Hard-wiring a cooker... 'to a combi'?!!!!

[Keith (Dorset)]

We are contemplating buying a new cooker (one of those electric ones with the hobs that heat up immediately and wipe clean).

However... we have an old gas one now, and no wiring facility for a cooker in the kitchen.

We do have a combi boiler there, which I assume is not on the ring main.

Might the cabling for the combi take enough current to enable a cooker box to be 'spurred' from it's own wire that runs to the fuse box?. The box is at the other end of the house, and therefore the electric cooker is rather a non-starter if this can't be done.

NB I don't intend to try wiring any of this myself.

Thanks,

Keith

[Ron Lowe]

No. Not even close.

The combi boiler's primary energy source will be gas. The electrical supply to it is tiny, only designed for the control system.

There's no way the electrical supply to a combi boiler is up to feeding an all-electric cooker. That will require a dedicated supply run from your Consumer Unit.

Why not install a nice electric fan oven and a decent gas hob?

[John Rumm]

Poor assumption, there is a fair chance it is.

Absolutely no chance!

Some ovens are designed to run from an ordinary socket circuit. However hobs will frequently require a supply capable of providing 6kW or more (contrast this to the < 500W your combi requires).

In which case why worry? Let the sparks work out how to get the new cable there.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Be wary of such claims.

Since the electricity supply for gas heating system is tiny it could well be via a spur.

*Absolutely* not. An electric cooker is one of the few things in a house that needs its own high current radial supply. It's possible there is a suitable supply already run in though but currently unused. An easy way to check might be to look for unused 30 or 45 amp circuits in the CU.

Probably just as well. ;-)

[Dave Plowman (News)]

But a boiler doesn't use several hundred watts. More like under a 100 even with the pump running - although it will perhaps have occasional peak demands higher than that when a solenoid etc operates.

[meow2222]

There is a way it could be done all electric, but not the way you want. There's no way you can run an all in one elec cooker without a big fat supply wire going in. Not unles its a mini one anyway,

NT