Oven Query, another one

Mrsmoneyspinner

Any electricians out there please who could reassure me: I ordered a fitted, fan assisted oven but when they came to install found it was a 13amp plug type and not suitable sot it went back. I was told (by the electrician delivering) to look for a hardwired oven that has 32amp and uses more than 3 kw power ... so I found New World NW601F which is 32amp but spec says its 2.78kw and not 3kw ... does this matter?????

Ebe_Scrooge

3kw is the upper limit of what a standard 13-amp socket can cope with - more than this and you need a dedicated "cooker" circuit at 32 amps. So if it's 3kw or less then you can in theory run it off a 13-amp circuit - providing it's the only thing using that circuit. If there are other sockets on that circuit and you ran, say, a kettle at the same time then it would ( or at least SHOULD ! ) trip the circuit breaker.


To do the job "properly" it would be a good idea to get a proper "cooker" circuit installed. This also has the advantage of future-proofing it, so you ( or someone else ) can put a higher-rated oven in if you want to. This will need an electrician, though, and will cost.

Mrsmoneyspinner

thank you scrooge. your advice is really helpful, I don't know how to tell what else runs off the circuit - there is a heater which stopped working long ago built in to the same cavity so probably that does; and above are some 13 amp plug holes which I don't know if are on the same circuit - if in doubt best get the experts I guess. edited:
I just noticed I have big box on the wall with 'socket' written under the big red switch - would that mean I am already wired up with a 'proper' cooker circuit?

Ebe_Scrooge

An easy way is to plug something into the sockets that you suspect may be on the same circuit - say a table lamp. Switch them on, then go to the consumer unit ( aka fuse box ), and knock off the circuit that's hopefully labelled "kitchen sockets". If your cooker goes off, you know you've knocked off the right circuit. If the table lamps also go off, they're on the same circuit.


This assumes that your existing cooker is a 13-amp one plugged into a 13-amp circuit. If it's a larger, hard-wired one then I wouldn't expect to see it on the same circuit as the sockets - it should have it's own circuit, with it's own breaker in the consumer unit - hopefully labelled "cooker", and it should be rated 32 amp or possibly 45 amp.


It depends on your consumer unit - if it's fairly modern then you should find a load of little switches - mini-circuit-breakers. This makes it dead easy to switch off individual circuits.


But my advice would always be - electrical work is not difficult, but if you're at all unsure then an electrician is cheaper than a funeral


<edit> In response to your edit "I just noticed I have big box on the wall with 'socket' written under the big red switch - would that mean I am already wired up with a 'proper' cooker circuit? ". Yes, this sounds like a standard 32 amp circuit, if it's something like this :


http://www.screwfix.com/p/mk-2-gang-45a-cooker-switch-with-13a-switched-plug-socket-neon-white/25231

Mrsmoneyspinner

Thank you ES. I am prob going to ask an electrician to have a look for me to be on the safe side. I was going to order my oven online but as they want £90 to fit it to existing hardwire, I may be better off supporting my local business and getting the right things for the job.

McKneff

I have an oven that you just plug in to a socket, never had a problem with it. I didn't have to pay anyone
to fit it either.


I do everything in it that I did in my hard wired cooker, why was it not suitable for you.

Mrsmoneyspinner

in answer to your query the oven I purchased required a 13amp plug, my wiring was not compatible so the electrician, who was part of my delivery package, took the oven away - I don't have anything against plug in ovens though.

Mrsmoneyspinner

replying to E/Scrooge - no my socket isn't like that - it's prob 1993 and is a 6 inch high box with the red switch and next to it a thing like a light switch and then next to that is two separate 13 amp sockets for things like kettles. I think I do have the fully monty but I can't find an oven that uses 3kw+ which is what I think I should be looking for.

flashg67

Don't understand why an oven 'needs' to use more than 3kw? A modern single oven will usually be less than 3 Kw. A double oven will likely need a dedicated socket/circuit. I had a kitchen rewired (professionally) recently and the sparky installed 13A standard sockets for the 'plug in' integrated oven I fitted, was happy to do so and gave me a cert no problem.

Ebe_Scrooge

I'm guessing that what's happened is :


OP already has a hard-wired oven.
New oven is delivered.
New oven comes with a fitted 13 amp plug.
Delivery man sees there's no nearby socket available.
Delivery man suggests going for a more powerful oven as that will be ready-prepared to be hard-wired into a dedicated cooker circuit.


In actual fact, there's no reason you can't cut the plug off the cooker and hard-wire it straight into the circuit. The most it will draw is 13 amps, and the cooker circuit is designed to supply a lot more than that, so it'll come nowhere near to the maximum rating for the circuit - which is fine. Of course, if someone were to cut the plug off and hard-wire it wrong, then they're open to being sued, especially if they're not actually a qualified spark. Which is probably why the delivery man didn't want to do this - not that I blame him. It's the kind of thing that if you do it in a DIY situation it's fine, but do it for someone else and you open yourself up to all sorts of silliness.

Mrsmoneyspinner

precisely! it's just that the sparky who took the oven away was doing his job and saying he can't put it into the existing hard wire set up ... but I don't understand why he has told me to look for an oven that draws more than 3kw ... that was my point: and I wrote down what he said so I wouldn't get confused! he said 32amp and an oven that uses 3kw or more... the oven I want is 2.78kw so I think I will just order it and see what the sparky says when he turns up with it - worst case scenario is they will take it away again and I will be better informed! thanks for your comments you are a friendly bunch and your time spent on my little conundrum has been appreciated.