Q & A of the Day - Cooker control units and the 17th Edition

Question: Cooker control units usually have an associated 13A socket. The 17th Edition requires that virtually all socket outlet circuits are protected by 30mA RCDs. This is typically inappropriate for a cooker because of 'normal' leakage current. Does this mean that, to comply with 17th Edition, the socket must be blanked off permanently or the CCU replaced?

Answer: There is no requirement for cooker control units to have a 13A socket-outlet and, therefore, a cooker control unit without an integral socket-outlet could be installed. Generally, this would be the way to proceed. There is also provision for an exemption if the installation is under the supervision of a skilled or instructed person. This would be unlikely in a domestic situation.

The regulations will also stipulate that any socket-outlet not provided with RCD protection will require to be labelled to indicate the equipment it is likely to supply. This is unlikely to be applied to the cooker control socket-outlet.

The Regulations will not apply retrospectively and therefore blanking off an existing cooker control unit socket-outlet would not be required.

And Voltimum UK managing editor James Hunt says: The 17th Edition of the IEE Wiring Regulations is being published today, so this user's reference to the 16th Edition needs to be seen in that light. Note that full implementation will be on July 1st. Over the next six-months, the 16th Edition will be phased out and 17th Edition will be implemented. Within this period, installations can comply with either. After 2nd July 2008, installations should comply only with the 17th Edition. For longer-term projects with overlap, the client concerned must be made aware of the situation.

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