Installing new electric oven

[Lobster]

What's the deal these days with installing a new oven?  I?m looking at replacement built-in ovens on

My understanding was that ovens either come with a 13A plug attached, in which case you can simply plug them into an ordinary socket; or they need to be hardwired into a suitable existing oven circuit, usually when they are higher current drawers.

But looking at the dropdown options, I see the following:

1. Comes with plug attached, no electrician required
2. Requires plug/cable attaching by an electrician
3. Needs hardwiring by an electrician 

So what?s option 2 all about please?!

The second thing is that (apparently!) I have to install 2 single electric ovens side by side.  I have a cooker circuit in the kitchen; is it ok to fit two hardwired ovens to this?  How about one hardwired oven plus one with a 13A plug (eg can I add a 13A socket to the cooker circuit?)

Thanks!

[John Rumm]

Much the same as its always been...

Yup

Perhaps they are assuming that if confronted with anything more complicated that a pre terminated plug on a lead the user will be lost.

(possibly true for the generation they grew up not having to fit a plug to every sodding thing you bought!)

Any combination is possible - but you will need to take into account the makers instructions, and the max current requirement of the oven, as well as the fault protection requirements of the oven's flex if its a pre fitted one.

So for example you have a 32A radial, and two 2.2kW ovens with plug attached flex, then a double socket or pair of single sockets on the radial would be fine. (I would keep the total load on a double socket to under 20A though)

If the ovens expect you to fit a flex, then get some 2.5mm^2 high temp flex, and you can hardwire both to the radial unless the makers instruction insist on lower fusing. If you can't fit that size flex in, then 1.5mm^2 HT flex to a pair of FCUs would be ok.

(note that an isolator for the supply to both that is within easy reach of the user is good)

[Fredxx]

Nothing needs to be done by an 'electrician' if you're competent to the wiring yourself.

1 and 3 combined?

I don't see why not, as long as the circuit is up to the load.

I have done this, where I needed power to the igniter on a hob, which I did through a 13A plug/socket and a cooker outlet for the oven.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa]

A lot of cooker points used to come with a socket already years ago. Brian

[Max Demian]

That's for plugging in a kettle or toaster and would be above the worktop and not convenient for the oven.

[Max Demian]

Ovens need a heat resistant cable. In any case, nowadays hoi polloi are considered incapable of wiring a cable to an appliance. You've got to connect the colours correctly and deal with cable grips.

I would have thought that a double socket wired to the cooker circuit with 26A wire would be more convenient provided the cooker circuit can take it.

[Chris Green]

That's a rather odd understanding of the current rating of wiring and a double socket IMHO.

[Andrew]

And the same hoi polloi would struggle to remove the outer sheath of heat-proof (or even non heatproof) 3 core flex, without nicking the inner cores with their stanley knife (or kitchen knife) :-(

[GB]

Is there a foolproof technique for doing that right? If it's T+E, I aim to score down the middle, where the earth is, then split it by pulling on the conductors. But, it's not elegant. Is there a better technique just using a knife?

[Dave Plowman (News]

Yes - absolutely ideal for burning the flex. ;-)

[RJH]

I tend to score round as deeply as I dare, and bend.

[Nick Cat]

Sure, don't cut too deep.

NT

[Dave Liquorice]

Just use snips and cut down the lenght of the jacket about 1/2" next to the E wire. Grip end of E wire with snips and pull into the cut jacket and fold back the jacket and L N wires. Hold jacket and L N wires pull the E with the snips to split the jacket for required length. Extract L N wires from split jacket, Trim jacket with snips, either just fold it back and make one cut or, slightly neater, two cuts each way from the base of the split fold back and one cut across the back.

[Max Demian]

Why? Each oven could have a 3kW element.

[Chris Green]

Yes, and running both from the wiring that feeds a twin socket would quite likely overload it (the wiring).

Twin '13 amp' sockets are generally rated at 20 amps total.

Also, there isn't any such thing as "26A wire".

[PeterC]

I found out yesterday that the radial to the cooker point with 13A socket is

10 mil - on a 30A MCB. That has a bit of headroom, especially on only 7 - 8m run. It would run the cooker and a 2 - 3kW oven with a 40A MCB, especially as the oven is >50 years old and doesn't have lots of grills and ovens already. The house was rewired in '91 to 15th. Regs and has a 100A incoming fuse. When the meter was changed the chap wanted to change the fuse to 80A but I persuaded him to leave it.

[Nick Cat]

Bell wire can do 13A, if you don't mind it glowing red a bit. But not 26A.

[Lobster]

Thanks to all for the clarification. So, looks like with my existing house wiring I can order up pretty much any combo of ovens I want and then worry about the niceities of connecting them up when I have them here on site :) Which is what I was hoping for...

[Lobster]

So I've ended up buying two Neff B1GCC0AN0B single built-in ovens, each rated at 2.99 kW. Turns out they come with a separate flex which has a bespoke Neff plug on one end which connects to the oven, leaving me with 3 bare wires on the free end. Looks like this configuration is the 'option 2' I was on about in my previous post!

So regardless of whether these can connected to a 13A plug, that's not an issue as I'm minded to connect both ovens to my cooker circuit with one of these dual outlet plates, as being a neat, safe and practical solution:

But.

Looking at the installation instructions

3 refers to the electrical connection, and distinguishes between power cables with/without a plug with earthing contact, and in particular says "If the plug can no longer be reached after the installation, a partition must be provided in the phases in the permanent electrical installation in accordance with the installation regulations". What in the world is that all about? What can I do other than connect blue to blu, brown to brown etc? Is anyone able to shed any light on this?!

[Fredxx]

I think my 'partition' would be the isolation switch on the wall.

How utterly stupid. I'm intrigued what Adam would say!