You can no longer post new replies to this discussion. If you have a question you can start a new discussion
Two high-power appliances on a single 40A RCD
Former Community Member
I have an electric shower installed on a 40A RCD, in a room adjacent to my kitchen. The shower is only used in an emergency - i.e. when our gas boiler is unable to provide hot water to our main bathroom. I would like to take a spur from this 40A connection to use for a new double oven, which is rated at 32A. Can anyone advise on a safe and legal way to do this, ensuring that only one of the two appliances can be connected at any one time?
What ever you do swapping from a single to a double oven will add stress any of the existing circuits, unless you can ensure that other loads are reduced or removed. But the oven without an electric hob isn’t going to draw 32 amps of current.
Now the shower circuit needs reassessing as a cooker circuit, but it is highly unlikely that the oven going to overload a shower circuit and as the current it can draw is restricted again the circuit MCB or RCBO does not actually need to give overload protection to the circuit cable, only fault protection.
Whatever you do now will be in place for many years, so it’s worth doing the best possible job, are you really sure that someone with a set of cable rods cannot pull a new cable in through the floor voids?
What ever you do swapping from a single to a double oven will add stress any of the existing circuits, unless you can ensure that other loads are reduced or removed. But the oven without an electric hob isn’t going to draw 32 amps of current.
Now the shower circuit needs reassessing as a cooker circuit, but it is highly unlikely that the oven going to overload a shower circuit and as the current it can draw is restricted again the circuit MCB or RCBO does not actually need to give overload protection to the circuit cable, only fault protection.
Whatever you do now will be in place for many years, so it’s worth doing the best possible job, are you really sure that someone with a set of cable rods cannot pull a new cable in through the floor voids?
