my wife is looking at changing cooker, we currently have a double electric oven with gas hob. We are looking at getting an electric oven with induction top. A college recently though questioned whether the wiring would be up to it as induction takes a lot more amps? Is this something we should be aware of and should we get an electrician to check? thanks
tiny15,
Oct 25, 6:22am
just buy whichever cook top you need & let the sparkie sort the rest out. its not hard to pull a new cable up the wall and through the ceiling to the meter box if this is what needs to be done
cagivachick1,
Oct 25, 6:23am
we have electric oven and gas hob when the kitchen was wired we were told the wiring for the hotplates takes a lot of power so the wiring for the hob etc wasnt as heavy duty, i recently spoke to someone who changed from gas to induction and regretted it
supernova2,
Oct 25, 6:24am
Unless you live in a Lockwood type house.
borolad,
Oct 25, 6:41am
Problem is that we have a two story house so wiring may be a bit tricky?
540trickzter,
Oct 25, 6:57am
My parents built last year and got the 90cm Bosch induction cooktop. Although induction is easy to clean, you need to buy decent pots and pans. Cheap ones work, but don't work well. I'm currently building myself and have decided to go gas instead of induction.
ryanm2,
Oct 25, 7:37am
A novice (and not always accurate) way to check what cable size is to check what size circuit breaker protects your current set up. Hopefully you have 32amp breaker in place which would indicate 6mm cable. This would be fine for a oven / induction hob combo.
Some on here will probably argue 6mm is too small but thats another story.
borolad,
Oct 25, 7:58am
Checked the circuit board and cooker one says C 32 , so maybe ok?
ryanm2,
Oct 25, 8:14am
yup , you may be in luck. Certainly get the kW rating of your new appliance, it may be as high as 11 or 12 kw , 32 amps is capable of around 7kW but your new oven/hob would rarely, if ever draw that much.
ang_ck,
Oct 25, 8:58am
we have a standalone induction hob/oven combo. When the guys came to delivered and installed the hob, he said there is no need to rewire the existing wires. On the following condition
a. You are not going to switch on 4 induction hobs and the oven simultaneously.
The maximum we would go are to have 2 hobs and the oven all power up.
Never regret moving from electric hobs to induction. In fact, my power consumption went down because induction is more efficient. But like someone said, you would have to change your utensils.
macman26,
Oct 25, 5:37pm
And after all this advice from friends daughters boyfriends cousins teachers father. Go talk with a sparky first. I’ve had customers buy then ask and get a shock at the upgrade cost that is sometimes required. Sounds like you will end up needing a sparky so get one on board now.
ceebee2,
Oct 28, 2:44am
As macman says I upgraded from gas to all electric and got sparky in to wire. Well the wiring has to support 13 kilowatts on at once so he used part of the Cook Straight cable to replace the original one with which alone excluding labour cost me $180.00!
ryanm2,
Oct 28, 7:42am
Your sparky is telling you porkies if he/she said the cable has to support 13kw, or doesn't understand, or has never read the wiring rules. Thats over 55 amps, thats about what your entire house is rated for.
ryanm2,
Oct 28, 7:43am
Im a sparky and some of us are idiots, and some of us can be quite helpful.
supernova2,
Oct 28, 9:23pm
Well the F&P C1905DTB3 5 zone cooktop draws 43 amps so as far as I can see a normal 6mm cable should be OK in a typical house.
A F&P OB60SL7DEW1 oven draws 13 amps.
So if you had both those items (as an example) then you would be in trouble and probably need a 10mm cable or a separate cable feed for the oven.
We don't have induction but what was done in our house was a 6mm runs the hob and a 4mm runs the oven. I think the lot probably could have run off the 6mm but obviously whoever did the job did a bit of future proofing.
However as others have said there are too many variables to be able to give good advice without knowing what units you are fitting and where they are going in relation to the distribution board. Since you are going to need a sparky get them around now to tell you the max capacity of your existing wiring and then you can buy accordingly, or at least you will then know you will need new cable.
vivac,
Oct 30, 7:01am
Worst advice ever. I had a customer pull out their nice new induction cooktop at fitoff, needed a 63A feed. Cue drama.
vivac,
Oct 30, 7:03am
Usually if you add up the elements the total is quite high but most induction tops will have an input rating much smaller, they switch elements on and off or drop power to some if cooking on multiple elements.
crazynana,
Oct 31, 2:42am
and don't get one if you or any of your family or friends has a pacemaker. they do not mix according to a heart specialist because of the magnetics.
ryanm2,
Oct 31, 7:36am
Really, "needed a 63A feed" . You have read the wiring rules eh? Tables with the maximum demand calculations?
vivac,
Oct 31, 8:13pm
Yes, i also read the instructions that came with the cooktop.
d.snell,
Nov 1, 9:03am
A bit of mis-information going on there. Yes, you have to be careful, but unless you don't lean over the induction top, you should be fine. From the Patient Manual, as long as your ICD/Pacemaker is 60cm away from the heat source of the top, while heating, there will be no interference.
macman26,
Nov 1, 9:27am
There is calculations for maximum demand then there’s the size of cable required for full load current. Two different things. A 63A cooking appliance still needs a circuit rated at 63A if that’s what the manufacturer specifies. Max demand is only 50% (or is it 75%. Couldn’t be bothered looking it up this time of night) doesn’t mean you can run a cable 1/2 the size.
ryanm2,
Nov 3, 5:37am
And if we all ran cables to the specifications of every appliance in the house the potential load could be over 300 amps. Most house have a 63 amp supply. Does every house get a transformer out the front soon?
macman26,
Nov 3, 7:25am
Still missing the point. Calculations for max demand have no correlation to cable size for appliances. I worked out a job once by calculation I was going to need 130A mains. I worked out max demand by limitation instead. But all cable sizes still had to match appliances specs.
tegretol,
Feb 22, 5:43am
Wrong.
They only create magnetic effects when a magnetisable object is placed near them. Pacemakers are not that. Some pots are not that which is why special pots are required.
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