Kitchen appliances causing our electric to trip all the time

Problem !!! Please excuse the lack of knowledge.

In our humble kitchen, we have a Microwave (Panasonic k125m) - (Hotpoint ultima dishwasher) - (Hotpoint BS43 Oven) (Kettle) (Toaster)
Etc etc:

When the Oven, Dishwasher and Microwave are running at the same time, this will trip our Leki - well sometimes anyway !! the three can be on for hours then the kettle switched on will definatly trip it.

To help you guys solve mi prob i've looked at the main electric control panel (Consumer unit) The one that trips says it's 20Amp - Don'y know if this is our problem or not. Was told not.

Our house is quite an oldy, 100 years+ to put you in the picture.


Would appreciate a bit of help as my wife does more washing, drying, cooking, cleaning, brewing, moaning and groaning than any other average wife around

Cheers ..........................

Sounds like you are overloading your circuit breaker (20A) with all of the appliances. Only solution is to upgrade the (assumed) 20A radial to a 32A radial which will involve a re-wire using 4mm or converting your radial into a 2.5mm 32A ring.

Or, not using so many things at once. The 13A kettle is pushing things over the edge.

Is the oven on the kitchen circuit or on it's own dedicated circuit?

kettle 8-13 amp cooker 0- 20 amp tumble drier 5-13 anp toaster 4 amp

micro 3-13 amp dishwasher dont know but would assume around 5-10 amp


so your mcb is doing its job looks like you need an upgrade would also thinkgetting an electrician in to a check would be a good idea

Sounds a big job rewiring. Can we not use a higher amp fuse or is the cable only rated to take 20Amp
cheers

You can not increase the rating of the mcb without establishing the specification of the circuit.

It sounds like you have a 20A radial circuit, which would normally use 2.5mm cable. If this is the case, then the 20A mcb is the maximum you can have.

An alternative might be to install a new socket from another socket circuit and to use it for one of your appliances. There are other considerations with this so I would advise you to contact a reputable and registered electrician to see for themselves and to discuss your requirements.

A 20A radial is suitable for only a small kitchen with a few items of current using equipment.

Socket circuits are (mainly) intended to provide a number of socket outlets for portable equipment so as to aid convenience and flexibility. Once stationary equipments of a known or expected load are added into the mix, it is prudent to calculate the expected loading during normal use and the location of such equipment (should a ring circuit be considered) and to design the circuit accordingly.

It sounds as though you have either out-grown your circuit or the circuit was poorly conceived at the outset.

Nice bit of info on last post. that's a good idea about putting one of the appliances on it's own. I assume the oven would be a power hogger so we could use that. Cool problem solved.