Consumer Unit above gas cooker? Any regs?
- Thread starter Gemma799
- Start date
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Electrical regulations and fire prevention is aimed around stopping an electrical item causing a fire, not fire damage to an electrical item.
With an electric cooker there are no real regulations on how close items can be, with the induction hob I use if you can get to the pans, that is enough room, items need to be within ½ inch of the hob to allow it to turn on and heat them.
So the regulations stopping the fitting of the consumer unit would be gas regulations not electric, common sense says you should not mount some thing above a heat source, on another forum I found I would guess other makes are around the same.
I have found thisbut it would seem your consumer unit is likely higher than 750 mm above the hob, so I can't actually find a regulation electric wise may be better to ask on plumbers section who are more into gas regulations.
Many thanks! I think I have enough ammo now
I am afraid Part P does not say that - although what it does say might result in the same outcome, so don't quote that one.
That's it. There is no more.
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Surely common sense would dictate that if a circuit(s) needed to be isoltaed in an emergency then it should be placed in an area where there is no risk of harm from other influences?
If a chip pan caught fire then rather than, hopefully, just damaging the surrounding area it could well take out all the electrics in the building.
I wonder if the guy who sanctioned this also puts Christmas/birthday cards above his open coal fire?
If a chip pan caught fire then rather than, hopefully, just damaging the surrounding area it could well take out all the electrics in the building.
I wonder if the guy who sanctioned this also puts Christmas/birthday cards above his open coal fire?
I certainly agree that there is more than enough in BS7671 about 'environmental conditions' ot preclude the installation of a CU (and probably many/most other electrical items) above a gas hob, as illustrated.
However, in terms of the gas regulation you mention, it may not be applicable to a recently-installed CU which, if compliant with BS7671, has to be "non-combustible" (whatever that means)
Kind Regards, John
....mind you, the housing association may be planning to enclose the whole in a nice cabinet.
Didn’t realise that you had caught some sort of pedant virus from our friend! perhsps I should have specified the Approved Document and not the Statutory Instrument. But, hands up, I just copied that from somewhere else. It may not be at all true.
I don't think that anyone should be holding their breath.
The person I have to 'wonder about' is the 'electrician' who installed this, presumably whilst aware of the location (or intended location) of the gas cooker!
Kind Regards, John
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We know it is silly to fit an isolator where you can't access it, however as picture shows, there is no cooker, so the electrician has not broken any rules even if you can find any saying it should not be fitted above a cooker.
What is needed is a gas man to say can't fit a cooker there.
We have had it many times, we install tray work, and before we have pulled in cables, some one has used the tray for a service which is not permitted to be used with what we fitted the tray work for. First come etc.
Clearly any building can go on fire, but that is not normal use, I was always told HSE rules say one should be able to step back from an electrical panel, and when you need a set of steps to access the panel clearly you can't step back, but finding the regulation is some thing else.
For my house I found this
seemed OK until you zoom in on the little hole top lefts and see this 
but it was not the electrician at fault, when he fitted the fuse box it was a garage with no suspended ceiling, and daft as it was, the person who really made the error with the LABC inspector who should have said you can't do that and insisted it was altered before issuing the completion certificate.
Also the surveyor doing house buyers report saw the fuse box and wrote in the report there was a disused fuse box between old ceiling and suspended ceiling, but it was not disused.
People do daft tricks, at least there was an access hole. I had to have a lump of ceiling removed to move it, and to move it resulted in a load of cables needing extending, it was a big job as a result.
So the electrician is told to renew the consumer unit, the cooker is not there, and it is a small job to replace in original location and a big job to move it, so lets be sensible here, unless he was told to move the consumer unit as part of his remit, he has every right to think the cooker is being moved, it is not his fault if some one decides they want the cooker under the consumer unit he has fitted, if told at time then he should have phoned the boss and said hey looks as if a cooker is to be fitted under this consumer unit, and got it verified, and his boss could have given a quote of how much it would cost to be relocated, looking at pictures I would guess double the price at least.
So if the inspector failed to put it in his report it needed moving, then simple it would not be moved, the problem is fitting the cooker hood and not hitting a cable when fitting it, and reaching the consumer unit over the top of the cooker hood, but if it costs say £500 to move the CU or you relocate cooker at £300 then would seem the best option is move the cooker.
What is needed is a gas man to say can't fit a cooker there.
We have had it many times, we install tray work, and before we have pulled in cables, some one has used the tray for a service which is not permitted to be used with what we fitted the tray work for. First come etc.
Clearly any building can go on fire, but that is not normal use, I was always told HSE rules say one should be able to step back from an electrical panel, and when you need a set of steps to access the panel clearly you can't step back, but finding the regulation is some thing else.
For my house I found this
seemed OK until you zoom in on the little hole top lefts and see this but it was not the electrician at fault, when he fitted the fuse box it was a garage with no suspended ceiling, and daft as it was, the person who really made the error with the LABC inspector who should have said you can't do that and insisted it was altered before issuing the completion certificate. Also the surveyor doing house buyers report saw the fuse box and wrote in the report there was a disused fuse box between old ceiling and suspended ceiling, but it was not disused.
People do daft tricks, at least there was an access hole. I had to have a lump of ceiling removed to move it, and to move it resulted in a load of cables needing extending, it was a big job as a result.
So the electrician is told to renew the consumer unit, the cooker is not there, and it is a small job to replace in original location and a big job to move it, so lets be sensible here, unless he was told to move the consumer unit as part of his remit, he has every right to think the cooker is being moved, it is not his fault if some one decides they want the cooker under the consumer unit he has fitted, if told at time then he should have phoned the boss and said hey looks as if a cooker is to be fitted under this consumer unit, and got it verified, and his boss could have given a quote of how much it would cost to be relocated, looking at pictures I would guess double the price at least.
So if the inspector failed to put it in his report it needed moving, then simple it would not be moved, the problem is fitting the cooker hood and not hitting a cable when fitting it, and reaching the consumer unit over the top of the cooker hood, but if it costs say £500 to move the CU or you relocate cooker at £300 then would seem the best option is move the cooker.
So the cooker switch ought to be moved as well?
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