Shower circuit design.

And it might be better in another thread, but ‘what does an electrician need to know ? ' is actually a very interesting question, and not a simple one to answer.

There is an odd mix of learn by doing, such as how to dress cables neatly into awkward shapes, terminating SWA or MICC, and the physics/academic that relates to current ratings, temprature, diversity and so on. 

Then there is a mix of roles - some sparks will spend their entier life maintaining designs by others, and arguably need to be very good at fault finding, but no great new designs needed. Others will be the reverse and spend most of the time designing for new, and of them there will be many copying the OSG, but a few going out onto a limb with the unusual locations,  extreme environments or weird loads, and then there is a cross-over with the alarms and antennas sort of folk, and the audio visual and theatrical. All electrics, but with very different skills and varying degrees of custom/practice vs on the fly redesign.

I agree (though I missed it in the original Q too) that anyone claiming the competence to  install an 8.5kw shower should be up to division of watts by 230 to get a current, and selecting the rest of the parts to match or exceed that. It quite possibly will not trip on a 32A breaker but that is not a design process that withstands proper scrutiny.

Mike.

And it might be better in another thread, but ‘what does an electrician need to know ? ' is actually a very interesting question, and not a simple one to answer.

There is an odd mix of learn by doing, such as how to dress cables neatly into awkward shapes, terminating SWA or MICC, and the physics/academic that relates to current ratings, temprature, diversity and so on. 

Then there is a mix of roles - some sparks will spend their entier life maintaining designs by others, and arguably need to be very good at fault finding, but no great new designs needed. Others will be the reverse and spend most of the time designing for new, and of them there will be many copying the OSG, but a few going out onto a limb with the unusual locations,  extreme environments or weird loads, and then there is a cross-over with the alarms and antennas sort of folk, and the audio visual and theatrical. All electrics, but with very different skills and varying degrees of custom/practice vs on the fly redesign.

I agree (though I missed it in the original Q too) that anyone claiming the competence to  install an 8.5kw shower should be up to division of watts by 230 to get a current, and selecting the rest of the parts to match or exceed that. It quite possibly will not trip on a 32A breaker but that is not a design process that withstands proper scrutiny.

Mike.