Installing an electric oven

[Debs]

Please can anyone out there help?!
We need to buy ourselves a new electric oven (one of those ovens that fit under the kitchen units and has a separate hob - ours is gas) which is to replace our recently deceased model. The old oven has an ordinary 3 pin plug which simply plugs into a socket behind the oven, under the units, which uses the main electricity circuit of the house.
The chap selling the new oven advised us that all electric ovens now need a dedicated connection (which we don't have!) and must be installed by a qualified engineer.
However, a salesman in another retail outlet advised that any electric oven up to 3kw would be ok fitted with a 3 pin 13 amp plug and could be connected to the usual house circuit - just like our old oven. We could simply pick an oven "off the shelf", take it home and plug it in.
Confused??? You bet we are!
Can anybody out there please shed any light on this and help to make sure we don't do anything stupid?

Many thanks.

 

[ZenStalinist]

IT depends on how many watts your oven uses. You may need to run a dedicated circuit from your CU. If it is under 3Kw, then yes, you can plug it into a 13 amp socket. Otherwise you need to wire it on a dedicated circuit. If you don't want to install a separate circuit, then just don't buy an oven that uses more than 3Kw, although this may restrict your choice a little.

BTW, you don't need to be a qualified engineer to install an electric oven, even on a separate circuit. There are some implications on this that may come in Part P of the building regs, however.

 

[Debs]

Thanks very much for your response and the very useful info.
The oven we've got our eyes on is just 2.8kw so we should be able to go ahead and just plug it in.
Your comments on using (or not using!) a qualified engineer are very interesting - especially as one of the country's largest electrical appliance retailers has stickers on all their ovens insisting that they MUST be installed by CORGI engineers. Very interesting indeed.......!

Thanks again for your help - it's very much appreciated!

 

[ryanj]

CORGI - That's gas installations.

Nothing to do with electrics.

 

[breezer]

MUST be installed by CORGI engineers.

that'll be a gas appliance then.


CORGI are for gas

 

[Debs]

Thanks for that, folks!
OK....so its blatantly obvious I don't know much about anything.... but the stickers I previously referred to DID mention CORGI AND electrical engineers.
I still think we were having the wool pulled over our eyes a bit but at least I'm learning!!

Thanks again!

 

[breezer]

ryanj you beat me by 1 min