changing to electric cooker, is my 1980 wiring okay?

[Silvan]

Hi,

I'm considering changing from gas cooker to electric. The house was built in 1980 in Scotland. We had a conservatory built ten years ago and they had to upgrade the fuses to an RCD. I've attached a couple of images, I don't know if that fuse marked cooker is actually a fuse or not.

Will my electrics be robust enough for a ceramic cooker? Or if it makes a difference a ceramic hob (no oven)?

David

 

[SUNRAY]

If nothing has changed or deteriated there should not be a problem. However are you sure your fusebox is included on the RCD?
What is the MCB in the white box with the RCD for?
Can we have a wider picture showing the meter and the grey cables etc to the right of the fusebox.

 

[Silvan]

Here are photos thank you.

 

[Ragnar_AT]

Suspiciously looks like the RCD only protects one circuit, probably for the conservatory.
I don‘t think there’s any legal requirement to update the CU when connecting a new cooker to the existing fixed wiring but personally I‘d recommend replacing the CU anyway. It’s most likely still as safe as it was in 1980 but things have evolved since then.

 

[Silvan]

Thank you. The RCD protects more than the conservatory I know that because it has tripped out in the past. I remember that the guys who did the conservatory upgrade took off a lot of stickers that I had above the other fuses but left the "cooker" one. So maybe the cooker is the only thing not protected by the RCD? If that is the case would it still be okay to connect a cooker up as it is?

 

[SUNRAY]

Suspiciously looks like the RCD only protects one circuit, probably for the conservatory.
I don‘t think there’s any legal requirement to update the CU when connecting a new cooker to the existing fixed wiring but personally I‘d recommend replacing the CU anyway. It’s most likely still as safe as it was in 1980 but things have evolved since then.

I'm inclined to agree that expect it to be as safe as it was when installed and wonder if they simply diverted the ring circuit to be via the RCD (or something similar) in order that the additional electrical work complied with regs at the time.

Of course the simple thing to do is see what goes off when you push the test button every three months like it says on the sticker

 

[sparkwright]

The question is, is there a cooker outlet, coming from the cooker panel in your picture, in place ready to connect the cooker?
Or perhaps a coil of cable, emerging from the wall, ready to connect to the cooker?
If there isn't, and you need to get a cable from the cooker to your cooker panel in the picture, a bit of effort will be required.

 

[plugwash]

probably for the conservatory.

When I look at the fusebox I see

Three 5A fuses. Presumablly lighting (though it's somewhat strange to have 3 lighting circuits in a property that has so few other circuits).
One 15A circuit, might be sockets, but I think is more likely an immersion heater.
Two 30A circuits one of which is labeled cooker. I presume the other is sockets.

So I think it's quite likely that a large proportion, of the sockets (possibly all of them except the one on the cooker switch) in the property are on one circuit and the RCD/MCB unit has been inserted into said circuit.