In brief: my house has an oven circuit with a 6mm cable and a 20 amp MCB. Both the electric hob (6.5 kW) and oven (2.8 kW) are on this circuit. Can I upgrade the MCB to stop it tripping?
Background: We moved in to the house a couple of years ago. The built in oven was slow to heat up so I did a like-for-like replacement, but now the oven circuit trips if the oven is on at the same time as two or three hobs. It turns out it's only got a 20 amp MCB. I now realise it didn't have this problem previously because only one of the three elements of the old oven was working, so it didn't draw much power.
I don't know why the circuit only has a 20 amp MCB. I suspect there used to be a gas hob with an electric oven, and at some stage the hob was replaced with an electric one but the circuit wasn't modified.
I've been told that because there's a 6 mm cable I might be able to replace the MCB to stop it tripping as easily. Is that right, and if so, how high can I safely go? 30 amp? 45 amp etc? I don't know how long the cable is, but I guess not very long as the consumer unit is just outside the kitchen. The oven is 2.8 kW and the hob is 6.5 kW, so a total of 9.3 kW.
Long term we plan to redo the kitchen and sort out the wiring at the same time. I'm looking for a safe, functional, interim measure in the meantime.
Background: We moved in to the house a couple of years ago. The built in oven was slow to heat up so I did a like-for-like replacement, but now the oven circuit trips if the oven is on at the same time as two or three hobs. It turns out it's only got a 20 amp MCB. I now realise it didn't have this problem previously because only one of the three elements of the old oven was working, so it didn't draw much power.
I don't know why the circuit only has a 20 amp MCB. I suspect there used to be a gas hob with an electric oven, and at some stage the hob was replaced with an electric one but the circuit wasn't modified.
I've been told that because there's a 6 mm cable I might be able to replace the MCB to stop it tripping as easily. Is that right, and if so, how high can I safely go? 30 amp? 45 amp etc? I don't know how long the cable is, but I guess not very long as the consumer unit is just outside the kitchen. The oven is 2.8 kW and the hob is 6.5 kW, so a total of 9.3 kW.
Long term we plan to redo the kitchen and sort out the wiring at the same time. I'm looking for a safe, functional, interim measure in the meantime.
