DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi

I have brought a cooker which I plan to connect myself.

But the wire in the wall socket is still black and red with a green/yellow earth and the wire in the new cable is blue and brown with the green/yellow earth.

So my question is which cable goes to which, is it:

Blue to Black and Brown to Red

or

Blue to Red and Brown to Black?

Brown or red go to the live connection, and blue or black go to the neutral, unfused connection. Green has been replaced by green and yellow, for the earth line. The neutral line in houses is bonded to the incoming earth sheath if you have had rewiring done by your electric supplier, eg uprating your incoming fuse rating for storage radiators, or rewiring generally. Fitting a new kitchen or bathroom also requires bonding the neutral line to the copper rising-main;--Installer knows this.
I checked the colours on the card on the moulded plug on my new toaster, just to be sure. I have installed a ring-main and several spur extensions, and a cooker outlet, some years ago.
By the way, safety circuits protecting cookers, are set for 300 ma, which is 10 times the current which is fatal. Modern houses only provide personal trip protection current of 30 ma on sockets and lighting, and that won't protect after a transrormer, eg for a shaver. The cooker protection is for fire risks; cookers often leak current to earth, and would trip a whole-house 30 ma unit, as I discovered myself, but cured it by fitting a new hob ring;- quite a simple job;- not quite so easy with the oven;- a bit
of strip-down to do. Parts are cheap, even if ceremic-hob type, and the glass cover is easily lifted to gain access to the ceramic mouldings which
hold the spirals of coiled radiant pyro-wire.

You also need to make sure that the point your are connecting your new cooker to can take the current draw.

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