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Not being able to afford a decent clamp meter ....... I was just wondering if electric showers do actually pull their stated load, i.e. the full 10.5/9.5/8.5kW. If they do, is it only as a boost to top up temperate intermittently? Or is it a constant load? I've just been thinking about a few situations I've come across where the MCB is rated lower than the shower load ..... and there hasn't been a problem.

Thanks chaps.
 
Comment removed, could have been viewed as condescending which was not the intention
 
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Depends on the supply voltage how much current they pull. There is quite a difference in current on a 10kw shower when supplied at the declared supply voltages of 216v-253v. Get a clamp meter you will get a lot of use out of it.
 
Showers are never on long enough to really overload and trip out a breaker.

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I've just been thinking about a few situations I've come across where the MCB is rated lower than the shower load ..... and there hasn't been a problem.

Thanks chaps.

im a college goer so please forgive me ive got this wrong but refering to the under-rated mcb....

my understanding is that say its a 10kw shower it will pull 43.5A at full chat.
so refering to fig 3A4 in the bgb if 60898 type b mcb was rated at 32A it would take in excess of 10,000 seconds to trip (over 2 and a half hours) does that answer the question or have i got it wrong? will i require my tin hat?

Dave

EDIT: Too slow...simplesimon beat me to it
 
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Gottahugenoggin. That's great. Thanks for reminding me about that. I'm off to bed now with BGB. It is a dumb post and Trev1 was probably quite right with his original - if removed - post.
 
[h=2]What does an electric shower really pull?[/h]well i once heard of a well endowed triton pulling a gorgeous little mira.
 
im a college goer so please forgive me ive got this wrong but refering to the under-rated mcb....

my understanding is that say its a 10kw shower it will pull 43.5A at full chat.
so refering to fig 3A4 in the bgb if 60898 type b mcb was rated at 32A it would take in excess of 10,000 seconds to trip (over 2 and a half hours) does that answer the question or have i got it wrong? will i require my tin hat?

Dave

EDIT: Too slow...simplesimon beat me to it

Hats off, your answer was better than mine.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
 
I came across a 10.5kW shower on a 40A MCB last week, and the guy had never had a problem with it in years. Just got me thinking.
As simple simon says you can get away with underated mcb/rcbo's because the time/current curve isnt usually met to warrant a tripping condition for the short duration of a showers use as a ball park a type b mcb/rcbo would last approx 30mins at 50amps which is 5 amps above a 10.5kw running on 230v, at 45amps its off the page and will probably take hours.
Note!... this is just an explanation as to why it dont trip and shouldnt be put into the design of the circuit and relied upon so as to be able to underate the mcb/rcbo.
 
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What does an electric shower really pull?


Well if said shower is in a luxury environment, with lots of seductive, sensual and erotic things smooching around, and you've got a big fat wallet, probably some nice looking women.

Otherwise...

Stick an ameter in series on the neutral
 

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