Comments on: Sylvania ECOlight Powered by Shower Water

By: Bill

Bill — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 12:56:24 +0000

There are as many different kinds of shower on the market today as there are manufacturers.
Electric showers are the simple “go anywhere” shower. They need a cold water supply and an electric feed which must be on it’s own circuit breaker.
Power showers require both hot and cold water supplies and an electric feed which again, must have it’s own circuit breaker.
Mixers showers are available in thermostatic and non thermostatic versions. The thermostatic version will maintain it’s temperature if there is a loss of water pressure on either of the water feeds. The non thermostatic version won’t which can result in your shower suddenly running too hot or too cold. Both versions of mixer showers are available in high pressure or low pressure versions.
Wireless or remote control showers are basically mixer showers that incorporate a remote control which can be wired or wireless. They tend to be a lot more expensive than traditional mixer showers but do give you the advantage of being able to turn on the shower, at your preferred setting, from your bedroom.
Whichever shower system you prefer, take your time, check out the vastly differing prices on the internet, and above all, have it installed by a fully qualified fitter who is fully conversant with the local water regulations.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:44:07 +0000

For example:
(During a power cut)
You have a power shower of flow 12 l/min. You run it for 5 minutes to get dressed(60 l of water). You have a change in temperature of say 30C because you forgot to turn the shower to cold. specific heat capacity of water c is 4.19 so =>
Q= c m ΔT , 4.19 x 60 x 30 = 7.542kW of power
Thats a fair bit of power noting that that is heating the water at 100% efficiency!

So in a power failure the ECOlight will use the equivalent ammount of energy as a 500W and a 250W security light ran for at least an hour!

Please let me know if my calculations are wrong.

A side note:
If you have LEDs lighting your bathroom at a 14W rating and the process of showering and dressing takes 15min each day.
3.5W / Day (as its 15 min) 7542/3.5=2154.86 days
so 2154.86/365= 5.9 Years

Basically this means (not including any leap years) that just to dry yourself(1 person) using the light produced by the ECOlight it will use 5.9 Years worth of normal bathroom lighting!!!!

Also please correct me here if my calculations are wrong.

By: Alan

Alan — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 01:02:21 +0000

The gas burns it’s self? But fair point if your system is set up like that and you have enough hot water pressure.
But…
If there is a power cut it would not be very economical at all to keep running the shower so you could see while you dry yourself and get dressed would it?

So if there was a power cut the “ECOlight” may end up being used in a way that is more detrimental to the environment than was intended!

By: neagle

neagle — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 18:32:56 +0000

Well, my hot water heater is powered by natural gas. The local water system is gravity fed and the well pumps have back up generators like most US water systems.

By: Alan

Alan — Sat, 14 Feb 2009 00:57:25 +0000

So if there is a power cut and you are expecting this light to keep you illuminated, what will be powering the electric shower or pump in your power shower?