New kitchen wiring

I'm installing a new kitchen in the near future and have just had a electrician round to look at the wiring I need doing. Currently, there are 2 double sockets on the ring main and an unused 32A cooker radial, which is not connected at the CU (wasn't used so previous electrician used its MCB to connect shower). I want to reconnect the cooker circuit to power electric oven, and increase the number of sockets to 5 plus connections for gas ignition and extractor. I proposed 2 different plans to the electrician to get a quote: (should say here, the consumer unit is about 10 years old, 80A main, all RCD, only 4 ways, 1 spare)

1. Use the spare way to re-connect cooker outlet to 16A MCB (cooker can be plugged to 13A), and also use this to power the gas ignition and extractor fan through a connection. Preferably hard wire everything so don't have visible cables. Add sockets to existing ring main.

2. Remove existing sockets from existing ring main, put in a new ring for the kitchen only and hard wire oven, hob and extractor.

He's said he can't do either because the CU isn't up to current standards and I would need a new one installing, in which case I may as well have a dedicated cooker circuit and new ringmain for kitchen only, as I'd have more free ways. Now, I've no problem with having this done, as long as he isn't taking me for a ride and doing unnecessary work. Secondly, if I had that done, I would have 2x 32A rings, 32A shower, 5A lights and presumably a 16A cooker, all on an 80A main fuse - is this too much? I've got another leccy man coming round this evening, and would like to know what I should expect to have done in your opinions?

The 80A main fuse should cope fine with your circuits (diversity applies) unless you have an abundance of electric fires on all at once while you're having a shower and cooking Christmas dinner.

I would keep the cooker on its own circuit, even if it does come with a plug on it. It's a fixed appliance over 2kW so should have a dedicated circuit.
No harm in doing it properly with 6mm2 / 32A (for example) in case you ever upgrade the oven again. (But you should fuse down with a 13A FCU for your currrent oven)

I'm pretty certain you don't need a CU upgrade. However, any new circuits will have to comply with latest regs. The 'all circuits on one RCD' is no longer an acceptable design, but I don't immediately see how adding an RCD-protected cooker circuit renders the installation less safe in respect of this new circuit. One of the pro's could give you a more definite answer.

Any pros out there? Electrician coming at 5.

Right - second electrician just left. He said either way should be OK, but that I couldn't join the spark and extractor from a dedicated cooker circuit, but I could plug one of them into the cooker socket (confused by this, but sure it's what he said). He's quoted £50 per item to install, plus testing and certificate. Sounds OK - is this about right?

providing your cooker circuit cable is of a suitable size, then having it as a 20, 25 or 32A radial ( based on cable size and breaker availability for your CU ) and wiring the extract ( 3A fuse in FCU ), spark ignitor ( 3A fuse in FCU, but probably a lot less ), and the oven is fine..

Rowano said:

Any pros out there? Electrician coming at 5.

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Please don't push for responses, especially during the day. I don't know what you do for a living, but most contributors on here are out working and don't get to a warm comfy chair in front of a computer until it gets dark and the Merlot gets flowing

First guy talks more sense in my opinion, and I dont see any logic in why the second guy told you what he did.

Obviously the 1st guy is gonna cost more as he is doing more work. Cannot comment on price as it varies from location to location!

Thanks John. Been thinking about this all night, because what the second guy said is confusing me. Basdically, I can have a dedicated cooker circuit connected to a cooker switch that has a single socket built in and I can use this socket to power either the extractor or ignition. But, I can't have the circuit the poweres the cooker switch without a single socket on, but extend the circuit to include a seperate socket to power them. Correct? If so, why is this?

I'm kind of desperate for teh second guy to do the work because it would work out a lot cheaper, but what the first guy said concerns me that the second won't do a proper job. Think I need to get someone else round to look.