Hello,

We have an electric shower wired with a separate circuit in our fuse box (consumer unit). That is all fine. Our shower broke recently so I turned off the circuit at the box so I could take the front off the shower safely.

This morning we found that our electric hob in the kitchen was not working. however everything else in the kitchen worked fine, including our oven and grill.  When I switched the shower circuit back on at the fuse box the hob worked fine. This leads me to think that the hob is wired through the same circuit as the shower.

Is this normal?

And advice is gratefully received.  Many thanks.

Hi,

Thanks for the response.  The kitchen was actually moved to an extension around 10 years ago, so I think the shower may have been wired in first (the house was built mid 1990s).

I have tried to upload 2 photos.  One is of the fuse box



It looks like there is an extra space at the end (no 8).  The shower and hob are wired through no 2.  I notice there is not a seperate one for the oven in the kitchen.

The other photo is of some switches in the kitchen for the various appliances.  



You can see they have wired in switches for most things.  What I can't understand is why they would have wired the hob to a different circuit than the oven, unless someone has thought that it is more likely that the oven and hob would be used together and overload the circuit, whereas it is less likely that the hob and shower would be used together....that's just a guess from a complete novice though!

What I'd like to know is if the current wiring is either illegal in any way or potential dangerous.  Is that something you can tell from the information I've given so far?

Many thanks in advance for the advice.

Hi,

Sorry - in my haste I had not looked at all the breakers properly.  You are right - the first one is labelled 'cooker'.  That one feeds the electric oven and grill (single unit with 1 fan oven and 1 oven/grill) in the kitchen.

I would have thought that the hob ought to be wired to that one, not the shower one (no.2).  Maybe that would be too much load if both ovens and all the hobs are on..?  That does happen sometimes - the missus loves to cook!

I will have a look this evening at removing the cover and see how I get on and repost either with a photo or a message saying I tried and wimped out!

Many thanks for the ongoing adice on this.