electric oven

[petaoco]

I am considering buying a freestanding with electric oven. I think due to having air con recently installed I may not have enough supply for the oven (according to the electrician who installed the air con) is this info correct and if so what would be an approximate cost to have more electricity supplied to my home?

[manoftalent]

you dont need to "install more electricity "....you already have enough, what the sparky mean't was you need a seperate line to run the oven ....I am sure a sparky here will give you facts and figures if you want it, but basically it goes like this ...standard power points usually run off a 20amp circuit ....now if your running several appliances from one source, like your air con ....that can eat up the available amps ......if your air con is running @10 amps .....and you plug in an oven that requires 20amps to run ....then your 10 amps overlimit....this will cause an overload and trip your safety switch ......you wont be able to run both appliances at the same time ....so what you need is another circuit from your mains to your oven so it runs independantly .....thus eliminating an overload ....most "fuse boxes" have an empty slot to allow for this, if your does not, then there is a strong possability you may need to upgrade to a larger unit to accomodate an extra trip switch and line to your oven........hope this helps

[DJ’s Timber]

....you already have enough, what the sparky mean't was you need a seperate line to run the oven

That's not necessarily true MOT, the sparkie might have been referring to the main supply from the pole, quite a few older houses in Melbourne only have 32?? amp supply, so if the oven requires 20amps and the AC is 10amps, we're already up to 30amps with 2 amps left to run the lights and powerpoints :o.

[malb]

I would agree with DJ and MOTcombined, ie could be old supply capacity issue or lack of copper/breakers/fuses within the household wiring. However, beware that if you need any sort of upgrade, you aren't just looking at throwing in a breaker and an extra cable run.

To have a sparky add these, he has to issue a certificate, and the entire household wiring has to conform to code, Safety switch, switchboard, breakers, cable size and type etc. If the issue is a limited older supply, the house quite likely had 2 power and 1 light circuit, rubber insulated wiring, and no safety switch. It may have been upgraded since but could still have some of these limitations in place.

You would really need to have the entire system examined by a sparky and be guided by the advice that they give you. If the advice you have was conveyed with more detail, you could get more definite response from the forum.

[manoftalent]

good point guys :2tsup:I had not though about the "old" wired houses ...shocking to think they still exsist ....pardon the pun

[nev25]

Yep DJ an Malb are on the money
When we (sparkies) add anything to a house we have to do a Maximum demand calculation and then look up AS/3008 the determine the current carrying capacity of the incoming mains.
Obviously the Maximum demand cannot exceed the current carrying capacity of the incoming mains (physically or legally)
There is a way around this but thats a trade secret :D

PM me if you want a quote

[jags]

i bet you are wishing you didn't ask the question now that the answer may have a couple of extra $000 behind the first number .
i have just had my latest reno rewire as the lights where not earthed and the power board had two switches and as DJ mentioned the supply was low so i was unable to add a aircon at a later date if require . i think the synegy bill to come and upgrade the supply is $300 on top of the $4500 to rewire the lights supply for the oven ,dishwasher , 10 power pionts and plasma set up i have been charged .

if it is only a matter of running a new circiut and there is no room in the meter box you can get small plastic add on boxes that go next to the old one i use one to run a new circiut for my aircon in my appartment .

[Smurf]

Is this an electric oven with electric top also?

Or is it electric oven with gas top?

Yes, it makes a pretty big difference to what needs to be done.

I assume the present cooking is all gas (or some other non-electric fuel)?

[petaoco]

hey Smurf, at present chef select everything gas. new one is savoir faire gas hob, electric grill/oven and ingnitions.

[patty]

You have not stated what your existing Range /Wall oven is I am assuming it is gas? You do have an existing oven correct?

[pharmaboy2]

I'd be waiting for the quote for the upgrade, then deciding whether my new oven finds it way onto ebay!

I know when I was looking at ovens, i had to get a quote for gas connection - fairly quickly made me decide on electric plus induction! - at elast I have a 9mm diameter supply, so dont have your problems....

[patty]

Pharmaboy2 ole mate no such thing as a 9mm mm supply mains most common are 6mm 10mm 16mm cheers

[Smurf]

hey Smurf, at present chef select everything gas. new one is savoir faire gas hob, electric grill/oven and ingnitions.
I have a similar setup with a freestanding electric oven/grill with gas hob. The power is simply connected by an ordinary 10 amp plug - it literally just plugs into an ordinary power point. It was supplied with the cord and plug already attached - only thing needing professional installation was the gas.

If your oven is large then it might be more than 10 amp but if not then all you need is an power point to plug it into. In that case it's less likely to involve major electrical work than if you were installing a large all-electric unit drawing 40 amps or so.

The hob is typically two thirds (roughly) of the total load so having that on gas means a lot less electricity needed. From memory the total electrical rating of mine is just under 2300W.

[juan]

I have a 9mm diameter supply, so dont have your problemsUnusual way of denoting cable size


Pharmaboy2 ole mate no such thing as a 9mm mm supply mains most common are 6mm 10mm 16mm cheersI think we are confusing diameters and mm2 guys

Cheers

[nev25]

Yeah when we (sparkies) talk about cable size we mean cross sectional area not diameter Patty is right but its mm2
We usually talk 1mill, 1.5 mill, 2.5mill etc meaning mm2
Patty is also partly right I'm mention mains in 6mm 10mm 16mm
But there is still some old imperial stuff out there and I'm told it is mentioned in the new regs.

Smurf what you have done is perfectly OK with 2 exceptions.

1/ If the circuit is protected by a RCD(Safety switch) you may find within time the oven will trip (turn OFF) the RCD
Ovens and hobs are about the only thing we don't have to protect with an RCD because of the nuisance tripping factor.
Thats why we like to put ovens on a separate Circuit

2/You have said that the oven is just under 2300W.
Thats pulling around 10 amps
Once again thats OK as long as you don't have much else on the same circuit.
As I assume that oven is on the same circuit as the rest of the Kitchen or maybe a bathroom or laundry all contain some sort of heating appliance.
Let say SHMBO is cooking a roast and some cooks toast or drys there hair and the heating element of the appliance is roughly the same 2300W theres 20amp being pulled and there blows the circuit breaker or fuse and maybe spoiled roast


Another reason to put an oven on its own circuit.

[Damo182]

I am in the same boat, we have just bought an electric oven that is replacing a gas one. When we had our Air Con installed the sparkie told us we would need to get more power from the pole as we did not have enough power coming in

Now we are having an oven installed i am guessing this will need to be done, Is there a way to see if my current system can handle the addition of an oven?

Any ideas on how much this will cost? I have a really old fuse box which will need to be replaced, probably with a 9 or 12 circuit fuse box.

I am in Drummoyne Sydney, any sparkies who can do a good cash price send me a pm

[pharmaboy2]

Unusual way of denoting cable size

I think we are confusing diameters and mm2 guys

Cheers

you got it - the BIL sparky, first used a thickness measure when gesticulating what it could be, then for the next size down spoke witha bigger number - huh? ie mm^2. too confusing to me, but having seen the cable, my picture in the head estimate is about 9 or 10mm diameter including sheath - so probably 16mm^2 which would be about 4.51251mm :D diameter of actual copper - though you never no - could be 25mm^2

[nev25]

Is there a way to see if my current system can handle the addition of an oven?



Any Sparkie should be able to do this for you

[Smurf]

Smurf what you have done is perfectly OK with 2 exceptions.

1/ If the circuit is protected by a RCD(Safety switch) you may find within time the oven will trip (turn OFF) the RCD
Ovens and hobs are about the only thing we don't have to protect with an RCD because of the nuisance tripping factor.
Thats why we like to put ovens on a separate Circuit

2/You have said that the oven is just under 2300W.
Thats pulling around 10 amps
Once again thats OK as long as you don't have much else on the same circuit.
As I assume that oven is on the same circuit as the rest of the Kitchen or maybe a bathroom or laundry all contain some sort of heating appliance.
Let say SHMBO is cooking a roast and some cooks toast or drys there hair and the heating element of the appliance is roughly the same 2300W theres 20amp being pulled and there blows the circuit breaker or fuse and maybe spoiled roast

Another reason to put an oven on its own circuit.
Yep. I know that. :U :U

For the moment it's on a power circuit, same one as the dishwasher and a few other minor loads. But I can't see the dishwasher and oven on at the same time (wouldn't make much sense) so OK so far. And with 4 power circuits in the house the other big things are all on other circuits so no problems there. Also I have two heaters, one electric on its own circuit (and own meter) and the other wood, so no need to run plug-in fan heaters etc.

I'm licensed to do it so I'll just run a separate circuit for the oven if / when it becomes a problem. So far so good though. Only thing I was a bit worried about was the elements tripping the RCD but again so far so good.:U