Cooker switch.

cosmowillie53

The cooker has been moved to a new position in the kitchen which means it is now about eight feet away from the cooker switch.
Q: Should the switch be beside the cooker.

Thanks

tomdempsey200

2m is the max distance away

cosmowillie53

Thanks for reply.
I will have it moved closer.

Fries-With-That

tomdempsey200 wrote: »

2m is the max distance away

Why ?

tomdempsey200

isolating switches

2m is the max distance from the appliance

Bruthal

Fries-With-That wrote: »

Why ?

So you can easily monitor it so no one switches it on if it is switched off to allow work on the cooker or cable into it.

Tokyo

Fries-With-That wrote: »

Why ?

Two words - "Local Isolation". Cooker circuit is designed to carry heavy loads - switch with a 2m line of sight means that an installer can ensure that the circuit is safe without having to be concerned that someone might enable the breaker while he's working on it.

Mr Magnolia

While I agree there has to be a standard set for something like this I don't really get the logic. You could be working on a lightning circuit with no leakage protection 10m across the room from the switch but a cooker on an rcbo (I assume this is the standard) has to be within 2m. Is this correct?

Tokyo

Your lights aren't hooked up to a nice hefty 32A breaker, and cooker switch offers double pole protection.

[edit] It's not just electrical current thats the issue, it's heat, and in the event of something going wrong, it provides an instant way of removing said source of heat. You can argue that you can do the same from the breaker box, but, should a chip pan catch fire, ask your missus if she'd know where the breaker box is nd which one to switch off, vs the big red switch on the wall labelled COOKER.

As a rule of thumb, if it has a heating element (shower, cooker, etc) it should be locally isolated with a DP switch. Or at least that's the way I was taught.

Mr Magnolia

50mA is enough for an exit so it don't really get what you mean with the hefty 32a breaker.

A cooker requires leakage protection whereas lighting circuits don't afaik so surely there should have been more of an emphasis there. There's something I'm missing I'm sure...

Tokyo

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

50mA is enough for an exit so it don't really get what you mean with the hefty 32a breaker.

A cooker requires leakage protection whereas lighting circuits don't afaik so surely there should have been more of an emphasis there. There's something I'm missing I'm sure...

Apologies - I elaborated on my post while you were typing up yours I've seen plenty of older installations where the cooker was wired through a 32A MCB and not much else, so a DP switch offers protection on both sides.

I agree that in terms of purely electrical safety, it's somewhat of a throwback to the days of ceramic fuses when only the live was protected, but it offers more than just electrical isolation for maintenance. As I mentioned above, local isolation in times of something bursting into flames, and it also stops little three year old Johnny from twiddling the cooker knobs and accidentally setting something on fire.

Bruthal

mike_ie wrote: »

Your lights aren't hooked up to a nice hefty 32A breaker, and cooker switch offers double pole protection.

In terms of shock value, a 32A breaker would be no different from a 1A breaker.

Bruthal

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

While I agree there has to be a standard set for something like this I don't really get the logic. You could be working on a lightning circuit with no leakage protection 10m across the room from the switch but a cooker on an rcbo (I assume this is the standard) has to be within 2m. Is this correct?

There is no rcbo on cooker circuits.

Fixed appliances require an isolator close by. Electrical practice must have some factors of practicality included, and an isolator beside each bulb holder would fall outside that. This would not be a good reason to also have no isolators close to items such as cookers etc. Changing a cooker or shower would likely have far more hands on involvement than changing a bulb as well, or even changing the bulb holder. Not many light switches are 10 meters from the bulb, although some are a bit away alright.

Mr Magnolia

Bruthal wrote: »

There is no rcbo on cooker circuits.

Personally, I've mine on a 30mA rcbo. Does it have to be an RCD or is there no leakage protection at all?

Fixed appliances require an isolator close by. Electrical practice must have some factors of practicality included, and an isolator beside each bulb holder would fall outside that. This would not be a good reason to also have no isolators close to items such as cookers etc. Changing a cooker or shower would likely have far more hands on involvement than changing a bulb as well, or even changing the bulb holder. Not many light switches are 10 meters from the bulb, although some are a bit away alright.

Ah yeah, I don't disagree as I said initially but I thought a guideline would be more apt than a directive but I suppose it needs to be laid down or it would be disregarded altogether.

Bruthal

Mr Magnolia wrote: »

Personally, I've mine on a 30mA rcbo. Does it have to be an RCD or is there no leakage protection at all?

They don't normally have anything besides a 32A MCB. An RCD would be no different than an rcbo except the rcbo has the MCB combined with the RCD in an rcbo, and the rcbo's RCD would be dedicated to its circuit where as an RCD usually controls multiple mcb's.

An rcbo would probably be better if the cooker was going to have RCD protection, as an RCD protecting multiple MCB,s will have any leakage on each MCB circuit combine, where as a dedicated rcbo will have its RCD component only controlling its single circuit. And cookers probably have some small leakage, although probably less on newer ones

Mr Magnolia

Does a cooker require leakage protection rcd/rcbo?

Bruthal

Under current regulations they don't.

tomdempsey200

no......

i'm thinking eventually we'll prob do something like the UK and have 30mA protection for circuits with wiring buried less than 50mm or whatever the exact rule is
http://www.electrium.co.uk/Wylex17th%20Edition.pdf