Replacing ceramic hob with gas?

[GlintingHedgehog]

We would like to replace our electric hob with a gas one. No mains gas here, so it will be bottled. The hob is beside an external wall.

I'm assuming we will have to have it inspected by someone official, but can we do this ourselves or does the whole job need to be done by a licensed person? We're in Northern Ireland, in case that makes a difference.

Other than the gas connection, what other things do we need to be aware of? The current hob has four rings, we're looking at a slightly wider five-ring hob, so I imagine we'll have to cut a bit of countertop to fit it?

Anything else we need to know?

[Nigel Molesworth]

Who's going to know?

[powerstation]

The rest of the town when the fire service closes the area because of a fire and a gas cylinder ?

[Owain]

There are minimum distances from a gas hob so if you have wall units above your hob they might need rearrangement too.

Owain

[KVL]

There's a hood in place above it - higher than the bottom of the cupboards by several inches. Do you know the minimum allowable distance off-hand?

[KVL]

Hoping to avoid that ;-)

We already have a gas cylinder for a gas fire, but it's on the opposite side of the house, so we'll need to have a separate one for the hob (which is fine - at least we'll always have a spare!)

Are there any regulations about the cylinders?

[Nigel Molesworth]

It will be in the installation details for the new unit.

Just go ahead and install it, assuming you are reasonable at plumbing, it will be fine. Let's face it, the average CORGI installer didn't have a choice between being a gas fitter and a rocket scientist.

[powerstation]

anything above full width of hob 760mm high and hood should be same with has hob so a 5 burner hob requires a wider hood plus possibly an extra permanent room vent

cupboards either side must not over hang any surface (if less than 760mm above) and if less than 50mm from edge of hob min height is 460mm

hob must be 50mm from any vertical surface inc rear wall

you should have 300mm either side to any vertical surface

[manatbandq]

Been there!

With a single cylinder, all they did was keep a hose on it to cool it until the rest of the fire was out.

Hardly a big deal.

MBQ