Access to electric supply for gas hob/oven ignition?

I'm currently upgrading a kitchen by replacing a freestanding gas oven (at the end of a run of kitchen units) with a built-under gas oven and hob, plus a cooker hood, and fitting new worktop. I need to run some lecky behind the new oven housing, to power the two gas igniters and the cooker hood, and for that I'm proposing to hijack the existing (redundant) radial cooker circuit, which comes down from the ceiling - ie, an FCU for the cooker hood behind its s/steel chimney, with a cable drop straight down to a double 13A socket behind the oven.

First, is there anything wrong with that scheme wiring-wise? (BTW I'm not concerned about preserving the cooker circuit for potential future use with an electric oven.)

Secondly, what are the regs about accessibility of the FCU and the 13A socket? Is it a 'nice-to-have' or is it compulsory that they can be accessed easily to isolate the relevant appliance? Thing is, in this case it would be really pretty awkward to achieve this - I don't want to have to disturb the rest of the kitchen, and because the extractor will sit on a narrow stretch of wall spanning the back door and a window, there's nowhere obvious to fit a switch that wouldn't look crap.

In the case of the oven housing, I hope there might be space at the back to make an access hole in one side, to enable a hand to reach in from the adjacent unit to the 13A socket; however I won't know until the appliance is delivered (and I need to finalise the wiring the same day...)

Thanks! David

Reply to
Lobster
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Lobster said the following on 01/11/2005 23:49:

No problem, however the cooker feed will probably be 6 sq mm protected by 30/32A device, so if you want to do the new bits of the wiring in 2.5 sq mm, reduce the size of the protection device (i.e. fuse or MCB) in the consumer unit to 20A (or less).

The wiring regs 553-01-06 specifies that "a socket outlet on a wall ... shall be mounted above ... any working surface to minimize the risk of mechanical damage to the socket outlet or its associated plug and its flexible cord ..."

Approved document M of the building regs covers accessability also, but it looks like it would not apply to these outlets in a kitchen.

Generally speaking, it is good practice to make allowance for maintenance and isolation and you should make a reasonable effort to make access straighforward if not exactly simple.

Sounds good. Don't be tempted to affix the socket outlet/fixed wiring to the carcass of the kitchen units/oven housing - this is considered cowboy practice (although kitchen fitters do it all the time!).

HTH

Reply to
Rumble

means of isolation must be easily accessible with the appliance fitted and must be double pole, a switch on a socket outlet is not suitable, within

2mtrs in the case of a cooking appliance.
Reply to
powerstation

Thanks a lot for that, much appreciated.

In fact today's investigations things have changed a bit today having started the work; in that I've found a ring main inside some boxing which I can tap into and extend the ring main; a better result really. (Unfortunately the cooker circuit had to go anyway, as it ran neatly through the middle of the hole in the wall for the extractor!)

I've decided to address the 'access to the cooker hood power' issue by fitting a switched, DP, FCU into the ring main; it will sit just to the left of the s/steel chimney. However, unless I don't mind surface-mounted wiring (and I do) I'm not clear the flex inside the cooker hood should be connected to the FCU. The easy way would be to run the flex under 6" of horizontal, buried capping between chimney and FCU, but you aren't supposed to bury flex, are you? It still seems to me the best way, as it avoids any electrical junctions within the steel chimney (and the flex is only 2-core with no earth provision, which seems very odd to me.) The other way would be to put a non-switched FCU within the chimney, and have a DP switch outside, however there's defintely not room for that within the very short chimney.

So what do I do?!

David

Reply to
Lobster

Thanks - I'd planned on having a DP double socket outlet behind the unit for the igniters; surely that's OK isn't it?

David

Reply to
Lobster

Well, Firstly, you shouldn't really bury the flex from the cooker hood, because (unless you can disconnect the flex at the cooker hood end), you would have to dig the plaster out to remove the cooker hood for maintenance or repair.

Secondly, the fact that the flex from the cooker hood is only two core means that the internals of the unit are double insulated (Class II). Exposed metal parts should *not* be separately earthed unless specifically mandated in the installation instructions.

Thirdly, unless otherwise mandated by the instruction manual, there is no need to provide an isolating switch for the cooker hood; an unswitched FCU (with appropriate fuse) will give adequate protection against fire and shock.

Fourthly, again unless otherwise mandated by the instruction manual, there is no need to provide an isolation switch for the ingiter/clock circuits for the gas hob and oven, provided you make the socket outlet reasonably accessible (so you can isolate by pulling the plug).

Reply to
Rumble

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