OP
MarkieSparkie
In your particular boiler no, you're probably right, however some of the cheaper boilers come with only the 3A fuse in the plug to protect them. As do most appliances.If fuses weren't meant to protect appliances as well as the cable, then every appliance utilising flex with a csa of 1mm or over would automatically come with 13A fuses?? But they don't do they? In fact, if I'm not mistaken, most boilers are fed with 1mm flex so surely a 13A fuse would be ok as it protects the cable feeding it??Somehow I think the legal requirement to protect boilers with 3A fuses has got more to do with protecting the boiler than the cable.
It may be of interest that The Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment:3rd Ed, Table 15.6 lists 1.25mm[SUP]2[/SUP] as the minimum CSA for an appliance cord or flex protected by a 13A BS1362 fuse and 0.5mm[SUP]2[/SUP] minimum for a cord or flex protected by a similar 3A fuse.