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I live in the UK in a 70's terrace with absolutely none of the electrics from fuse box to kitchen required to run an electric cooker + hob. There are no spare holes in the fuse box.

I'd like an idea of the possible scale of work in having a professional add all the required wiring to "plug" an electric cooker into, before I ask someone in and get baffled by a complex quote. I am prepared to compromise aesthetically and run cables along ceilings and walls - if the law allows - to keep the work all about wires, and not floorboards and tiling.

Grimm The Opiner
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The standard UK circuit for a cooker is a 6mm² cable fed by a 32A breaker. That will do for a normal free-standing electric cooker, or the equivalent oven and hob. If you want a huge "range" style cooker, it may need to go up to a 10mm² cable on a 40A breaker.

The minimal way to do it would be a small new consumer unit, to the latest specification, alongside the existing one. That way, the electrician takes no responsibility for what's already there. As a new circuit, it has to be done to the latest "wiring regulations", however old the rest of the house wiring is.

A better way would be to update the consumer unit ("fuse box") for the whole house, but that requires the electrician to check that every existing circuit is safe to reconnect, and that can open up a can of worms.

You are allowed to clip "twin and earth" cable direct to walls. It looks cheap and nasty, but is OK provided that the cable is run so that it isn't likely to be damaged. Plastic mini-trunking is slightly less tacky looking.

Simon B
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