Hi,
Im in process of stripping my kitchen of ready to have a new one installed.

I want to move my cooker from its current position so i now have no need for that electrical socket-i cant remove wire totally from wall etc so i thought i will just sink a backbox into the wall, and blank it off with a blanking plate, however i need to do this within regulations so its all proper and no hazard so, after disconnectting my cooker from its hardwired position i then sink a backbox into wall as its proud at moment then what is corect way to seal of the end of the wires please? then once that is done is it ok then to buy a blanking plate and fasten that to front of backbox and hey presto job done?

Thanks in advance

I don't know the official way mate sorry.
Have a read of this though for info , it seems cooker supplies are covered by Part P. Might be worth having a word with a local friendly electrician for advice. Don't want someone drilling through the wall in the future and getting a nasty surprise :eek::D

http://www.niceic.com/niceicgroup/householder/nroot/niceicgroup/householder/niceic_partp_factsheet.pdf

Can you not isolate it/get someone to isolate it inside the distribution board, (aka fusebox)?

Alcazar

ok-have done a few tests with switching different circuits on and off and found that the cooker box has got its own 32A circuit with nought else on it, so yes i can isolate that circuit at the consumer unit-the new place i want to move the cooker to tho already has a cooker socket there but when i go back to the consumer unit and isolate that i also fnd it isolates all my other ground floor sockets in other rooms-is this normal to have a cooker supply also on the same circuit as other normal plugs? or does a cooker being 32A have to have its own dedicated supply with nothing else on it?

Woops, looks like someone cut a corner: the cooker supply is supposed, AFAIK, to be dedicated 32A supply.

Yours appears to be wired into the house downstairs ring main.:(

I'd get an electrician in, mate.

Alcazar

:norty:

I assume its an electric cooker and not just a gas one with electrical ignition ? In which case it needs a dedicated 32A supply ( the wire will also be a lot thicker than standard socket wiring ) and should have a proper cooker switch on the wall.

You really dont want to run the cooker on the normal socket ring !

Rather than doing half a job, it would be better to remove or reroute the existing dedicated cooker wiring to the new position.

its like this .... i currently have 2 seperate cooker switches in my kitchen-im currently in process of having a new kitchen put in,where my all electric cooker is now, that socket in testing is on its own dedicated 32A supply.
Where i wish to move my cooker to there is also already a cooker switch on the wall with a 3 pin plug built in by side like they tend to have-looking at this socket i can see wire is thicker then a normal socket, however when i was turning of power via consumer unit to this cooker socket i also noticed that it turned of power to my other downstairs sockets as well so this old original cooker socket was obviously not wired in as a dedicated cooker supply - was this normal practise in say a 40 year old house to do?
So somewhere up in my floorboards this thicker cooker wire must join up to the normal thinner socket wire they use and then run down to the normal ring main on ground floor.
So wfrom what i gleam now- altho the house must have been originally wired up this way - now its not good practise or not allowed by law?

have you checked the consumer unit for the ground ring wire to see if the other cooker socket is joined there? If so you could just get "someone" to change that over to the soon to be unused dedicated supply if you see what I mean

not sure what you mean sorry

have you checked the consumer unit for the ground ring wire to see if the other cooker socket is joined there? If so you could just get "someone" to change that over to the soon to be unused dedicated supply if you see what I mean

what I mean is, at the consumer unit for the fuse for the ground ring, are there 2 lots of wires connected, ie one for the ground ring, and a seperate one for the cooker?

ah i see what u mean-will check in a bit thanks

have had a look at consumer unit-at the fuse which is for the new cooker position there was 2 wires-so i disconnected one of them and then switched power back on-went in kitchen and cooker socket was still working but power points on walls were still working as well-so not sure what the wire i pulled out was the circiut for :wonder:

what I mean is, at the consumer unit for the fuse for the ground ring, are there 2 lots of wires connected, ie one for the ground ring, and a seperate one for the cooker?

Errrrm........it sounds like you disconnected one end of the RING main.:(

It's a ring: goes out from the fuse/cb, and in a ring right back to it, so that current can flow to any socket on that ring from either direction, effectively doubling the current carrying capacity.

Put that wire back.

What you need to do is find out WHERE the NEW cooker socket branches off this ring, and then take it back to the fuse that protected the OLD cooker socket.

It could branch somewhere under the floorboards, via a junction box, but judging by the way it's been done, my guess would be that it branches off at one of the sockets ON that ring, close to the NEW cooker socket position.

Try having a look behind them and see if there are THREE wires in either of them;)

Alcazar

Agree with above - you've disconnected one end of the ring to the sockets so put it back - most circuits that have more than one socket on them will be a ring - think of it like a big loop of wire going from the fuse and back again, with all the various sockets stuck on it.

As alcazar says this is to allow the electricity to flow both ways from the fuse board to the sockets, which reduces the current flow in just one part of the wiring, so allows for higher currents on a thinner wire. Circuits dont actually need a loop of wire though, and in some old houses you will have just one wire coming from the fuse, with loads of sockets on it.

Normally a dedicated 32A cooker supply would just have one cable coming from the fuse as it only has one socket on it, so doesnt need to be a ring.

In a 40 year old house you will probably find the original wiring is all over the place, with various things connected to different parts of the circuit with junction boxes all over the place as connections were often made by convenience rather than any regulations, so you can end up with lights on socket circuits, spurs coming off socket circuits all over the place etc....

The cooker switch shouldnt be connected to the normal socket circuit though, even with thicker wire ( which completely defeats the object ! ).

This is one reason you need to be very careful when working on old wiring as you cany always assume that turning off say the light fuse will actually turn off all the light fittings.

I would second alcazars advice - look for the plug socket closest to the new cooker switch and see if it has the other end of the thick cable connected to it.

Your only real option is going to be put in a new cable to the new cooker switch from the fuse.

You should really be getting a qualified electrician to be doing this sort of work of course ;0)

Thanks for all replies-think i will leave it to the kitchen fitter to sort out-main reason of asking is im getting kitchen ready to be re-plastered so im sinking in all the sockets as everyone of them was proud off wall and want all this doing so it can be plastered in when plasterer comes next week.
What i wanted to do tho before then tho was to disconnect cooker from where it is now and put a sinlge back box sunk into wall there leave cooker wire inside, put a blanking plate on front and switch that circuit of at consumer unit - then move cooker i have now to the new position at temporarily wire it into that socket just to last for time between room being plastered and the new kitchen being fitted.
All making sense so far :) and basically want to know will it be ok to leave cooker on that new circuit for 2 weeks even tho its not a dedicated cooker circuit as i have found out.
then when new kitchen is fitted i will mention to fitter that the socket which he is gonna hardwire new cooker to isnt a dedicated cooker circuit so will need sorting out.
That make sense ?

If it's all in a bit of a state, ie: not fitted yet, why not do half the job for the electrician and channel the wall for the new wiring to the cooker? You could get all the bits, wire, switch, (which you seem to have), back box, plastic capping and ghet it all mounted, let a sparky connect it, and it's ready to plaster when your plasterer comes.;)

I did most of the channelling in my kitchen when the house was rewired, saved time and money, and marked where I wanted sockets for the electricians. I DID discuss it with them first, mind, so I didn't channel for a socket where one wouldn't be allowed;)

Alcazar

dont think i need anymore channels in walls-where the new cooker position is there is already a channel carrying the wires down wall now(btw just checked sockets none of them have the cooker wire joined in them , so i'm guessing its been done above at a junction box-cant easily find out as directly above is bathroom with laminate flooring down) and there is already an empty channel leading downwards from new cooker socket where he can route the new wire when cooker is hardwired in.