Run shower from combined bath filler and overflow?
Discussion
I'm not sure anyone makes anything like this, but maybe someone has seen something or can come up with an idea...
Our family bathroom has a bath with an electric shower mounted over it. When we did the bathroom (about 15 years ago), we had a gravity fed hot water system and the hot water pressure was dismal, so we had a bath fitted with a set of valves on the wall and a combined filler and overflow. The shower is completely separate, and is a 10kW electric shower. What we have works fine from a technical perspective, and the bathroom still looks very good. It is also fully tiled floor to ceiling on all four walls, and I have no spare tiles, so I am loath to start making changes that will affect that.
Since the bathroom was done, we've done a lot of work to the house and the water pressure situation is now resolved (unvented cylinder). We have two teenage girls who use that bathroom, and the shower is costing a fortune - about £50 a month added to the electricity bill just on the shower.
If the bath had normal taps, I would simply replace them with one that also has a shower diverter and hose attachment, and remove the electric shower from the equation. But that isn't an option, so I am wondering if there is anything similar on the market that could be installed in place of the combined filler/overflow unit, so we could use the existing valves to control the water flow and temperature, and choose at the bath filler point whether to send the water into the bath or up the shower hose. Unfortunately, with no spare tiles, anything involving work 'in the walls' isn't really an option as it will cost thousands.
Anyone got any smart ideas?
Our family bathroom has a bath with an electric shower mounted over it. When we did the bathroom (about 15 years ago), we had a gravity fed hot water system and the hot water pressure was dismal, so we had a bath fitted with a set of valves on the wall and a combined filler and overflow. The shower is completely separate, and is a 10kW electric shower. What we have works fine from a technical perspective, and the bathroom still looks very good. It is also fully tiled floor to ceiling on all four walls, and I have no spare tiles, so I am loath to start making changes that will affect that.
Since the bathroom was done, we've done a lot of work to the house and the water pressure situation is now resolved (unvented cylinder). We have two teenage girls who use that bathroom, and the shower is costing a fortune - about £50 a month added to the electricity bill just on the shower.
If the bath had normal taps, I would simply replace them with one that also has a shower diverter and hose attachment, and remove the electric shower from the equation. But that isn't an option, so I am wondering if there is anything similar on the market that could be installed in place of the combined filler/overflow unit, so we could use the existing valves to control the water flow and temperature, and choose at the bath filler point whether to send the water into the bath or up the shower hose. Unfortunately, with no spare tiles, anything involving work 'in the walls' isn't really an option as it will cost thousands.
Anyone got any smart ideas?
Where is all the pipework, hot water tank and bits? is any of it in the loft and is there access to the hot and cold pipework up there?
The reason I ask is I have a Aqualisa digital shower the mixer valves and gubbins are mounted remotely in the loft, it then supplies a rainfall head than comes from the ceiling. the controller for it is on a wire and can be mounted where ever convenient.
No matter what you do it will be hard without tiles as you will still need to make good if you remove the electric shower, all the ones I have seen are mounted on the wall.
You're doing well after 15 years to not need to refurb it anyway. So the valve on the wall is not just a 1 way feed to the bath filler? When we had a bath filler and the shower we had a 2 way which allowed a switch to feed water to either outlet. Do you need to be able to fill the bath? If you want to just use as a shower then presumably under the bath will be flexi hoses connected to the bath filler? You can repurpose those to feed a bath mounted shower instead - https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/roper-rhodes-r...
Or feed a bath mounted diverter like this - so valve on wall to that and that to the shower and to the bath filler.
https://www.heatandplumb.com/acatalog/sagittarius-...
https://www.heatandplumb.com/acatalog/sagittarius-...
unzippy said:
Russet Grange said:
That bill for the electric shower seems very high. 10kw at about 30p/kwh is roughly 17 hours of use. Is it really running for over 30 minutes per day?
mikey_b said:
We have two teenage girls who use that bathroom
Easily, I imagine!Russet Grange said:
That bill for the electric shower seems very high. 10kw at about 30p/kwh is roughly 17 hours of use. Is it really running for over 30 minutes per day?
Yeah unfortunately that is correct, we have two teenage girls. We also have an EV, so whilst the power is cheap at night it is expensive when they tend to shower at 8pm ish.We take care to load shift on most stuff, the washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, which leaves their shower rather exposed as a particularly high cost appliance. Oven we use when we need it, but that's by no means every day.
scot_aln said:
You're doing well after 15 years to not need to refurb it anyway. So the valve on the wall is not just a 1 way feed to the bath filler? When we had a bath filler and the shower we had a 2 way which allowed a switch to feed water to either outlet. Do you need to be able to fill the bath? If you want to just use as a shower then presumably under the bath will be flexi hoses connected to the bath filler? You can repurpose those to feed a bath mounted shower instead - https://www.victorianplumbing.co.uk/roper-rhodes-r...
scot_aln said:
Or feed a bath mounted diverter like this - so valve on wall to that and that to the shower and to the bath filler.
https://www.heatandplumb.com/acatalog/sagittarius-...
Yes that's right, the valve on the wall has two knobs, one for flow and one for temperature. So it has a hot and cold feed in, and a single output pipe that runs to the filler of the bath. The valve is also in the centre of the wall on the long side of the bath so is hard to get to. The shower is competely separate, just a cold water pipe running up behind the tiles. We do need to use the bath though, I don't think I'd get away with basically preventing the use of it.https://www.heatandplumb.com/acatalog/sagittarius-...
That second link actually looks like it might be a good shout, albeit a bit of work to fit. Remove feed pipe from the back of the bath filler, extend it to the diverter valve, then connect the diverter outputs to the bath filler and a new deck mounted shower. I hadn't really seen deck-mounted stuff like that. I will dig into that more closely - thanks!
otolith said:
unzippy said:
Russet Grange said:
That bill for the electric shower seems very high. 10kw at about 30p/kwh is roughly 17 hours of use. Is it really running for over 30 minutes per day?
mikey_b said:
We have two teenage girls who use that bathroom
Easily, I imagine!Very similar situation in her bathroom, bath with electric shower over. Have considered changing the electric one just the same but likewise fully tiled and no spare tiles and couldn't cope with the whining when she'd emptied the hot water cylinder.
mikey_b said:
Yeah unfortunately that is correct, we have two teenage girls. We also have an EV, so whilst the power is cheap at night it is expensive when they tend to shower at 8pm ish.
We take care to load shift on most stuff, the washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, which leaves their shower rather exposed as a particularly high cost appliance. Oven we use when we need it, but that's by no means every day.
Worth looking at getting a house battery? Run the house most of the day on cheap rate "EV" electricity.We take care to load shift on most stuff, the washing machine, tumble dryer, dishwasher, which leaves their shower rather exposed as a particularly high cost appliance. Oven we use when we need it, but that's by no means every day.
Our showers are electric, and the 5KW inverter is almost enough to run the "10KW" shower on the lower power setting. Other half's 10 minute shower costs about 10p.
We also only have to worry about load shifting on really cold days, when the heatpump will drain the battery by early evening. 9 months of the year, we use less than 1KWh of peak rate per day.
These types of things can be ideal for retrofit in upstairs bathrooms with loft space above. (there are cheaper versions)
https://www.showerspares.com/search/mira-platinum-...
Other options though include doing the install from the back of an internal wall if there's another room behind where you want the shower.... Even easier if its stud walls.... this would be my preference if possible. I have even had a couple of lucky scenarios where you can fit a bar mixer and get the pipes up a stud wall behind the tiles with only access from the below bath panel.
Or possibly (last resort imo) if the bath panel is removable just drill the bath for a standard 180 tap and fit one of these things:
https://www.tapwarehouse.com/p/asko-bath-shower-bu...
You really need someone to look at the bathroom/surrounding rooms to have a chance of picking the best solution.
https://www.showerspares.com/search/mira-platinum-...
Other options though include doing the install from the back of an internal wall if there's another room behind where you want the shower.... Even easier if its stud walls.... this would be my preference if possible. I have even had a couple of lucky scenarios where you can fit a bar mixer and get the pipes up a stud wall behind the tiles with only access from the below bath panel.
Or possibly (last resort imo) if the bath panel is removable just drill the bath for a standard 180 tap and fit one of these things:
https://www.tapwarehouse.com/p/asko-bath-shower-bu...
You really need someone to look at the bathroom/surrounding rooms to have a chance of picking the best solution.
Edited by Black_S3 on Thursday 8th October 17:06
clockworks said:
Worth looking at getting a house battery? Run the house most of the day on cheap rate "EV" electricity.
Our showers are electric, and the 5KW inverter is almost enough to run the "10KW" shower on the lower power setting. Other half's 10 minute shower costs about 10p.
We also only have to worry about load shifting on really cold days, when the heatpump will drain the battery by early evening. 9 months of the year, we use less than 1KWh of peak rate per day.
I have, yes, although it is a heavy investment still at the moment. Prices are coming down though, and it's definitely on my radar.Our showers are electric, and the 5KW inverter is almost enough to run the "10KW" shower on the lower power setting. Other half's 10 minute shower costs about 10p.
We also only have to worry about load shifting on really cold days, when the heatpump will drain the battery by early evening. 9 months of the year, we use less than 1KWh of peak rate per day.
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