commercial electric shower power rating

There are nine electric shower units connected to a landlord's Distribution Board. Assuming each unit is 7Kw, what level of diversity would be appropriate? These showers will be used by people who choose to cycle to work. The number of shower units is based on the cycle spaces available.

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  • Several questions to ask

    What are the operating time for the customer eg 9  to 5.30pm

    Do people all start at the same time

    What are the characteristics of the LandLord supply eg Single phase 100 amp or 3 phase

    If there is only a 100amp single phase then that will limit it to 3 showers running at same time as 7kW being roughly 30amps.  Need to check what else runs from the land loards supply at the same time.  You will also need to factor in RCBO 30mA protection per shower if the leakage current accumulation may exceed 30mA.  This depends on the MI (Manufacturers Instruction) and how much electronic circuitry the showers have as they are no longer purely a resistive load. 

  • Hi Sergio 

    Thank you for your interest. This is a four-level office building with speculative tenancy spaces. Each tenant space is divided into two separate three-phase 100A distribution boards. The landlord's supply is an MCCB 160A frame, set to 100A maximum. Peak demand is expected in the morning, in line with a cycle-to-work ethos.

    RCBOs have been installed on each shower circuit, as well as on the other nine water heater circuits in the distribution board. A diversity factor of 0.6 has been applied to this board, as it is unlikely that all facilities will be running at full capacity simultaneously. The load for each shower unit has been set at 25A, and each water heater at 10A.

  • kWell you are well off the end of the normal OSG style diversity calcs here ;-) 

    In practice however it is quite correct to assume it will not all be in use at once, and that there will be quite a cool-down period for any one shower between users as folk get undressed and dressed etc.

    It may be worth considering some sort of max load-lock-off circuit that sheds a non critical load, perhaps the water heaters, if the total load exceeds some limit, just in case one day, lots of people all arrive at once. Otherwise you are  left rolling a dice somewhat, as it will depend on how the various tentant blocks are used - if they all insist on a 9AM start for example, or allow flexi-time is beyond your control.

    Equally it will probably be fine for years, there are many blocks of flats with no such protection, ans if all the occupants showered at one it would be a disaster, but they never do.
    As a point of comparison street distribution assumes ~ 2kw per house if there are many or a tapered function for small nos,

    as this graph

    indicates - graph copied from here using the CREST model and showing large uncertainty (the long I-bar) but decreasing spread for large nos of houses per phase - but unlike an office block , for these households whose only point of commonality is they share a substation, there is no synchronizing factor - at a place of work there may be if the boss likes every one in place at the same time.
    Mike

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  • kWell you are well off the end of the normal OSG style diversity calcs here ;-) 

    In practice however it is quite correct to assume it will not all be in use at once, and that there will be quite a cool-down period for any one shower between users as folk get undressed and dressed etc.

    It may be worth considering some sort of max load-lock-off circuit that sheds a non critical load, perhaps the water heaters, if the total load exceeds some limit, just in case one day, lots of people all arrive at once. Otherwise you are  left rolling a dice somewhat, as it will depend on how the various tentant blocks are used - if they all insist on a 9AM start for example, or allow flexi-time is beyond your control.

    Equally it will probably be fine for years, there are many blocks of flats with no such protection, ans if all the occupants showered at one it would be a disaster, but they never do.
    As a point of comparison street distribution assumes ~ 2kw per house if there are many or a tapered function for small nos,

    as this graph

    indicates - graph copied from here using the CREST model and showing large uncertainty (the long I-bar) but decreasing spread for large nos of houses per phase - but unlike an office block , for these households whose only point of commonality is they share a substation, there is no synchronizing factor - at a place of work there may be if the boss likes every one in place at the same time.
    Mike

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