Cooker install

[Hagarbloke]

Couple of questions if someone could offer advice please.

My dear old Mom lives in a council house and I need to get rid of her old knackered gas cooker and get her an electric one. The house was rewired by a council contractor a couple of years ago and despite the fact that she had a gas cooker they conveniently fitted a cooker supply and socket outlet. Am I allowed to wire up the new cooker to the cooker switch the electrician provided or do I need to get someone in to do it? I'm quite confident with doing this job and just wanted to check on the rules.

Secondly, although a question related to the gas and might be asking in the wrong area, but the original gas cooker has a bayonet fitting to the gas feed and there is no isolator on this pipe, only at the meter. Again, am I allowed to turn off the gas, cut this pipe back and cap it myself, or is that a job for a CORGI bloke only?

Thanks in advance for advice.

 

[riveralt]

My dear old Mom lives in a council house and I need to get rid of her old knackered gas cooker and get her an electric one. The house was rewired by a council contractor a couple of years ago and despite the fact that she had a gas cooker they conveniently fitted a cooker supply and socket outlet. Am I allowed to wire up the new cooker to the cooker switch the electrician provided

Yes provided the correctly sized cable has been used and the circuit is protected by the correctly sized MCB for the output of the cooker.

In very broad terms 6mm T&E cable and 32Amp MCB.

You will need to know the power output of the cooker - if this is hob and oven separates then you can add them together.

So if for example the cooker power output is 9kw then the following formula is applied.

9000/230 = 39.13Amp
Apply diversity formula
10Amp plus (29.13 *.3) = 18.74 Amps plus 5Amp if your cooker isolator switch has a socket included = 23.74Amps.
So a 32 Amp MCB is fine and 6mm T&E is fine (provided it has not been run through insulation)

 

[holmslaw]

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[Hagarbloke]

Thanks Riveralt, useful advice. Holmslaw, I would get a registered fitter in to sort out the gas pipe but for a 5 minute job I'm concerned about the cost involved. I know these bayonet fittings are self sealing but the feed pipe is very unsightly and just clipped to the wall, it's a simple enough job to cut back and cap it off which again, I'm confident with, just wasn't sure on the legal side. Council are not interested and have stated we need to arrange for the work to be carried out ourselves which I thought was a bit odd as it's their property.

The reason I want her to go electric is that I just don't trust her with gas! The gas cooker she had developed a faulty cut off that should cut the gas to the hobs when the glass lid was lowered. She'd cooked herself some scrambled eggs the other day, dropped the lid and left the kitchen. A few seconds later there was an almightly explosion from the kitchen. She went back in to find she hadn't turned the gas ring off and when she closed the lid the cut off didn't work. The top literally exploded showering everything in the kitchen with shards of glass. God knows what mess she'd have been in if she hadn't left the kitchen immediately! There's no proper ventilation in there either.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I would get a registered fitter in to sort out the gas pipe but for a 5 minute job I'm concerned about the cost involved.

..... it's a simple enough job to cut back and cap it off which again, I'm confident with, just wasn't sure on the legal side.

........ There's no proper ventilation in there either.

FFS. This is gas. You must use a GasSafe Registered Plumber to do this. Or are you hoping for an early inheritence from your dear old Mum's estate?

 

[flameport]

The gas cooker she had developed a faulty cut off that should cut the gas to the hobs when the glass lid was lowered.

A single defective appliance is not a reason to condemn all gas cookers.
Gas hobs with lids are cack anyway. Get a new one without a lid, and make sure it has an FSD (so that the gas is cut off should the flame go out).

If you still want an electric one, get a dual fuel cooker with electric oven and gas hob.

 

[bernardgreen]

While the task of capping the pipe is simple and is within the ability of a competent plumber DO NOT ATTEMPT IT
.
If there was any gas related incident in the propertythat resulted in injury or damage then YOU or the person who capped the pipe would come under investigation even if the capped pipe was not the cause of the incident.

Does your public liability insurance cover you to the extent of the costs of repair / rebuilding any houses that are made un-inhabitable by a gas explosion in your mum's house. ? Insurance companies looking to avoid a payout and/or recover monies will go for anything they can. It would be up to you to prove it was not your capping that caused the incident.

A gas safe plumber will ( should ) have insurance to cover costs of his or her negligence. Or to cover costs of proving that his or her work was not the cause of the incident.

 

[Hagarbloke]

Thanks for the tips.

 

[JohnW2]

If there was any gas related incident in the propertythat resulted in injury or damage then YOU or the person who capped the pipe would come under investigation even if the capped pipe was not the cause of the incident.
Does your public liability insurance cover you to the extent of the costs of repair / rebuilding any houses that are made un-inhabitable by a gas explosion in your mum's house. ? Insurance companies looking to avoid a payout and/or recover monies will go for anything they can. It would be up to you to prove it was not your capping that caused the incident.

Very true, and (given the nature of this forum) it's perhaps worth reminding visitors to this forum that exactly the same could be said in relation to a fire started by an electrical fault if there had been any DIY electrical work done in the premises.

Kind Regards, John.