Shower water heater

I have an 80 litre tank for hot water which tends to run cold when more than 1 person wants a shower so I thought maybe it would be better to have an electric shower heater. I can't have one of the standard Triton type shower heaters as they start at 7.5kW and as my contracted power is 5.75kW it would blow the electrics.

I wondered if anyone had tried the mini 3.5kW heaters such as this one [url]https://www.amazon.es/CRZJ-Eléctrico-Calentador-instantáneo-fregaderos/dp/B07Y5LB3BX/ref=sr_1_7?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&dchild=1&keywords=agua+caliente+ducha+3.5kW&psc=1&qid=1571724704&sr=8-7[/url]

It's an overbath shower by the way.

You shouldn't have a problem with an 80 ltr tank for two showers, an average shower uses approximately 15 ltr's of water, as the shower is fed through a mixer tap it all depends how hot the water is to start with, I would check your thermostat temperature first before buying another heater, it want's to be around the 65° mark.

Adey wrote:You shouldn't have a problem with an 80 ltr tank for two showers, an average shower uses approximately 15 ltr's of water, as the shower is fed through a mixer tap it all depends how hot the water is to start with, I would check your thermostat temperature first before buying another heater, it want's to be around the 65° mark.

The problem arises when you have 4-6 people in the apartment. I admit for 1 or 2 people the tank is ok.

shower the Spanish way, wet yourself down turn off ,soap up, turn on rinse off, we got 80 ltr tank has done 4 showers or more,its a bit like don't leave the tap running while cleaning your teeth, wasting water.

A gas heater system will give you instant continuous hot water. Ours is placed on outside wall and runs off bottled gas (outside also) Very economic as well.

I totally agree that an instantaneous gas heater is the way to go, for all of your water heating.
Why would you want to heat 80 litres of water up to temperature then attempt to maintain it at that temperature 24/7 on the offchance it might be needed?
Far better to heat exactly the quantity of water you need, when you need it.

We have two gas water heaters, one for our apartment and one for the downstairs guest apartment and they work perfectly. Removing the old electric boilers freed-up quite a bit of space and made showering a pleasure rather than a race against time. I'd never go back to electric water heating.

Pete.

We have a gas boiler and yes it's more economic than electricity, the only downside is the amount of wasted water before it becomes hot. I keep a watering can to collect the cold water then use it on the garden. Simples

Not sure how "You shouldn't have a problem with an 80 ltr tank for two showers" addresses the OP's problem when they've clearly stated that for them it isn't enough ?

Do you have the possibility for solar water heating ?

I have a 150lt solar tank which has a 2.2kw immersion heater for backup.
When ever the sun shines I get FREE hot water and for at least 6 months of the year it's still hot enough in the mornings for a couple of showers.

Around about now with the sun weaker and it being colder at night it's not holding sufficient heat for that so if we want morning showers then we put the immersion on for about half an hour which is enough for two or an hour if there are more (all remotely by smartphone app), that consumes a couple of kWh of electricity so easy to work out the cost on any particular tariff.

The potential drawback of course is the capital cost which for the 150lt version is around €1200 plus fitting but I reckon on achieving payback in 3-4 years and that's without deducting what we would have had to spend on installing and running alternatives in a new build property so in truth I expect payback will come in closer to half that. Maintenance is zero.

https://www.solcrafte.com/solcrafte/

A.N.Other wrote:Not sure how "You shouldn't have a problem with an 80 ltr tank for two showers" addresses the OP's problem when they've clearly stated that for them it isn't enough ?

Do you have the possibility for solar water heating ?

They OP also came back to say that "The problem arises when you have 4-6 people in the apartment. I admit for 1 or 2 people the tank is OK"

So my statement "You shouldn't have a problem with an 80 ltr tank for two showers" was in fact correct.

If you had read the OP's reply you would also know that it concerns an apartment, I owned a solar company for 10 years and never installed or seen an apartment with solar hot water.

Yes I live in a ground floor apartment and I'm pretty sure my neighbours upstairs wouldn't want a solar panel on their solarium unfortunately.

I've looked at bottled gas but the front of the apartment gets the sun from midday till sundown and I don't know how I would protect them from the heat of summer even in a cupboard. Besides which I cannot hump even the small gas bottles around which makes having bottled gas even more difficult.

Our community president has been trying to find out about natural gas for over a year now but I don't think there is sufficient interest from the other owners. And then I would have 2 lots of standing charges per month so I don't know if that would be worthwhile.

In the UK it isn't a problem because you don't have a contracted kW amount, but it Spain it seems to be a lot more difficult.

Thanks for all the suggestions though.