10.4KW Cooker to 30A Fuse box? 6.mm cable Okay?

[Trapper]

My wife wishes to install a Cannon Kendal Electric cooker in place of our old Gas cooker. I have an electric cooker switch connected to a cooker connection plate ready for attaching the cooker.

The fuseway is 30A and the wire from the switch to the connection plate is 6mm 45A cooker cable. The cooker is rated at 10.4KW and according to the General Rules on this forum which I have printed out the 30A fuse is okay for up to 7.2KW appliances, my question is will the wiring (6.mm) and setup (Assuming I change the 30A fuse for a 45A one) be okay for 10.4KW?

If the cable needs to be heavier what rating should it be? The cable from the fuse box to the switch seems heavier than the 6mm from the switch to the connection plate.

Any advice appreciated.

 

[Steve]

she'll regret the switch to electric. frankly, electric hobs are terrible. The heat control is awful, very slow to react and the heat is present for a long time afterwards (safety aspect with kiddies running about)

 

[BigJon]

For a 10.4 kw load you should be using 10mm. You say that the cable seems larger before the 45A switch, Could this be 10mm, if so you just need to replace the 6mm with 10mm. Main thing is to identify if it is a 10mm leaving the Fuse box, tbh its prob only a 6mm and a 4mm thats existing

 

[Trapper]

Thanks for the advice, its definately 6mm on the exit from the switch so if 10mm is the next size up and the supply cable is larger (I will check tonight to see if it is) then I would assume it is 10mm. If I then changed teh output to 10mm and the fuse to 45A would this be okay with 10.4KW

I will pass on your comments Crafty to my Mrs, perhaps a re-think is in order

We cooked on a fan assist electric while on holiday and thought the food tasted much better, oh well back to the brochures

 

[JohnD]

...We cooked on a fan assist electric while on holiday and thought the food tasted much better, oh well back to the brochures

A fan electric oven is great, but gas hobs are better than electric ones. You can get mixed fuel cooker (I have one, they are quite popular with expert cooks ) or get a separate hob and oven if you prefer.

The fan oven does not need a huge supply; a single oven is typically 10Amps and a double 20A or less.

However, it does seem to me that you get more "hot fat" cooking smells from an electric oven that a gas one. I have guessed that the flame burn it up, but I don't know.

 

[Trapper]

I have checked the supply cable from the fuse box, its 6mm The same as the cable to the cooker. So if this set up will only take up to 7.2KW that removes the 10.4KW Kendal Cooker

I have checked the specs on lots of cookers but none seem to list the total KW required to run them, I find this odd as if we were to buy one of the higher KW usage it could lead to a dangerous situation, short of emailing all manufacturers how do you find out the KW rating

Just to add to my nightmare we have 535mm cooker and now she wants a 600mm, I can move the bottom kitchen units but not the wall mounted upper units (The gap would look really naff) so a 600mm tip up lid will hit the edge of one of the units, so, the best bet maybe a fan assisted GAS twin oven with an electric hob, somewhat the reverse of whats on offer and whats recommended by JohnD.

Looks like I need to keep below 7.2KW, any suggestions

 

[Adam_151]

No one had mentioned diversity yet, basically it means that your cooker won't be using the max rating at any time, and in the rare occasion it is, it won't be for long, you might say to me "what about christmas day when I have everything on?" well it takes into account that things 'cycle' on an off once they have reached the desired temperature.

You must make sure the fuse rating is appropiate for the wire (and I'd much prefer to use a CB over a 3036*), this means a 30A max for 6mm, and the divesified rating is less than the fuse, this is 10A+30% (+5A iof CCU has a socket), now it might not be the best idea to this it to the full extent the figures obtained will allow, but saying you can have a cooker with a max of 7.2kw in the way we would for a shower is rather silly when it comes to cookers

*if you do use a 3036, remember the correction factor for the fusing factor

 

[supersparky]

so if i hear another huge bang its you cooking breakfast and not buncefield again

 

[Trapper]

Thanks for the replies, I have never heard of diversity in this context before, I will contact Cannon to check which of their cookers will work on 6mm cable, at least I will have an idea of what will work.

I take the point about not having everything on at once but as 10.4KW is roughly a 44% increase over the 7.2KW rating this sounds a bit risky to me.

I will post Cannons reply later.

 

[Trapper]

I have spoken to Cannon and their technical dept emailed the cooker instructions (Nice of them!).
The instructions on 'installation' state:

The power supply cable should conform to B.S.6004 with a conductor size of 6mm2, minimum

They also state that in older properties a a 30A double pole control unit and a minimum contact clearance of 3mm is acceptable. Can I assume a cooker switch of 5 years old (Never used) will have a 3mm clearance?


From this I assume it will be okay to use although they said on the phone the cooker was rated at 10.4KW

As we have used Gas for many years is there a rule of thumb to work out the cost of running an Electric v Gas cooker? I guess it will cost more but any clues as to how much more

Thanks for your replies, they're much appreciated.

 

[JohnD]

The biggest cost will be getting a new wife, since women who are used to gas rings will never be satisfied with electric.

 

[Trapper]

Well the wife is dead set on an Electric cooker, and I am not arguing as I do not want to learn how to cook

I have been reading some of the posts here about kitchen wiring, the 6mm wire is installed in a narrow wall on the reverse side of the cooker switch wall in a channel 18" long going vertically down then back through the same wall to the cooker connection plate on the same side as the switch.

The rules as I understand it means the above is okay as the wire channel is around 45mm from an adjoining wall. If you imagine a cavity wall where one 'wall' has been removed to leave a single wall this corner is were the channel is. (The wall was removed as part of an extension we had built to enable better access to the room in the extension and it was supported above and passed the building inspection) This single wall is one brick wide 100mm plus tiles on one side, Kitchen, and plastered on the other, bedroom. The supporting wall is 100mm but the overall width is around 130mm I assume the extra 30mm does not form part of the 100mm regulations?

 

[Steve]

Keep the gas hob handy, for when the missus decides she's had enough with farting about with electric.

 

[Trapper]

Okay JohnD and Crafty, I think I have converted her to a Dual Fuel cooker, this will help with the electric loading as well.
The Mrs is fed up with cleaning the gas hob burners so,

I may be dreaming but I thought I'd seen/heard of a gas cooker with a new sealed gas hob which is easy to clean, is this correct or am I losing it

 

[Steve]

I may be dreaming but I thought I'd seen/heard of a gas cooker with a new sealed gas hob which is easy to clean, is this correct or am I losing it

Sounds a bit far-fetched, but anythings possible these days!