a power shower, you can boost the water flow rate of your shower, and this is where power beats electric. With that said, if your home has adequate mains water pressure, then installing a power shower will have little benefit.