Creating new electrical sockets for kitchen appliances

alinois

Hi everyone,

I'm upgrading my kitchen to have a built-in microwave and move my oven to a new cabinet. Today it looks like this:

I'm going to transform it into this:

Today, behind the cabinets I can see I have a socket for the fridge (behind the fridge position) and a socket for the oven (behind the oven position). I'd like any advice on how to create the new sockets for the new configuration.

Should I convert the fridge socket into a double socket (for the Microwave and the Oven) and add a new one (for the fridge in the new position) or would you suggest any other alternative?

Thanks in advance!

10-10-20

Hi! Can you photograph this socket for the oven? What's the rating on the oven in terms of W, do you know? Is the stove-top gas or electric? Could it be wired into the socket and the over connected differently?

listermint

Very easy for an electrician to do this. Bread and butter work.

Hooked

The oven is (should be) on a separate breaker in your fuse board. Quick test - find fuse board, trip the oven breaker - see if the fridge and stove (assuming electric or wired for spark) still have power. If yes, then simply swap out the fridge single for a double socket (assuming the microwave cable length allows). Make sure you kill the power to everything in that area before attempting to swap out the sockets. And ensure tight connections and proper earths.

You don't say if these sockets are in plaster board/concrete walls? You can of course wire in a new socket for the microwave - but this depends on the difficulty of routing the cable and figuring out where in the wiring sequence the socket (the one you are adding in) will be powered from.

For clarity - I'm not an electrician - but I tackle these "types" of small jobs at home all the time.

alinois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121807308#Comment_121807308

Oven is rated at 2700W, the stove-top is electric

Gusser09

A single over may well be rated to run off a normal domestic socket. A double over and hob never will be.

The hob should have it's own switch on the wall?

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808299#Comment_121808299

The amps matter not the wattage, amps are the load, wattage is the rate of how much electricity is used.

Your oven is on a normal 13amp plug, plugged into a socket yes?

I presume your hob is hardwired direct to the wall switch?

rob316

If you want to spur a new socket off one of the exsisiting sockets, open each socket, if you see 2 power cables thats part of the circuit and can be spurred off, if you see one cable, that is a spur already, you cant spur off a spur.

If both are spurs, which is unlikely, you need to replace one of the sockets with a FCU (fused connection unit), then you can spur sockets from the FCU.

alinois

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808451#Comment_121808451

My oven is rated at 16amps. The hob is wire to the wall switch yes.

rob316

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808514#Comment_121808514

So the oven is plugged into a ring main socket (atleast it should be), as it would be protected up to 32amps on the fuse board.

Open up the fridge socket so, if its a spur you can change it for a double or as I said above, replace with an FCU and spur a socket from that. If its a ring main socket you can spur directly from that.

tomhammer..

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808557#Comment_121808557

I think u need to stop giving electrical advise

You're talking nonsense

So, the oven is drawing about 12amps, just shy of the maximum limit for the 13amp plug at 230V

Personally, I strongly dislike the idea of plugging an oven in with a 13 amp plug. They are bulky connectors, but they're prone to overheating at high sustained load.

The oven really should be hardwired to a dedicated circuit.

Where a plug and socket is used, it should be accessible. So, just hiding the plug behind the microwave without any isolators is not a good idea.

Secondly, bear in mind that the maximum rating of a double socket plate is 20amps in total for both sockets. If that's a microwave combination oven, and is used in combination with the 2700W oven being on at the same time, you could easily exceed the maximum rating of the 2-gang socket unit.

Thirdly, if you are adding circuits to the circuit board, this is not DIY work in Ireland. You need an electrician.

10-10-20

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808451#Comment_121808451

Ovens and appliances do not print the amps on the plate... hence you would ask for the wattage to understand the potential load... then apply diversity after that.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808451#Comment_121808451

You're a little confused there when it comes to units (and many other things).

Watts are a unit of power, and they very much do matter and are all that will be written on the rating plate of your oven.

Amps (Amperes) are a measure of current and would be used to calculate the overcurrent protection on the fuse and the cross-section of the wiring.

Rate of consumption of energy is usually Watts / time, usually kilowatt-hours kWh and isn't relevant to this discussion.

Also someone further up the thread said, the oven is rated 16 amps. It is not!

It's rated 2700 Watts, which at 230V is just under 12 amps, which would be flying very close to the upper limit of what's safe to plug into a 13 amp socket as a sustained load and general isn't a great idea - slight misalignment of the fuse carrier in the plug, bad wiring or a loose socket spring and you'll have burn marks around the pins and smoke.

You're talking about 32amp final ring circuits, without investigating what you're even connecting to. It's very likely in Ireland that this will be a 20amp radial, for example. It wouldn't be unusual to even encounter sockets on 16 amp radials in older wiring and certain contexts.

You have given nonsense wiring advice that in no way meets anything like the requirements of the national wiring rules and could even be dangerous.

Chuck Noland

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808557#Comment_121808557

Op don’t listen to this fella. Plenty more giving you advice here.

my advice is you don’t sound sure. Ring an expert. Plenty of people are handy with adding on an extra light or changing a plug. Once your getting into areas of ovens and stoves your better leaving it too professionals

Gusser09

Get a sparks. What youre looking for will cost no more than 300 or 400 quid. But it will be done safely.

Bruthal.

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/121808740#Comment_121808740

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