Someone told moi in a kitchen suppliers depot the other week that there is a distance that you must *exceed* between the Sink and a Cooker hob i.e. so that you can't touch them with both hands, one hand on the hob the other on the sink as it were.
Is this actually the case, as surely both should be earth bonded?.
BTW whilst on the subject is there an industry standard from the floor to the top of the work top or not?.
Cheers..
I don`t think there`s a hard and fast rule (I may be wrong) about actual distances, but when I had my kitchen planned out by MFI once, they advised me there must be *at least* 400mm of worktop between the two areas.. This URL is quite handy
Yes there is and, if my experience is anything to go by, it is set so that Osteopaths/Chiropractors and the like are kept in regular employment, i.e. too low! My existing kitchen surfaces are an excrutiating 900 mm high, the replacement will be 950 mm high. If you are installing, or having installed, a kitchen get it put in at a height that suits you, not the installer/supplier!
I judge the best height by standing at a working distance from the edge of the surface and, without leaning forward, seeing how far towards the rear edge I can place my hand flat on the surface. If I reach about 70% towards the back I reckon that's a good compromise in terms of height at the front edge and height at the rear. Over the years I have come to the conclusion that stuff clutters work surfaces if you can't easily reach all or most of the surface without straining your back. Another consideration is that of sink height; don't forget that the part of the sink which will have most impact on your back is the base, not the top lip.
Getting off hobby horse now. Sorry but appropriate height of work surfaces gets me really worked up.
Richard
Incorrect. There is no requirement to supplementary bond anything in the kitchen. The hob surface may be bonded through the electric supply, if it is a metal gas type with mains ignition, although it might be double insulated instead.
Christian.
It's your own damn fault. Most sane people do not use worktops when mounted :)
In article , Christian McArdle writes
Actually what I meant should have read,, the cooker hob will be earthed by its connection, and the sink will be earthed to the water and mains earth which is very close by...
cheers to all who relied:)
Can't agree with you more; ours was set so that we were not bending our backs when doing the washing up. For a 5' 9" male that gave a worktop height of 96cm (sorry for mixing the units - I don't know my metric height) and it has been excellent.
One thing I would suggest, if the option, is available is a lower surface - in our case 10cm lower for making things like pastry. If you are really wanting to impress your lady partner you insert a marble surface into that for keeping the pastry cool when working it.
Rob
Lucky devil - 960 mm or even higher would be better for me at 6'2'' but SWMBO is not as tall, another compromise (in every sense!)
No need for marble pastry surfaces. Liz's extremities are like ice all year round (Raynaud's Syndrome + Arthristis)
But, I would have liked a low hob - perhaps 900 - but that would have added far too much to the kitchen complexity.
Cheers Richard
Personally, if I was installing a metal kitchen sink, I would ensure that I used plastic plumbing, at least for the last metre or so. Isolation is safer than bonding, if achievable.
Christian.
In article , Christian McArdle writes
Why do you reckon that then Christian?...
Because you won't get a shock from an isolated piece of metal, even with you other hand clamped firmly on a live conductor. If the metal is earthed, you have a low impedence path to earth. The RCD might save you if the live conductor happens to be connected via an RCD. If not, you're toast. The 32A MCB will require 160A to guarantee disconnection, which is not going to happen!
The IEE agree. Even in bathrooms they advise not to bond metal baths or radiators if all supplies and wastes are plastic and the item is not in contact with structural metalwork. Indeed, they strongly recommend connecting using plastic pipework so that you can take advantage of the additional safety thereby provided.
Christian.
In article , Christian McArdle writes
Yes, but the leakage is likely to be quite high though. Even more so when the water is running;). Apart from that you have plastic plumbing and metal taps so the "water" is connected to the sink unless we've used isolating washers?...
Quite..
Course not, but as you say yer RCD will if its whole house protection.
So the "installers" who've just put the bathroom and wiring in my daughters new place have used plastic pipe and earthed everything in sight!...
Reg's who needs him:((
I seemed to think that somewhere the great idea was to bond "everything" together in kitchens and bathrooms, so that there were no potential differences anywhere????....
The IEE did a series of tests of water in plastic pipework and determined that the resistance was sufficiently high on a 1m section of pipework to reduce leakage current from a direct live to be below a safe value. Indeed, fresh water would give about 2.4mA for mains through a metre of plastic pipe to a good earth, which is pretty safe. Obviously, dirty water is likely to give greater leakage, but it is probably still enough over that distance to keep below 30mA, which is what an RCD protects you for.
In bathrooms, the regs tell you to electrically isolate and not bond any metalwork if possible. If that is not possible (i.e. it uses metal pipework), then it must be supplementary bonded, as a second best measure. Domestic kitchens don't have any requirements for supplementary bonding at all.
Christian.
In article , Christian McArdle writes
I'll have to find a guinea pig to experiment with sometime;))
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