Electric Cooker point query

Angel11_2

I moved to this house 2 years ago bringing my free standing electric cooker with me.

My ex put the cooker in its place in the kitchen as he was home for the delivery. When I moved it had a normal 3 pin plug on the end of the cable which went into said socket behind the cooker.

Into my current house (housing association btw) - 3 pin socket where cooker plugs in. Thought nothing of it.

Bring story up to date - had delivery of a new cooker yesterday. Delivery driver said I had to have a 6mm cable and it had to go into a proper cooker point not a plug - risk of fire.

Should be the sort of point where the wiring goes UP into it - am I making sense?

Question is - is this my landlords responsibility to provide such a socket - anything re a legal requirement or do I have to pay an electrician to come out?

Many thanks

ariba10

As far as I am aware a cooker circuit had to be on a separate run from the distribution box and of cable of at least 6mm.

But someone with more expertise knowledge will no doubt be along soon.

andrew-b

What does the instruction manual say about it? Some cookers can be plugged in to 13amp socket others require a dedicated cooker point with it's own cabling running back to the consumer unit. If necessary ask the manufacturer.

I would ask your housing association as the electrics in the property should be their responsibility or they may insist their own subcontractors carry out the work rather than an electrician employed by yourself. I expect you will have to pay though.

We used to live in housing association property and although we had a cooker point if we had wanted an electric shower installing we would have had to pay the housing association to send their subcontractors out to install it.

If the housing association won't allow it or if you can't afford the costs involved then you may have to send the cooker back if it can't be run off a 13amp socket.

Andy

Angel11_2

I'll quote from the manual.

The appliance must be installed by a competent electrician using a double pole control unit of 32 ampere minimum capacity with with a3mm minimum contact seperation at all poles. warning - this appliance must be earth

Connection should be made with 6.00mm2 twin and earth cable.

Electrical supply 220-240V ~ 50Hz

Hope that helps Andy x

latecomer

Interesting question. I thought all cookers had to be hard-wired so I've learnt something new.

Do you know whether you have a separate fuse/breaker for the cooker? If so then it might be the case that the socket you are using for the cooker is already correctly protected and hence could be converted into a cooker switch relatively easily.

As to whether its something that should be provided by the landlord or not I have no idea. I've never heard of a flat/house let without a cooker before.

jennifernil

Are we talking about a freestanding full cooker with 4 rings and an oven? No way can you run that off a 13amp plug. With everything on at once it could easily draw over 7 kW, which is over 30amps.

A single built-in oven can usually be run off the socket ring circuit.

madjay

latecomer wrote: »

Interesting question. I thought all cookers had to be hard-wired so I've learnt something new.

Do you know whether you have a separate fuse/breaker for the cooker? If so then it might be the case that the socket you are using for the cooker is already correctly protected and hence could be converted into a cooker switch relatively easily.

As to whether its something that should be provided by the landlord or not I have no idea. I've never heard of a flat/house let without a cooker before.

No you can not convert a socket outlet to a cooker point. It would be fed from the ring circuit for the kitchen using 2.5mm² cable. As state the new cooker requires 6mm². the cables would melt when you switch the cooker on.

A new cooker point would be require, this would depend on you landlord allowing you to install this. You may only be allow a cooker of a lower rating.

Angel11_2

Its a free-standing electric cooker, halogen hob, double oven, grill and cooling fan. From the book again - Maxiumum load would be 9505W :eek:

andrew-b

So the delivery man was right and it definitely needs a dedicated cooker point with 6mm2 T&E cable back to the consumer unit. I would think it's unlikely the existing socket can be replaced with a cooker point - it's only going to be possible if it has a seperate circuit back to the consumer unit with at least 6mm2 thick cable.

So i'd now go the housing association route first and see what they say. I'd try and point out to them that it would be of benefit to future tenants and that you feel it's something they should provide rather than volunteer your money up front. Either way it's part p notifiable work and so requires an electrician to carry the work out.


Hope that helps

Andy

Angel11_2

Thanks for all the replies guys :beer:

Just spoke to our maintenance officer who will look at the electrical point tonight and hopefully will allocate out to a contractor. Kitchen was only fitted just over 2 years ago.

I'll update when I know. :A

latecomer

madjay wrote: »

No you can not convert a socket outlet to a cooker point. It would be fed from the ring circuit for the kitchen using 2.5mm² cable. As state the new cooker requires 6mm². the cables would melt when you switch the cooker on.

Nobody suggested converting a standard socket into a cooker point.