Kitchen fittings and what to do next

[cleverspark]

HI,
I am currently about to start a rewire in my house and am having some queries for the kitchen appliances. On a lot of new properties there seems to be a set of switches that switch the fridge, washer, dryer and cooker and then just have fixed fused sockets behind or in place for each appliance. The best place for me to mount this would be with in 1 metre of the kitchen sink but I have found nothing in the regulations stating how close you can have sockets to the kitchen sink, so any advice on this.
Also I thought it was best practice to run all ring main cables vertically down the walls but from looking at various diagrams it also seems feasible that you can run cables horizontally (along the workbench 150mm high) any advice there guys?
And last, what to do next???
I have currently just sat my 16the edition and passed no problem, I am now currently thinking of either doing my C&G 2391 (inspection, Testing and certification of electrical installations) or my Part P. What would the real sparks suggest that i do, any advice??
Thanks

 

[JohnD]

Preferences differ but, in a kitchen, my view is that the ideal way is to run the ring all the way round the room at 150mm above worktop height. This is very economical in labour and materials. You will have to go up or down for the door unless the occupiers are good limbo dancers.

You will want lots of sockets above the worktop. A double every metre min. One every 600mm is handy as there will be lots of small worktop appliances - toaster, kettle, mixer, coffeemaker, radio, phone charger, George Foreman, microwave.

For undercounter appliances, you can put a 20A DP switch with neon in the same row, feeding an unswitched 13A socket beneath. Do not use double sockets beneath as they will be overloaded if they have two large appliances e.g. a washing machine, tumble drier, dishwasher, oven in one double socket. Label each switch. If the microwave or kitchen TV are going to be wall-hung, put a medium-high socket for them too.

It is an advantage to have a freezer outlet on a non-RCD radial.

I prefer not to have a socket on the cooker outlet as it will generally not be on an RCD, and if close to the cooker will encourage people to plug in the kettle and drape the flex over the rings so it gets burned.

For high level appliances like the cooker hood or extractor, an FCU feeding a flex outlet next to the hood where it will not be visually intrusive.

You can put switches within 300mm of a sink though I think the further the better. Try to have sockets further away to make it difficult for people to have one wet hand on the tap and the other wet hand on the plug. They must be placed where they are unlikely to be splashed.

 

[cleverspark]

Thanks JohnD for the great reply and excellent advice, was nice to get some distant sizes for different appliances and stuff as I wouldn't of probably put so many in, but when you do list all the equipment you may use that you forget about, radio, TV, phone charger etc. it is surprising how much you may use.
So i am planning on running my washer, dryer, dish washer and fridge from a 4 way switching plug (one switch per appliance) with separate FCU (switched without flex), this is how it seems to be done on all new properties for sale, I have a few friends who have bought new houses and they all seem to be wired in the same way. so therefore I am trying to reciprocate that.
On the oven side and not having the socket on the switch been in a RCD circuit, I thought that from your main consumer unit you had normally 4 RCD 32 amp circuits. One for the upstairs, one for downstairs, one for kitchen and then separate one for the oven circuit, is this not best practice?
Also is it normal for the 40 A shower CB to be on RCD as well or is it better not to be?.
Again though, thanks for all the great advice and hopefully I will also receive one or two more posts with more opinions.
CHeers

 

[IJWS15]

The other thing to bear in mind is that the "switch panels" as described are not normally on the kitched ring but on a different circuit.

We have an appliance ring (feeding two of these panels (one kitchen, one utiluty room)) and a separate ring feeding sockets. Sockets are on the RCD, appliance ring is not.

 

[mst]

Important to remember that you cant put sockets inbehind integrated appliances (via FCU above worktop)

or else they wont push back under the top.

 

[securespark]

George Foreman,

Don't think he would take kindly to being plugged in to the mains..