Hy everybody,I am about to rent a new apartment and need advice about installing a water heater.The apt is in a new building,but only comes with solar water heating.The landlord sais I can buy an electric water heater and install it (and I'm ok with paying for it),but I have a few questions:will I need to install a separate shower?or can the existing one be connected to both solar and water heater? any recommendation about a good brand?thanks!

When you buy the electrical water heater ask if you can install it after the solar heater where the water pipe enters your flat, I was told that elec water heaters could be damaged if you installed them after the solar heater, not sure why.

If the weather is sunny then you won't use much electricity.

You can buy separate shower units that will also heat other water in the bathroom.
There are two types. The first is a big tank that sits on the wall. These are energy hungry and not so efficient. You really don't want one of these, but may well be offered one as they are cheap.
There are also the heat on demand kind (guo shui re). If you want reliability, there are imported ones in B&Q.

tiger, only imported ones are reliable? Just asking why that is the case.

Having bought, and installed a couple of electric water heaters, the process is pretty simple. Both were bought at Suning and were Haier brand. The store arranged for a guy to come and do the work for a set price.

Both times I had the plumbing done so it was neat and out of the way. Both times this added a bit to the cost, but not much. One of the guys really liked how it looked after the work was done.

@geezer,did you jave to hire another person to do the plumbing? or did you get everything done from Suning? I dont really care mich about money, I just want something that can work fine!

and I would prefer to have just one shower

Oh, both were tank types. One was 40L and the other 80L. Both were enough for a shower but the 80L was good for two showers. :-).

Had one of those flash heaters in Beijing but it was gas powered and worked great. The 40L tank job replaced an electric flash heater that didn't cut it in the Kunming winter.

you can buy elebtric flash jobs now.

When I bought the heaters, Suning arranged for the installer to come the day after they were delivered. Took about 2-3 hours to do the job including getting the PVC plumbing done the way I waned it.

Seems it was about 200 for the parts and labor. Both guys had the tools to do the job right. My requested changes added 30-40 for the extra PVC pieces.