Wanted: thoughts on double elec cooker connect + electrician

[Miss Y]

Just had Electrolux insight 60cm cooker EKC6046K delivered after heavy deliberation between gas and elec but full time worker and can't do with cleaning gas hob + wanted closed door grilling and am too skint for dual fuel cooker purchase - The cooker is still in packaging but to send back costs £20 so kind of stuck with now but this is situation :- thought i had a dedicated wire running to fuse box from kitchen, only to discover when electrician came round today that what i thought was it, was a regular 13 amp double socket externally mounted to another double socket above work top. Elec guy said at first he could route a new connection under floor boards to fuse box for £100 (couple hours work) This is up from £25 for straight up connection if I had had an existing suitable cable running from kitch to fuse box. This seemed fair enough but it got worse. (My house is 100 years old by the way). He said the fuse box is about 20 years old and although wiring looked o.k and wasn't a fire risk that we didn't have an RCD board or something and no breaker before the fuse box and he found an earth cable loose unconnected to earth that he says is the elec providers responsibilty to connect via a spike into ground below house. He said though that it is a low priority thing for providers and could be anything up to a year before they fixed it but he could put a spike in and properly earth it, update the fuse box with a test button thingy and run cable through to cooker + install it for £300 as he said its a days work. He sounded like he knew what he was on about and is out the yellow pages + didn't charge to come quote us. He also will provide all relevant certificates of work done obviously and can be round next week. He didn't say I desperately needed fuse box sorting but that it was dodgy to connect outdoor appliances to mains as it stood without earth and if any metal touched a live wire when changing a light fitting it could be shock city. Also in out fuse box we have 6 plug/switch things all required by different elements of the house and he said there wasn't one free for an elec cooker so it would need adding but not sure if that is within £300 quote. Does anyone think this is a resonable price to charge for this amount of work. He spoke alot of jargon and mentioned alot of british standards etc so it was hard to remember everything he said but he did say that if my provider could earth this cable that it would reduce the cost by him to £150 ish to sort fuse box and connect cooker. Please help cos i'm a first time buyer and have never needed an electricain before!!?

 

[securespark]

We need pictures. We need to know what your supply type is (is it underground or overhead?) and what your consumer unit looks like.

Can you post pics here?

 

[Taylortwocities]

Sounds about right. To add a new circuit for your cooker he has three options:
add it on to the existing board (you have no space)
or by replacing the whole board
or adding a little new fuseboard just for the cooker

whatever route he takes the new work has to be done to the current regulations. Whatever he is doing the first job will be to bring the earthing up to the required standard.

I think you have two options:
1. Get some other quotes. If it were me I would have the fuseboard upgraded to include safety features (RCD) and have the earthing sorted. At least then you know you dont have to worry if you run the lawn mower over its electric cable! But then i am an electrician and i know what the risks could be.
Get someone in your area from www.competentperson.co.uk they are all qualified sparks who will look after the certification and will notify the local authority etc.

2. Call whoever u got the cooker from and swop it for a dual fuel one that only needs a 13A plug. I guess you do have a gas feed there?

But if you go for option 2 that there will still be a voice in the back of your head saying "maybe i should get the electrics sorted out"...

 

[securespark]

I'm a little worried about the "no earth" business. Is it TT? Does it desperately need RCD protection, or a PME conversion?

 

[JohnD]

I think if it was me, I would start with paying £20 to swap the cooker. A big all-electric cooker needs a lot of current.

In most areas you can get the electricity company to provide you with a good earth through the supply cable for about £60 (the standard I am thinking of is called PME, as securespark mentions) but your electrician would have known about local methods and there may be some reason why he did not suggest it (or maybe he did and you didn't follow what he meant) instead of having an earth spike. You still need to have your connections to it upgraded by an electrician or yourself using earth wires which are almost certainly (1) bigger and (2) more of them than you already have.

 

[Steve]

Miss Y, can I suggest something to you?

Separate your writing with spaces and lots of punctuation like this.

I haven't read your post, because it just hit me in the face and i didnt want to read a huge solid block of text.

Separate different subjects, or sentences even, with a line between them to allow people reading to breathe!

Just a tip, no offence intended. Solids blocks of text just irritate me thats all!