Cooker socket, can I plug in a 9kw heater

cherry2017

I heard the cooker  socket only supports 3kw, but how about the wire? Is the wire shared with cooker wire? Or it has it own separate wire? How about of replacing fuse with higher amps
Thanks 

BarelySentientAI

Don't do it.

cymruchris

cherry2017 said:

I heard the cooker  socket only supports 3kw, but how about the wire? Is the wire shared with cooker wire? Or it has it own separate wire? How about of replacing fuse with higher amps
Thanks 

Based on the questions being asked, it might be worthwhile getting an electrician in. None of us can see what you specifically have fitted, but In short - the answer is no - you can't plug in a 9kw heater into a connection that's deemed max at 3kw.  (Well you can - but it won't be long before the cable melts and your house burns down).

daveyjp

You need dedicated cabling and a fuse to handle 40 amps.

Plug it in a 13 amp socket and you can expect a big bang as a ring main fuse blows and possibly a fire.

tacpot12

It's likely that an electrician will be able to change the Cooker Control Unit for a 45A Switch Isolator to allow you to connect a 9kW heater using the existing cable. They will check that the cable is large enough and that the correct circuit breaker has been installed to protect the cable. 

BarelySentientAI

tacpot12 said:

It's likely that an electrician will be able to change the Cooker Control Unit for a 45A Switch Isolator to allow you to connect a 9kW heater using the existing cable. They will check that the cable is large enough and that the correct circuit breaker has been installed to protect the cable. 

I'd put the balance completely the other way and say that it's unlikely that a competent electrician would be able to simply make that change.

It's much more likely that they will discover the cable is too small and the circuit breaker is sized to protect a smaller cable.  What % of consumer units have anything bigger than a 32A MCB, and how many times is 10mm cable or larger used in domestic properties?

A cowboy electrician, however, would probably be quite happy just to change the outlet and let the house burn down.

OP - get a competent electrician to check the size of the cable and its installation conditions.  That will tell you what, if anything, needs to be changed.

CliveOfIndia

cherry2017 said:

but how about the wire? Is the wire shared with cooker wire? Or it has it own separate wire?

A cooker will usually have its own dedicated circuit - though not always.  But even then, whether it could support a 9KW appliance is unknown - depends entirely on what the original wiring was designed to support.  That's a big old heater - I'm intrigued as to where you bought it from (3KW is the largest that's commonly available "off-the-shelf"), and why you would want such a beast !

cherry2017 said:

How about of replacing fuse with higher amps

Absolutely not - at least, it's not something you can do yourself.  Well, yes you can replace the fuse easily enough, but that would be slightly dangerous, to say the least, without getting the wiring checked.

But you absolutely must get an electrician to check that the wiring will be able to handle it first.

Albermarle

That's a big old heater - I'm intrigued as to where you bought it from (3KW is the largest that's commonly available "off-the-shelf"), and why you would want such a beast !

I was wondering the same. For sure you would have a big electricity bill !

cymruchris

Are you planning on growing some unusual indoor plants?

It's not a 900w heater by any chance? 0.9kw?

9kw heaters tend to look big and industrial a bit like this:

So it could be you're having some work done at home? A lot of these are three phase though - so be sure if you are actively going out to buy such a big heater - that it's single phase.

danrv

BarelySentientAI said:

tacpot12 said:

It's likely that an electrician will be able to change the Cooker Control Unit for a 45A Switch Isolator to allow you to connect a 9kW heater using the existing cable. They will check that the cable is large enough and that the correct circuit breaker has been installed to protect the cable. 

how many times is 10mm cable or larger used in domestic properties?

Just for electric showers these days. I still have the 60 amp circuit and 10mm cable for my old 10kW warm air heater. 
Dedicated circuit certainly needed.

Risteard

danrv said:

BarelySentientAI said:

tacpot12 said:

It's likely that an electrician will be able to change the Cooker Control Unit for a 45A Switch Isolator to allow you to connect a 9kW heater using the existing cable. They will check that the cable is large enough and that the correct circuit breaker has been installed to protect the cable. 

how many times is 10mm cable or larger used in domestic properties?

Just for electric showers these days. I still have the 60 amp circuit and 10mm cable for my old 10kW warm air heater. 
Dedicated circuit certainly needed.

SOME electric showers. Not all will have such a large cable installed. SOME cooking equipment will also have it installed, though as it's always completely unnecessary for this not usually. SOME EV chargepoints may have it - but not usually as it's generally oversized.