On Monday 01 April 2013 15:51 Roger Mills wrote in uk.d-i-y:


The new appliance (boiling water tap) has a 3kW heater but is
intermittent - only coming on to top up the temperature of its
reservoir. The dishwasher is a heavy user - but only when running. The
food waste disposer only runs for a few seconds at a time when we want
to get rid of some solid food waste.

The existing double outlet is surface mounted on the side of the
cabinet, just inside the door - with the wiring coming from the back in
a conduit. So the accessibility isn't too much of a problem. I could
potentially convert it to a triple with (say) a Screwfix 17315 - but
that has a 13A fuse, which would probably blow if the water heater and
dishwasher both operated at the same time. Also, a triple would extend
further into the cabinet (unless mounted vertically) and wouldn't clear
the body of the waste disposer.

So I still think that the best bet is to install an additional single or
double surface mounted socket in close proximity to the existing one.
Each appliance can then draw up to 13A with impunity whenever it wants to.

OK - I'm against the triple. I would not really want those on a double
plate. The disposal unit takes bugger all and runs for seconds - but the
water heater is likely to pull for some minutes and the dishwasher
similarly.

A double socket is rated at 20A max total - and although the loads will be
highly intermittent, I would do the extra work and stick a second seperate
socket in.

An option involving no wall bashing would be to blank off the old socket
box, and use it to hold a joint for the ring and the spur - so two cables
emerge from the box at surface level and you run these around a couple of
surface mounted sockets.

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