Cooker Switch, back box earthing

[Ian]

Hi!,

I had a hideous cooker switch in my kitchen, huge thing, anyway I decided to change it so I pulled the fuse and ripped it and the back box out. I now have a 47mm double sized metal back box which I want to fit. I noticed the old back box was nailed to the wall with approx. 2.5 inch nail. Is this necessary because I think I'm going to have a hell over a job trying to drive another one in!

Is this used just to secure the box ?, could I drill a hole and secure with a wall plug and screw?

I'm just about to plaster the wall but want to get this new back box in first, I use gas at the moment but plan to get an electric oven in a month or so at which point I will get an electrician in..... for the time being I'm going to leave the bare wires sticking out with the fuse pulled..... I know my limits!

Any advance would be great! Ian.

[Dave Liquorice]

Normal builders parctice, fix the boxes with what ever is handy.

Yes, it has nothing to do with "earthing", that comes via the cabling.

Yes.

I don't like that idea but respect your admission. I take it the "bare wires" are the wires as removed from the old switch. If you really don't want to wire up a new switch wander of to a shed and get a 30A connector strip ("chocolate block") and a blank double plate. Put each wire into a seperate terminal, (so you'll need 6) put that into the back box and cover with blank plate. Nothing can touch anything it shouldn't and neither can prying fingers.

[James Salisbury]

I suspect the OP has a large MK cooker control unit, this is a little bigger than a double plate!! But it would still be a good idea to properly insulate the wires!!

[Lurch]

On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 23:17:31 +0100, "James Salisbury" strung together this:

He probably did, but he said he ripped it out to put a normal double plate CCU there instead.

[Dave Stanton]

O

Insulate the wires !!!, you know your limits, but you don't know what other people will do.

Dave

[Ian]

Thanks for the advice, your right, I will insolate the wires, I have a choc box and 30 amp block so better safe than sorry. I don't actually live at the flat at the moment and I'm the only one with access so it wasn't quite as irresponsible as it probably sounded. Bearing in mind the fuse was pulled. I have a lot of respect when it comes to anything electrical!

And you're also correct that I had a large MK back box, it was about the width of a double box but the same height too. The worst thing about it was that the nail used to secure the box was actually touching another nail coming through from my neighbours kitchen, probably there cooker switch! so if there was a wiring fault in thier kitchen I could have found myself with live screw heads!

Cheers, Ian.

[Dave Liquorice]

Which still leaves the neutral connected and "live". OK the N shouldn't be to far away from earth in can be enough to produce a "tingle".

Hopefully not as the back box should be earthed, though possibly via the face plate screws with such an old installation. With a bit of luck they would have been good enough to enable enough fault current to flow and blow their fuse.

[Martin Angove]

Just noticed this bit: Is it just an oven (i.e. with a gas hob) or will it be an all-electric cooker? If the latter then I'll shut up, but if the former then you'll find that most (standard-sized) ovens are rated between 2kW and 3kW and so could actually be run from a standard socket (or FCU) if you so wished. Of course, re-using the cooker circuit may be desirable, but bear in mind that the cable to the oven may be as small as 1mm2 (1.5mm2 or 2.5mm2 is more common) and connecting this directly to a 30A protected 6mm2 cable with no additional appliance fuse is slightly iffy.

Hwyl!

M.