Cooker Basics

[ninebob]

Hi all,

My old gas cooker just failed the Landlord's annual safety regs, so the landlord has just delivered a brand spanking new one which the gas people are going to swap over and install on tuesday. However, I have an electrical query.

The old cooker had no electrics (manual lighting etc). The new one has electric ignition and a light for the oven (ooo-ee!), however, it has a standard flex with a 3 amp plugtop to supply these features.

My problem is that I don't have an available socket to plug it into. I do, however, have a cooker control unit (and associated outlet at low level) for use with an electric cooker.

My first thought was simply to chop off the plug and wire the flex directly into the outlet behind the cooker. But that takes the fuse out of the scenario. So then I thought about changing the fuse for that circuit at the CU, but as mentioned, the socket on the cooker control plate is in use - for my toaster! So that wouldn't work either.

The new idea is this - I take a 1 gang extension cable and chop it off 6 inches before the socket end. Wire this into the outlet behind the cooker. Plug in the cooker (3A fused plugtop intact) and away we go.

Just wanted confirmation that this is safe, or alternative ideas, before the gas people come on tuesday.

Thanks

 

[plugwash]

i wouldn't do this as neither the flex nor the extention socket are rated for it

remove the cooker outlet plate and replace with a socket. provided it's a nice deep box this shouldn't be too much trouble to fit.

then if the breaker in the cu is more than 32A downrate it to either 32A or 20A

 

[ban-all-sheds]

remove the cooker outlet plate and replace with a socket. provided it's a nice deep box this shouldn't be too much trouble to fit.

I'm sure the landlord wouldn't mind that one bit....

 

[ninebob]

If I replace the outlet point with a socket does that not leave the danger that some idiot in future might go to put an electric cooker in and think that all they have to do is put a plugtop on the cable from the cooker and plug it in?

 

[ninebob]

As an afterthought, is there anything I can buy which can go in-line on the cooker flex and incorporate a 3 amp fuse? Basically doing the same job as my proposed extension socket/plugtop combo but less cumbersome. Then the flex could go straight into the outlet plate safely, I believe?

 

[plugwash]

If I replace the outlet point with a socket does that not leave the danger that some idiot in future might go to put an electric cooker in and think that all they have to do is put a plugtop on the cable from the cooker and plug it in?

sure but a moron could put a plug on a cooker over 3KW bypass the plug fuse and plug it in anywhere

at the end of the day british wiring is not safe if people bypass plug fuses a socket replaceing a cooker outlet on a 32A breaker is no more danagerous in this regard than a socket on the ring however if the breaker is more than 32A it should be downrated before swapping the cooker outlet for a socket

if someone needs to put in an electric cooker in future it would be fairly trivial to swap the socket back for a cooker outlet plate

 

[plugwash]

as the gas cooker is drawing less than 3A if you wanted to be really paraniod you could take the breaker down to a 16A without problems even if the socket on the CCU is fully loaded

 

[ninebob]

OK- that seems to be the best idea so far. Thanks plug.

Next question is how do I go about downrating that circuit? Unfortunately my CU is a bit older than breakers, it's an old-fashioned "fuseboard".

Sorry for the cr*p pic but it'll give you an idea anyway. No idea why but NTL would only seem to accept a bitmap, not a JPG or GIF from the digital cam.

 

[plugwash]

1 breaker seems missong from that CU is that a spare way?

frankly that thing really needs replaceing

if it's a wylex you can get plug in mcbs that replace the old fuses here

if not and it's a rewireable box you could just replace the fusewire with 15A stuff but i belive it is bad practice to use the wrong color of fuseholder for a size of fusewire

 

[ninebob]

Looking at it more closely it does seem odd. It is a very small flat. My guess is that the white fuse is all the lights, one of the red fuses is all the sockets, and the other red is the cooker outlet+socket. I'll pull them out one by one to check that tomorrow (can't do it now whilst the computer's on!) and let you know...

 

[plugwash]

is there a brand marked on the board?
and if so what is it?

 

[breezer]

that is probably the case, white is 5 amp (lights) red is 30 (cooker / ring) one for each you understand

 

[securespark]

It's a Wylex 4-way Metal clad unit

Code: 406.

 

[ninebob]

OK - Just had a closer look.

No branding on the CU itself whatsoever. However, the fuses are branded "wylex". As guessed, the white one is 5 amp, the reds are 30 amp each.

So my task tomorrow, when the computer's not on, is to find out which of the reds is the cooker circuit. Then, how do I go about changing it for a 16 amp fuse?

 

[plugwash]

first buy one of those 16A wylex plug in mcbs i already gave you the url for

turn off the main switch remove the lid remove the fuse base replace it with the base from the new mcb put back the lid plug in the mcb and turn back on