Shower choices? Furring of Shower?

You can certainly buy power (pumped) showers for much less than £300, but on the other hand you can also buy fancy multi-jet, multi-head units which cost more than that.  Some of the "designer" models in this category are ridiculous prices.

For some more price guides to different shower types, check TLC here:

http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Main_Index/Showers_Index/index.html

and the Screwfix selection here:

http://www.screwfix.com (under Bathrooms -> Showers).

is there any way to know if the incoming pressure (from feeder tank in attic & hot water tank in airing cupboard) are enough for a mixer shower?

It rather depends upon what you mean by enough.  So long as the shower head is below the bottom of the cistern in the attic it will work, but you may not obtain enough pressure for your liking.  You probably want at least 2 ft. or so to obtain a reasonable flow, but that's very much open to individual preference and to some degree the type of shower head.   

One thing you can do with a simple mixer shower is to install it in such a way that you can go back afterward and add an auxiliary pump should you find the pressure too low for your liking.  It should be easy enough to make provision for this option when running the pipes, e.g. plan where a pump might be added later in a cupboard behind the shower, etc.

thanks for that suggestion paul.  i think it's gonna be the way to go.  nothing can be worse than our exisiting-can't wash the shampoo out of your hair-electric shower.

we buy the thermostatic mixer shower for like £100.  have it installed but make sure the plumber knows that we may be putting a pump in in the future.  i must say that i feel ok buying a shower- but looking at pump choices just makes my head spin.  and it's one more thing to budget in.

do you have any recomendations for thermostatic mixer selections?

Interesting article, Meggles.  We had a normal bath mixer tap when we moved into our house but the flow wasn't very good and we wanted something a bit more powerful.  We originally looked at electric showers which were a little cheaper but our plumber convinced us to go with a power shower (partly because he said the electrics would have to be installed by an electrician whereas he could put in the power shower himself).

It is noisier than a mixer or electric shower because the pump is activated to pull the water out of the tank.  We're completely used to it, it's not nearly as loud as the Dyson (which sounds like an airplane taking off!).  We have it over our bath and have a bath screen to prevent any water getting out.  While the higher pressure setting is very powerful (and great for cleaning the bath) we tend to keep it on the lower, less powerful setting which is still good pressure and is always consistent (unlike what the article said about electric showers).

The high pressure setting could be unpleasant for extended periods as it could almost be like being hit by a high pressure washer (ok maybe not That powerful and also it would use up water a lot quicker but I like the lower setting as you always get a consistently good stream of water and doesn't cause a spray problem.

why didn't you just keep the mixer shower and put an extra pump in somewhere? 

I'm trying to remember now, it was quite a few years ago.  I think the mixer might have been broken in some way so that very little water was coming out but my memory is a bit hazy!