oven hell

hi all i was wondering if anyone could help/advise me.

we moved into our current house 6 months ago. the oven was a fitted electric single oven with grill and we had a fitted gas hob. the oven was shot away as was the hob and so i decided to do away with both and get a free standing electric oven with hob.

the last oven was connected to a unit on the wall directly with a switch and a 13 amp fuse.
i had an electrition/gas man in to dissconect my gas hob and he commented that all my power points for the whole hous ewas actually only ran off a 30 amp fuse at the mains. he then told me that if i wanted to run my new oven it would need its own supply from a new fuse at the mains and a new unit on the wall with a thikicer wire going to it.

he then said that really with everythign runnign off the one fuse i was likely to get power surges if i was to run too much in the house at the same time.

my hole hous eonly has 3 fuses. a 5amp for all the lights a 30 amp for every power point and a 40 amp for an electric shower.
i have one more spcae left it is an old box.

what i was wondering is why was the last oven able to run from the unit on the mains with no problems and my new oven not able to be connected the same way.
he said what he said with out even knwoing what wattage my new oven would be.

all i can make out about the rating of my new oven is that it says 230v and 6.85kw. it also says it needs to be connected to a CU with a min of a 32 amo fuse. would i be able to get away with replacing the 30 amp in my box with a 40amp and connecting the oven to the same unit the last one was on?

or is this going to be a rewire job?

giftedgumby said:

the last oven was connected to a unit on the wall directly with a switch and a 13 amp fuse.

Click to expand...

A device rated at less than 3kw (which a single oven is likely to be) can be connected to an FCU

i had an electrition/gas man in to dissconect my gas hob and he commented that all my power points for the whole hous ewas actually only ran off a 30 amp fuse at the mains.

Click to expand...

Not considered good practice these days to run the whole house off one ring, but it was quite common to do so when people used less appliances

he then told me that if i wanted to run my new oven it would need its own supply from a new fuse at the mains and a new unit on the wall with a thikicer wire going to it.

Click to expand...

Thats most likely the case if you want to have a full electric cooker

he then said that really with everythign runnign off the one fuse i was likely to get power surges if i was to run too much in the house at the same time.

Click to expand...

I'd agree with that, with a single ring and an oven connected to it, you would probably be very near to blowing the fuse if you used lots of stuff at once

my hole hous eonly has 3 fuses. a 5amp for all the lights a 30 amp for every power point and a 40 amp for an electric shower.
i have one more spcae left it is an old box.

Click to expand...

That sounds normal for an older install to me, its recommened to have electric showers on an RCD and its regulations to have sockets that might reasonably used for equiment used outside to be RCD protected, it would be an idea to ask your electrician to quote for replaceing it

what i was wondering is why was the last oven able to run from the unit on the mains with no problems and my new oven not able to be connected the same way.

Click to expand...

Becuase your new device is not just an oven and hence draws more power

he said what he said with out even knwoing what wattage my new oven would be.

Click to expand...

If you told him it was a full electric cooker, he could have been confident that it requires more than a 13A supply

all i can make out about the rating of my new oven is that it says 230v and 6.85kw. it also says it needs to be connected to a CU with a min of a 32 amo fuse.

Click to expand...

sounds pretty normal for a cooker to me

would i be able to get away with replacing the 30 amp in my box with a 40amp and connecting the oven to the same unit the last one was on?

Click to expand...

No, No, No, you can't just uprate fuses just like that, they are there for a reason, you can't just overload your existing already stretched ring final with a bigger load than it was ever meant to supply and whack a bigger fuse in, well not unless you want to burn your house down

or is this going to be a rewire job?

Click to expand...

Not necessarily, a new circuit for your cooker at the very least, and I'd also recommend haveing a periodic inspection done to pick up faults in the wiring which is most likely getting a tad long in the tooth now, with a view to having a new CU fitted and possibly a new ring run around the kitchen

thankyou very much for your advice. im just a clueless woman see.