Davey P wrote:
Hi everyone

Just looking for a bit of advice about the wiring of an electric oven
(which has a separate gas hob)...

I recently bought a house that came with a fairly modern fitted
kitchen.

Last week I needed an extra plug socket adding to the lounge and got a
local electrician in to do the job. After he had removed the fuse for
the downstairs mains ring circuit, I noticed that the electric oven
also went off. I mentioned this to the electrician (because I'd
always assumed ovens had to be on their own separate thicker cable)
and he said that it wasn't safe to use the oven as it would be drawing
too much power from the ring circuit.

Anyway, I've since spoken to a few more people who are either
electricians or know about home electrics and they are saying the
opposite! Although there's nothing wrong with having the oven on a
separate circuit, our oven is in fact safe to use on the mains ring.
We've certainly not had any problems using it since we moved into the
house 7 months ago.

Could anyone please give me some more advice?

The mains ring circuit is rated 30amp, with a 30amp fuse in the
fusebox. The oven is wired in to the circuit via a spur and has it's
own 13amp fuse. The wiring of the spur is correct.

The oven is a Homark (model 700105) with the following specs:

conventional oven: 1.8kW
full width grill: 1.8kW
bottom element: 1.0kW
top element: 0.8kW
oven fan: 0.03kW

...to my mind, the most we could use is about 1.8kW (either with the
grill on full, or the top/bottom elements on, of the conv oven on).

Are we safe to use the oven?
I believe this is fine. Where you would need a separate heavier cable would
be for an elec hob which potentially can take far more current.