RCD upgrade

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Hi everyone I’m looking at installing an electric shower. However I’ve got a split load board with 2 63A RCDs that are already maxed out and my main cut out fuse is rated at 60A.

My question is can I swap 1 of the 63A RCDs for an 80A RCD as most things on this circuit won’t be running at full capacity continuously and I’ve heard the main fuse can work past 60A for a couple of hours before popping.
 
Can you run the shower off your boiler instead?

Assuming a gas-fed boiler, it would be cheaper and usually a better flow.
 
If your DNO fuse is 60 amp, then 63 amp RCD's are large enough.

We look at diversity, in that not all circuits are at max all the time, and to date I have been lucky, I have two electric showers, and the DNO fuse has not ruptured to date, I do have a battery that can deliver 3 kW and solar panels which can deliver if conditions are right 5 kW, so my total is just under 100 amp, but if I had the pipe work at the showers, I would convert to thermostatic mixer showers, they are far better as @securespark says, and it would take away the worry that my daughter and wife will both use showers at the same time.

The RCD question is a little more complex to what one first thinks, the problem today with so many switch mode power supplies, is a type AC RCD may not work due to some faulty equipment allowing DC to freeze the RCD, even the type A is only good for 6 mA, so the more RCD's the better, as it reduces the chance of some item stopping a RCD working, and it also reduces the chance or a build up of background leakage tripping a RCD when there is no real fault, so we have moved to favour RCBO's which are a RCD and MCB combined. This means you have extra slots with the same length of consumer unit, some taken up with the SPD, but likely you will gain slots with a consumer unit upgrade.

In the main, people go for electric showers as cheaper than the hot and cold supply showers, however by time one has swapped the consumer unit, and laid the 10 mm² cable, I would think a hot and cold feed shower will price not much differently to an electric heated one, of course can still use electric to drive shower pumps, but this only needs a 5 amp supply, a FCU off the ring final is likely enough.

If you have a combi boiler, likely no need for a pump, also showers downstairs don't need a pump. But I know I liked my mother's power shower, had to remove it when combi boiler fitted.
 
Hi everyone I’m looking at installing an electric shower.
An unfortunate choice. There are better ones.

My question is can I swap 1 of the 63A RCDs for an 80A RCD
Yes, but it would achieve nothing.

I’ve heard the main fuse can work past 60A for a couple of hours before popping.
That is true, but it is inappropriate to design an installation which will knowingly operate at overload on a regular basis.
 
Hi everyone I’m looking at installing an electric shower. However I’ve got a split load board with 2 63A RCDs that are already maxed out and my main cut out fuse is rated at 60A.

My question is can I swap 1 of the 63A RCDs for an 80A RCD as most things on this circuit won’t be running at full capacity continuously and I’ve heard the main fuse can work past 60A for a couple of hours before popping.
Out of interest, what other circuits are served by the 63A RCD?
 
I am not an electrican... The other day I had to let someone in to a customer's home to fit a new smart meter (for the ground floor flat). Out of curiosity, I asked him what the rating on the main fuse was. He told me that the cover said 60A but it doesn't follow that it is necessarily a 60A fuse. I asked because the property was a maisonette and my customer had purchased the first floor and created a new flat in what was previously the attic space. That means that each of the three flats will have to share what might be a 60A supply. From memory, he said that my customer would need to pay the DNO to assess if a higher rated fuse could be fitted.
 
Unless the home has electric space heating I would say that there isn’t an issue
 
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