Originally Posted by Texas_Ranger
Typically European water heaters are watertight on the electrical part, enough to be mounted directly inside the shower or above the bath tub. In this case they are hard wired though with all other electrical stuff are outside the wet area. The heater itself is probably 220-240V 1500W. The socket and switch inside the shower are close to suicide though...


Instantaneous electric showers are common enough in the UK and Ireland (although I haven't seen them elsewhere in Europe)

The Irish wiring requirements for them are connection via a combined RCD/MCB (GFCI+Breaker) unit dedicated to that circuit only and not via the general RCB on the panel.

[Linked Image from housetohome.co.uk]

These units are typically 8 to 12kW

The 'wireless' electric shower is now increasingly popular though and it removes the heater pack out of the bathroom.

Personally, I much prefer the idea :

[Linked Image from tlc-direct.co.uk]

The shower in this case is located in the attic space above the bathroom

They also do wireless mixing valves to make installation of a shower easier without retiling [Linked Image from showerright.co.uk]

Can't say i'm a huge fan of these devices generally.

They were popularised in the UK and Ireland because many older houses did not have showers, rather they just had baths and they simplified the plumbing required to fit a shower.

That being said, they're perfectly safe as long as they're correctly installed.