Bizarre/Dangerous - Water/Electricity?

J

JackTheKnife

Registered User
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20
Here's one for you.

We have a Triton T80si shower upstairs which is tank fed.

Wnen I turn on tap in the kitchen, which is mains fed, the following occurs:

Kitchen lights dim.

Shower goes cold.

I have racked my brain as to what possiblycould be going on here and am open to any and all suggestions.


Many thanks.
 
The hot or cold tap in the kitchen? If it's the hot tap then perhaps it's drawing hot water from the immersion that the shower would use so the shower has to switch on to heat more water of its own and the power surge causes the lights to dim (which you might want to get a sparks to look at!).
 
Have you seen objects flying around the place indiscriminately? Have inanimate objects suddenly come alive?

Could you have a poltergeist?:(
 
Now that you mention it there is a lot of ungodly screams and obsenities when the shower goes cold !

Just to clarify - It occurs when I turn on the cold mains fed kitchen tap.

My understaning is that the tank in the attic feeds directly into the shower where it is heated by heating elements in the shower itself.
 
Are you 100% sure that the shower is fed from the tank?
It sounds like the tap and the shower are connected to the same pipe and when the pressure drops in the shower unit the heating element turns off.
Why the lights would dim remains a mystery.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far.

I think you could be right Hoagy.

The type of shower I have SHOULD NOT be fed from the mains.

I'm guessing that once you draw water off at the mains there is insufficient water going into the shower. This causes the shower to turn off the heating element otherwise there would be scalding hot water coming out.

But why are the kitchen lights dimming ???? Surely they should not be on the same circuit as the shower ????
 
Is there a separate trip switch for the shower and downtairs/kitchen light circuits?
 
Sorry Hoagy - I didn't read your reply fully and then went and stated exactly what you said.

Thanks Clubman - Will check that out aswell as checking out where the shower is geting its water supply.

The not so funny thing is that i have known the two lads who did the electrical and plumbing work for 20 odd years. Whilst not friends we would be "associates" so to speak.
 
Just few tests to try to make some progress

-Turn off the mains (usually under kitchen sink). Turn on the shower. Do you get cold water? hot water?
That will tell you how the shower is fed

- At the fuse board , there should be a RCB just for the electric shower
Flick all the fuses off exempt the shower one and obviously the mains one (big 63A), turn on the mains (water)...Open the cold tap in kitchen. What happens are the shower end?


without any guarantee, and i am not sure where this is going... :confused:
 
Thanks Bacchus and Glenamaddy

Have jumped the gun a bit - I WAS WRONG on one point

There are two types of Triton T80 si, one is pumped and one is not.

The "T80si Pumped" is run off the tank and would normally be used if mains pressure is poor, the "t80si" is run from the mains.

I must have the one which is correctly mains fed.

Thanks again everyone
 
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