Are you getting your bathroom done sometime soon? You might have noticed how expensive plumbers are these days. Like everything, they’re going up in price. While you shouldn’t try and install anything like this if you’re a complete amateur and haven’t done anything like that before—if you’ve got a bit of DIY skill then it is something you could try your hand at. You might find it much easier than you think, and if you do—you could save a lot of money.
Even if money isn’t a priority, calling out a plumber is a lot of hassle. So if you want to try and install your own shower, then you’re in the right place. This is the article for you, and in it we’re going to show you how to do it—looking specifically at electric showers. There are a number of key advantages to electric showers, so we’ll look at why you might want one too.
Remember, you should always work safely and be careful when installing electrical appliances and doing plumbing. And electric showers are both, really. Never do something if you’re unsure about it, hire a professional—either an electrician or a plumber (or both). Even if you can carry out the work safely yourself, you might need to get a professional with the right certifications to sign off on your work. This should be much cheaper and quicker than getting them to actually do the work themselves, as they’ll just have to examine it.
Electric shower installation
You shouldn’t really be trying to install an electric shower completely from scratch unless an electrician or plumber have done the groundwork.l Make sure you get one checked out before you start using it safely. These showers combine water and electricity so can be dangerous if not installed correctly. While you can install them yourself from scratch if you’re careful, you need to know what you’re doing and get it certified. Never work with electric and water if you aren’t already proficient at doing so.
One part of electric shower installation that you could take care of a bit more easily is when replacing an old system like for like. That’s because a lot of the cabling and water pipes will already be in place, so you can simply take out the old unit and drop the new one in. As long as there weren’t any initial problems with your wiring, this shouldn’t be too difficult. Make sure your new unit is compatible with the same wiring and systems that are already in place. Don’t use the old wiring if the new system has a higher wattage requirement or runs of a different power source. In that case, you might need to hire an electrician to rewire everything for you.
The easiest electric shower units to wire in are those that have easy access wiring points, like on the top, bottom or sides. Bigger shower areas are also more appropriate for these sorts of units as they can take up a lot of space.
Gaining access and even getting a spanner round can sometimes be difficult in certain shower-spaces.
Benefits of electric showers
The main benefit of an electric shower is that the water is only heated as and when it’s needed. Instead of heating a large amount of water in a tank with gas and letting it sit there, electric showers quickly heat the water for usage when you turn the shower on. This can save money on electric bills and also save waste.
Electric showers are also better for homes with solar paneling as they use more of the “free” energy you’ve sourced rather than gas which normally has to be paid for. There are a couple of drawbacks to electric showers, most notably taking longer to get the water warm when you need it.
How to find the right installation team for electric showers
If you have realized that you probably can’t do all this electric and plumbing work yourself, you might need to outsource the work. Some plumbers will be qualified enough to do the electric work as well, and vice versa. But make sure you check their experience, certifications and qualifications. You might also want to check their references and examples of their previous work. if they’ve got a portfolio, this could be a good place to start.
You might find a plumber in your local paper, but a great place to look these days is online. There should be a local trade rating services in your area, and you can compare a range of different plumbers and electricians. Make sure you pay attention to the comments themselves rather than just look at the overall ratings, as the reasons someone got a good or bad rating might not be relevant to your specific situation. Pay attention to how long they’ve been working and go for people with a more established profile. Be wary of someone with multiple 5-star reviews from reviewers with little or no other history, as these systems can be easy to manipulate.
While checking online is a great idea these days, nothing beats the personal recommendation of someone you know. Check if anyone else has had a shower installed recently and what they thought of the work. They might be able to recommend someone, or tell you someone to avoid. If you ask your neighbors, you might be able to pop round and see the finished installation.
When you approach or call a serviceperson (electrician or plumber) you can aks for a quote. Don’t commit to anything unless you’re sure. Get a range of competitive quotes, but don’t just pick the cheapest. Weight up their skills and qualifications along with how long it’ll take to finish the job and when they can start. That’s how you find the best servicepeople for your electric shower installation.
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