Advice on installing my own electric cooker?

C_Mababejive

The innards of Consumer units can be dangerous places,even with the main incomer switched off..

EssexExile

If you are putting in a new circuit the work is notifiable. That means you must employ a qualified electrician or inform building control. Having re read you post after my internet through a wobbly in the middle of everything, if you're just connecting to an existing circuit you'll be alright (as long as you know what colour goes where!).

Sandwich

EssexExile wrote: »

If you are putting in a new circuit the work is notifiable. That means you must employ a qualified electrician or inform building control.

I'm not even contemplating doing anything that drastic. If it's more complex than wiring in the cooker to the wall (which seems barely more complex than wiring a plug) then I'm staying well away.

Really just trying to find out if the cable in the wall is suitable, if my consumer unit is okay for this, what cable I'll need to buy for the wiring I need to do, and if there are any precautions I need to take while doing it.

Pennylane

Pay someone who is qualified to do it.

Quiet_Spark

Sandwich wrote: »

So I can take it from this that I'm all set, as the breaker is 80A on the cooker/lights?

That is not a breaker, it is the main isolator switch for that side of the split load consumer unit you have.
That statement alone tells me you really need to get a proper sparky in before you hurt/kill yourself or someone else.

Sandwich wrote: »

Thanks. They seem to know what they're talking about in that thread and they all seem to think 6mm cabling (over a short run, mind you -- 6m) is fine

6mm² cable is nowhere near big enough for that cooker you have, and the 32A MCB in your consumer unit won't be any good either.

If you want that cooker in, the cable from the consumer unit needs to be upgraded to 10mm² minimum and the current MCB will need to be raised from 32A to 50A.

You either need to get a qualified sparks in to modify the existing cooker point (and associated circuitry), or change that cooker for one that requires half the power of the one you have now.

DevCoder

Also, they have no idea how your cable is routed, it could be clipped, buried in insulation or in conduit, each of which means that the calculation needed to figure out the rating for the circuit is different.

I'd be listening to Quiet Spark, the 80Amp is to cope with the combined load of each of the split ways, your main fuse (at the "cutout" which is where the mains comes in from the street and is then delivered to your consumer unit (CU)) will not be 160 Amps. It will be either 80Amp (so the RCD's offer discriminatory "blowing" as no cutout will blow in 30ma situation) or will be 100Amp and still the RCD's offer the protection.

At least the electrician installing the split way CU had the sense to split the smokes from the lights but , if you are living in a house with more than one level then Id personally want each level on one side of the split (although this is often fudged because it can cause issues with existing wiring with borrowed neutrals on landings etc). That way when one level blows the rcd or mcb due to a lamp (those damn halogens!), you can still see your way to resetting the mcb or rcd instead of breaking your neck down the stairs.

thescouselander

Lets not get carried away here. You need to apply load diversity to the cooker as in the first 10 amps plus 30% of the remaining load.

So at 13kw its

13000/230 = 56.5 amps (approx) at full load.

so the circuit needs to support

10 + (56.5-10) x 0.3 = 24 amps (approx)

plus another 5 assuming your cooker point has a built in socket = 29 Amps.

So 6mm cable and a 32 amp breaker is the thing to use and this is what has been used all over the country for donkey's years.

Re the use of 10mm cable you might have trouble getting this into the terminals on the cooker and I note the instructions only cover cables up to 6mm which suggests the terminals are not sized to go any bigger.


The bottom line - keep your current wiring and connect the cooker to the cooker point with 6mm cable.

DevCoder

I did those calcs once on another thread scouselander and got accused of "being a geek", "confusing the situation" and "making no sense which the common person could understand".

newbie1980

straight away with the picture of consumer unit i would say the property is a council/housing trust property

they insist on a minor works certificate from a electrician upon installation
to prove proper installation

thescouselander

krisdorey wrote: »

I did those calcs once on another thread scouselander and got accused of "being a geek", "confusing the situation" and "making no sense which the common person could understand".

Its important though because that is what the regs call for. I don't think putting in a massive cable and oversized breaker is the way to go.

A) When routing the cable through floor joists and other structural parts of the house drilling bigger holes to accommodate the larger cable weakens the structure more than necessary.

Installing a breaker that is bigger than necessary can be dangerous in itself.