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[normaal]

Do you have to have an electric cooker outlet in a kitchen?

We're at the stage of wanting to re-do the kitchen in the house we've just moved into. There is the usual switched cooker socket on the wall with its single socket.

When the previous owner had the house rewired the electrician didn't bother to chase out the wall - instead he ran the cable down through the cavity wall and came back in behind the socket and behind one of the units. Rather than drilling a hole he removed half a block and didn't bother to make good so we have the socket where it should be and the cooker outlet attached to the wall beside this 9" square hole.

The electrician I've spoken to says he'll chase it out properly which is great but my question is can I just have a double socket on that circuit (getting him to change the mcb in the cu) and do away with the cooker connection point altogether? We won't need it as we use gas for cooking but I was just wondering if the regs say the cooker connection point has to be there?

Would like to know just in case our electrician insists we have one when we don't legally have to etc.

Thanks.

Norman

[ericmark]

There are so many building regulations to say you must or must not is hard. However if you look at it with common sense one would hope the regulations will allow it. Most of the documents are found if you Google "planningportal.gov.uk/buildingregulations/approveddocuments/" from what I remember it refers to BS7671:2008 which only says the installation needs to be split into circuits and does not say exactly what needs to be on each circuit.

I know that we as electricians are not allowed to turn off the power to a house the same applies to gas fitters without making arrangements for alternative accommodation. It comes down to making the house uninhabitable and we are not permitted to do that without ensuring people have some where to live.

Really the rules are to stop gas, water, electric supply companies from switching of supply because of non payment of bill. With comestible premises the rules are reversed and as an electrician if I feel something is dangerous I can turn off the supply even if the managing director says I should not. However in real terms unlikely to keep ones job.

As far as I know there is nothing to say you must have a cooker supply. And with microwave, kettle, deep fat frier's etc it is not really required to have a cooker supply. Also even where a cooker is required most 2 ring hobs and single ovens are under the magic 13A supplied from a socket or fused connection unit. So you don't need a special cooker supply other than the requirement for fixed appliances over 2Kw to have dedicated supply if one does not want to calculate power usage.

However I would be wary on reducing the MCB size as in the future you may want to return to electric. If I am asked to reduce size that is easy but to increase one has to be sure the circuit can take the increased power. With cables in a house buried in the wall working out why a circuit is protected to 20A instead of 32A is not easy. I have reduced the MCB on radial circuit to 20A when I found half way around some one thinking it was a ring main had extended it using 2.5mm cable instead of 4mm cable. If you ever want the circuit up-rated again it may be hard to persuade the electrician it is safe to do so.

With the way electric cookers have improved so much with the introduction of induction cookers many people are moving to the faster and safer electric cooker. With the exception of using a wok or for pacemaker users electric is now better than gas. Plus you can't burn hydrogen which at moment is only renewable gas we can use. So we may find gas is a fuel of the past in a few years time.

[sparx]

Hi.
It's your house, do what you want with it!
It used to be standard practice to fit a double socket on a cooker circuit, then if customer wanted a cooker point we just changed the front plate.
We did however put a conduit from the back box down to a single back box with blank cover plate to allow later a link cable to be installed without disturbance to decorations.
6mm cable fused at 32A will serve either configuration,
regards Sparx

[normaal]

Both of you, thank you for your time.

I doubt gas will run out before I expire, I'm in my 60s.

Seriously though - I think now I know the score I'll get our electrician to make the socket a double and do as sparx suggested, fit the conduit down to a blank for anybody who buys the house after I die.

I just wanted to know in case the electrician started sprouting rules that I know nothing about.

Thanks again.

Norm