New electric shower issue

would you post a picture of your fuseboard,

It's very unlikely to to be the shower. A shower trip is usually instant. Likely to be a faulty / undersized isolation switch or RCBO. It could be a screw in the cable but again I'd expect instant tripping for that

No mention of the installer. No priority or non priority board mentioned. Sounds like a DIY or handyman installation. I would strongly recommend getting a REC out to bring it up to code & cert it for you.

The wattage of the new shower may well be higher. The 'traditional' Triton T90 used in Ireland has increased in wattage to 9kw, the first version was 8kw, then it went up to 8.5kw.

An electric shower used a lot more power than a power shower, which just pumps water.

Yes and if an electric shower was installed in place of a power shower, it would most likely mean the existing cables were insufficiently sized. Most likely 10sq required for the electric shower. OP, did they install a new cable from the fuseboard? Any way to see the cable, is it routed through the attic? And what size is the shower RCBO? A close up pic of it showing all the details would help.

There should be a priority board if you have 2 electric showers. Any sign of this OP?

You need to get a cert from him. This means he has to use a REC to bring it up to minimun standarts before cert is issued. Any problems from his, tell him you are reporting him to safe electric. People passing themselves off as REC can get large fine & jail term. He passed himself off as REC even without saying so because only REC is allowed by law to carry out this type of work

Think that's exactly it, sounds like they installed the electric shower on the power shower wiring, which is most likely 2.5sq.

I’d say what happened was , 2.5 circuit was powering the old shower with a switch fuse spur (13amp )

New shower was added and fuse popped on first use ,

Came back and put in a 45 amp switch , but rcbo is tripping due to load on cable ,

Whole lot needs pulling out and a 10ml cable needs installed by a REC

Hmm, that would explain the need for replacement switch and subsequent tripping of rcbo

I'd still be surprised if this happened as the level of cowboy incompetentence needed is extreme

Probably not , as an instant shower connected to "main rcd" would then likely trip an associated mcb on overload

Unless there was a N-E issue causing main rcd to trip on high loading, unlikely

Dont know if op has specified what's tripping

Anyhow there's a definite cowboy factor at play here .

He could be an electrician or plumber but tell you plumber. Even if he is an electrician that isn't enough according to the law. Only a REC can carry out the work you describe but the photos you showed that it's doubtful if any type of electrician did the work.

You must receive a cert. Does not matter if plumber or electrician or pat the postman. By law they must issue you with a cert. Cert can only be issued by REC. There is a a fair amount of work needed before a cert can be issued.

Can't stress this enough. By law they must issue a cert. Don't except anything less

Ah well that got me back😁

So looks like jl spark had it right

Power shower spurred off immersion cct.

Shower swopped out for instantantaneous unit.

13A switched spur swopped out for 45A DP switch and its now tripping 20A mcb on overload

Criminal if true

Do not let them back in the house

In order to be able to have 2 electric showers in one house, a 'priority board' needs to be installed. This only allows one shower to be used at a time. If both showers were used at the same time, it'd most likely blow the main fuse, so it's not allowed.

The priority board is fed from your fuseboard. The new shower needs to be fed with 10sq cable from the priority board and the existing shower needs to be wired back to the priority board too.

It's a fair amount of work, depending on the location of your fuseboard etc. I'd say €600 minimum including parts, but these days could be closer to €1000.

Might be easier to put a power shower back in instead of an electric one.

Had forgotten about controller with the realization they had probably done a swop in shower types

There's also the issue of installation overload now as you don't have a shower controller

That's 2 serious issues if true and merits a prosecution

I'm beginning to wonder if you did this install yourself as you don't seem too perturbed that it potentially put your life at risk and don't seem too interested in reporting said company.

Crossed my mind too. Hard to believe a plumber wouldn't know the requirements for electric shower v's power shower, but then again….

But you still went against all advice here and turned the shower on again to test it, even with the risk of fire and electrocution.

Assuming you have an invoice can you post a pic of it leaving out the company details?