Cooker hood/chimney wiring

Hi

I am installing a cooker hood with chimney above a gas cooker. The cooker hood/chimney is a 'stand alone' unit (there are no wall units on this wall).

I have a double socket on the ring main 10cms to the left of the cooker, above the worktop. (Is that permissable? The cooker was previously further to the right.)

I plan to run a spur from this, chased in, vertically up to fcu located above it, and then run 2.5mm flat twin and earth (chased in, in conduit) diagonally up to a position within the chimney where it will be connected with a chocolate block connector to the hood lead.

I am uneasy about the diagonal chased in wiring (is it permitted?) but as cooker hoods are above cookers I can't imagine any other way of routing the cable. (I suppose I could have the fcu so far up the wall that it is level with the chimney, giving me a horizontal chase, but then the switch is out of reach.)

If the double socket is too close to the cooker then I guess I could replace it with the fcu - but I still have to run the cable to the hood up and across (diagonally?) somehow.

Cheers

1) don't run cable diagonally.

2) Have the FCU with switch and fuse above the worktop in the same row as your sockets. Run T&E vertically from here to a Flex Outlet near the ceiling (or the top of the extractor) and from here run a short flex to the appliance. The higher the outlet is, the less visible it will be (most people don't look up anyway).

3) Choc-block

Thanks for tips.

The power lead for the cooker hood exits inside the chimney. To follow your suggestion I'd have to make an exit hole in the side of the chimney and, as the chimney is fairly narrow compared to the width of the hood below it, I'd need at least a foot and a half of cable draped horizontally across the wall to the flex outlet. I can see how a few inches of cable would not offend the eye, but this seems too much. Is there a neater way of doing this?


Choc blocks seemed like a bodge to me. What is the better alternative?

Is there any legislation about how close sockets can be to a cooker?

Cheers

the hood must be wide enough. Why not take the flex across to that? Put the flex outlet at the same height (or slightly higher) and tape or clip the flex to the back edge of the hood and chimney.

You can avoid using blocks by having a flex long enough to reach to the flex outlet in the wall.You may have to open the cover of the extractor to get at the terminals where the flex is connected.

Put a 13 amp socket behind the chimney of the hood for the hood to plug into. This ( I believe ) will give a "safe zone" horizontally to meet the safe zone that is vertically above the FCU just above the work surface.

The question I cannot answer is can a cable be turned 90 degrees at the intersection of two safe zones without a fitting being at the intersection

Unless I have misread the post, why cant you do one of these options :

1. Chase spur vertically up from existing socket to FCU, and then take output from FCU horizontally to within chimney void and to a JB and terminate the ext fan onto a JB fixed to the wall...use the void to surface clip cable from hood to JB

2. Run spur horizontally to the left of existing socket to FCU, then chase vertically up to the safe zone within 150mm from the intersection with the ceiling, then across to position central to the chimney and clip down the wall (or chase in) to a JB and terminate as above.

3. Replace the socket outlet ( wouldnt want a socket 100mm from cooker personally) with an FCU and use one or other of above to get within the chimney hood void.

Thanks for these suggestions.

I couldn't find an answer anywhere to the question of whether you can have a 90 degree junction of chases - so discounted that.

It did seem from bits of regs I found online that I could have chased diagonally if I used metal conduit (but I still didn't want to do that).

I did find something that said you cannot have a socket within 300m of a cooker (which does make sense) so I have gone with a combination of suggestion 3 and 2. I've replaced the socket with an FCU then chased up the wall to within 15cm of the top, then chased horizontally to within the chimney with an outlet box there. The wire from the extractor is surface clipped up inside the chimney to that point. Neat job, sensible, and as far as I can see 100% legal.

Thanks for the help.