Discuss in after a cowboy, cooker nearly burnt the house down! in the Electrical Forum area at ElectriciansForums.net

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ExArmy

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I have just been to look at a job where i was asked to install a cooker as the previous one had nearly burned the house down apparently. when i took the cooker out there was a large burnt patch (300m accross), loads of charcoal, almost got through 1/2" ply below . when i pulled out the heat resistant flex i couldn't see where it had been plugged into, but it's likely it was plugged into the ring. it is a 3200W cooker from argos, the customer had got an argos technician out and apparently the cookers fine and it was down to the installation. customer reckons it was sat ontop of the connections and it was bodged up, I did try asking the customer to clarify how the cooker was connected up, but couldn't get much out of her! theres a 2.5 T&E running below the worktop behind the cupboards, not connected to anything but still live? but couldn't find where it came from as all the cupboards are full to the brim!

it's only a small house, 2 up 2 down, it's TT, got a 100mA RCD upfront and a 8 way 3036 board with 3 circuits (ring, lights and shower). ZE is 5-6ish ohms. would it be ok to spur it off the ring to a fused spur above the worktop, and then down to the cooker? an just put it on a minor works?
I'm not entirely sure what the line is about working on a circuit without 30ma RCD protection, do i need to add an RCD first or not?

also, the voltage is 250V at this house, 3200W at 250V is 12.8, so it i put a 13A fuse in the FCU then it will be alright? i seem to remember something from college saying all calculations to be worked out at 230V, in which case the current will be 13.9A and it will be more than the fuse rating. probably never blow, but what should i do here?
 
230 volts is just the baseline for design calcs where supply details arent known.
If you know the actual voltage , in this case 250v , then use that value.
 
Any NEW sockets, or wiring that is concealed within the walls requires 30ma RCD. So if you use an FCU and your wiring is surface mount then I don't see a problem. The cooker will probably never pull full load anyway and 13.9 amps won't blow the 1361 fuse for ages. If you're worried use 4mm cable for the spur.
 
Edit : buried cable protection needs to be at 30mA , so the 100mA up front device isnt going to do it
 
Just for future reference the power of the cooker is not constant but depends on the voltage, so the quick calcs are not valid. The figure quoted is probably at 230V.

handy to know, so it's best to stick to 230V when working out calculations. makes sense when you think about it
 
the very last sentance on that page says " the remainder of the installation would require protection by a 100mA rcd"

which implies not every circuit must need 30mA rcd for it to say that ??

not much gratitude there for walking you through your job exarmy ? :-/
 
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