Hi all,

Last year we removed our electric shower and replaced it with a standard non-electric shower.

The sparky at the time left the cable safely terminated in the ceiling above (which is accessed from the loft).

Can I now take that connection and put a socket in the loft, as it is no longer feeding anything, the cable is currently just safely terminated in the loft with a direct connection back to the fuse board from when it was used as a shower connection.

So just to confirm, no longer an electric shower, cable currently not connected to anything. Can I use it to create a socket in the loft, as would be useful to have mains power up there.

Thanks in advance for anyone who can help.

firstly in not qualified in any way as a spark.
but usually the cable for a electric shower is rated alot higher (its alot thicker to take more amps) than normal socket cable so not sure if that would have a detrimental effect on the socket?

Short answer – yes.
Longer – to comply with current Regs, all socket outlets must have RCD protection, being as it was a shower, then that should be RCD protected, though some are not.
Cable size – if it is 6mm T+E cable, then it’ll terminate fine in a typical socket terminal. If it’s 10mm, then it will be difficult to terminate it as the cable is hard to bend, and may not fit the terminals on cheap sockets. You’ll need a deep back box (35mm at least, 47mm would be better) to allow you to bend the thick cable to get into the terminals.
Circuit breaker – no need to change it, it is there to protect the cable.

Can’t see there being any issue with that. Cable would be overkill, but you may need to change the fuse / breaker to a lesser value.
*i am not an electrician either

I would.
Following alanl’s excellent advice.
As per usual btw.:-)

As above, it’s what you plug in that determines the demand. The fuse in the plug is there to protect the appliance and will blow at the same load regardless of feed cable size.

If you’re messing with electrics in the bathroom I believe it may have be done by someone qualified, or certified by them? Depending on work, also have to notify authorities?

Did almost the same, removed an electric shower and reused the wiring and switch for an extractor fan.

No one has died.

alanl has it spot on.

As fettlin said, I removed electric shower and now have underfloor heating. Luxury.

Thanks for all the quick responses and the nod towards AlanL which people are agreeing with.

Each fuse in our box has an individual trip and there is an RCD on the right of the shower fuse, can I assume that this RCD links to that fuse, or would the RCD cover the whole bank?

I’ll be getting in the loft tomorrow to check on that cable thickness.

It’s a bit hard to say without seeing it. You’ll need to switch off the RCD (with the MCB/fuse on) to see if the circuit is live. Alternatively post up a picture and I might be able to tell from that.
Rich.

Hope the link above shows? Not entirely sure how to post images.

The connection for this shower is the one on the right before the RCD with the writing on it. (Not the one with the shower logo as that’s for a separate shower downstairs)

Ok. The big red switch on the right is the main switch which turns the whole board off. There is an RCD to the immediate left of the main switch and there is another RCD on the far left of the board. The two RCDs will cover all the MCBs in the board, the exact split is hard to say without taking the cover off but I think 3 left and 3 right. The main thing is that all circuits are RCD protected.
I would suggest pressing the test button on both to confirm they operate. This isn’t a full check as it doesn’t confirm that it trips in the required time but it is better than nothing. (you should do this every 3 months).

Confirm that the right hand RCD has 0.03A on it like the one on the left. If so, you’re good to go.

Rich.

Sorry I probably confused by zooming in on the pic. Here is the whole board. Does this confirm what you were saying.

Thanks so much for your help, it’s great to know people are out there happy to help out.

Yes, I managed to see the pic. by looking at the web page source code and following the link from there!

All looks ok to me but obviously not being on site means I can only go with what I’m seeing and can’t be 100% so all mods. etc. at your own risk.

Rich.

Edit:
Ok, different picture! Yes, still ok but each RCD covers the MCBs to it’s left. The showers are covered by RCDs.

Thanks Rich and everyone else for your posts.

Don’t worry, all at my own responsibility, just figured worth getting some extra points of view on it.

Hope your all having great weekends!