What would generally cause this problem? A double socket with microwave and kettle plugged in plus a single socket with oven plugged in. When microwave is turned on the kettle loses power, likewise if the oven is turned on the microwave can be heard losing power. Other sockets in the same room don't do it. My guess is that the wire feeding those specific sockets isn't thick enough so the current is being reduced?mbut that's a complete guess.
how old is the house ? Ours was built in the late 60's. Just before Christmas we had power failure. Rest of the street seemed fine. The local power company came out and said it was a problem with our wiring. Electricians came out and said the wiring was sub standard was basically too thin and had caused this. We had to have it re-wired. I suggest you get an approved electrician out.
it was scary Marlon , after the re-wire they showed us a distribution box from the loft which had burned out thus causing the power failure. It was black , with wiring charred and burned out. The central heating clock showed it stopped at 4:45 am.... they said it could have easily gone up in flames, but the fact a wire burned out first and tripped the fuses etc it stopped a fire, we were luckily OK. Scary is not the word mate.
I had a similar problem with a three gang switch in our kitchen. When all three switches were on it supplied power to a cluster of two lights in the kitchen, cluster of three in the dining room area and an external outdoor light over the back door and one at the side door. At Christmas, we had my sister and her husband staying with us and one night, after tea , all the switches were on. After a very short time, it was noticeable that the switch plate was red hot to the touch. Not long afterwards, one switch jammed in the on position. After Christmas I called our electrician. Our house was built in 1972 and he advised that the wiring wasn't designed to carry the load we were subjecting it to and that it was only twin core. I bought a new stainless steel switch from Screwfix and our electrician completely rewired it using the appropriate quality of wiring. Not had a problem since.
Its a commercial building and the working could be anywhere from 10 to 40 years old really. I think it's that the cabling is inadequate too which sounds like a relatively easy fix so cheers peoples.
Just a point on cost. The new stainless switchplate cost me £35 and the electrician rewired that and a single switch in our downstairs toilet and charged us £75.
Your guess is correct. If its the only socket affected it is on a spur - which means you have one wire covering all 3 - Ovens and Kettles in particular take a lot of power and its usual to have a seperate spur just for the oven. A kettle typically takes 3KW (13Amps) A microwave typically takes 1.2KW ( 5 Amps) An over also like a kettle takes 3KW + a further 6KW - 10KW if it has rings and a grill etc The wire from your fuse box to the sockets has an impedence which is dependant on the length of the wires and also the diameter of the copper if you have standard ring main cable with 2.5mm core you will lose more power in the cable than if you have a dedicated 6mm or even 10mm cable to your cooker. The fact you are getting a noticable power loss is a bit worrying and it could be the cable isnt up to the job - hard to be sure without checking it properly though especially if the mircowave is making a noticable effect on the kettle - microwaves arent that high power - unless its a combi with oven and microwave
Whats the power rating of the microwave, kettle and oven. It will be on the info plate in Watts or Kilo watts. You're possibly overloading the circuit (it's around 4.2 amps per Kilo watt)
Thanks for that, that's really informative. Its just a standard microwave 700w I think and the drop is REALLY noticeable to the extent that you can't use two things at once. Because it's a commercial building it means that access to see the cables is much easier so as soon as I'm able to I'll investigate whether it's just those sockets which are powered direct from the fuse box or if it's that they're both a spur from somewhere else. Am I right in thinking that if I look at the wires I'll be able to see the difference in thickness of the cables quite easily? If I've got a thick cable coming to the kitchen area and then a thin cable to those sockets then it's that that's the problem. If I've got a thin cable all the way back to the fuse box then it's that. And no I'm not planning on replacing the cables myself but I'm thinking if I can narrow down the problem area I can at least move things to other sockets for now whereas if the problem is the feed back to the fuse box I'd just be moving the problem.
If its a commercial building there should be a wiring diagram and the fuse box should be marked with what circuit is controlled by what fuse/breaker the fact that a microwave is making such a big effect makes me think either the cable has a fault or its got a bad connection somewhere. Unless the oven is just a small oven designed to stand on a top and fitted with a standard 3 pin plug it really should be properly wired in to an over socket on its own breaker - usually there is one extra socket on the oven socket
Not necessarily. I have electric oven. gas hob. Depends on the power the oven uses. An electric cooker yes. An electric oven invariably comes with a standard 13A plug. Be it integral or as I’m guessing in this case a belling 2 rings with oven.
Agree to a degree. Integral ovens are normally just plugged into the ring via a domestic plug. Even on new wiring installations installers tend to use a sole breaker. And does not require A cooker socket with 10mm cable . I personally would try and find out if they are on a ring. Or radial. Usually easy to identify if you find only 1 cable In the socket. Trouble is even if you find none in the vicinity. Doesn’t mean to say it’s not an overly extended radial. ( plenty of them about. Amateur tricians,) I am not a domestic electrician but I would if I was the op (not got electrical background) get a proper sparky in. the times I’ve been asked to look at someone’s issues after getting someone out of the paper. they have either been conned or Had an incompetent idiot. And I’m talking horror stories. ( one, if the friend would tell me who it was instead of not wanting to cause any bother. I would gladly have reported him to the authorities after I’d told him he was a conman) Some thinking they can pass themselves off as competent through just passing the regs, I would definitely go with your suggestion of checking connections first to see if they’ve eg worked loose. So, to the op Supertyke, I’m sure there are reputable domestic/commercial sparks on here that will check it out for you. Some people say there are things DIY ers should leave to the experts. electric 1, but in my case, gas. Wouldn’t dream of tackling a gas issue.
When I can I'll investigate what wires are where and how it looks, take a few photos and then get an electrician in. Problem is its commercial not domestic which narrows down the field of available electricians though and we've had 3 out for various things in the last twelve months and all three have in my opinion been either incompetent if I was being kind of outright con merchants if I was being honest so they've tasked me with trying to narrow down the issue before they come out and say the flux capacitor has gone and it will be £700,000 to replace.
Seriously mate there are some right pillocks out there. As an industrial electrical engineer. My problem is I don’t require the qualifications of a domestic/ commercial electrician which in general means they tend to have part p. Regs (which I have but not part p.) etc. Which is required to carry out work on certain types of premises or parts of. Eg kitchens. But I’m pretty sure either would be able, as I would be able to assess the fault. The difference being, if certs. We’re required then only an approved spark in those fields would be able to do mods, rewires. If I’d not been working mate I would probably find the time. If you really struggle I may try and have a look. Where are the premises. I can ask around one or two I know and see if they can look at the problem if you get desperate.
Old houses and DIY ers!! I once did an ONC in Electrical engineering/Electronics because I worked as a theatre technincian at the time which involved working with some pretty hefty 3 phase supply stuff on Theatre lighting rigs. It did NOT make me a qualified Sparky and I had no desire to go further and study 15th edition ( or was it 16th)?) at the time What it DID teach me was to know my limitations and have a healthy respect for LX and those that work with it. It fried my brain doing the leading and lagging calculations for designing a sub station supplying a factory complex with a mix of inductive and resistive load (just one of the questions in one of exams! ) Two examples of DIYers out of their depth... 1 One of our lecturers (an ex pit Electrician) bought a house and investigated why the immersion heater did not work. When he lifted the floorboards whilst investigating he found the supply cable, or what remained of it, was attached to a charred blackalong its entire length floor joist. It consisted of three blackened bare uninsulated copper wires. Whoever fitted it had used lighting cable and the circuit was unfused. It was a miracle the house had not caught fire. 2 We bought an old Edwardian house and when we remodelled the kitchen I decided to add a few more sockets around the kitchen at worktop level. It should have been a single weekend's work but alas, no. Buried in plaster wiring usually involves metal or plastic shielding and all 'runs' under plaster run vertically or horizontally. To my horror when I started cutting away plaster I came across a diagonal cable (unshielded), the more I dug the more I realised the disaster I had uncovered. The wiring to each existing socket went diagonally from socket to ceiling zig-zagging around the kitchen on three walls. Moreover it was 1.5mm cable for the simple reason that it was connected to the lighting circuit which I discovered when I had turned the ring citcuit breaker off only to find the kitchen sockets were still live. It is only by luck the kitchen fitter did not drill into live wires when fitting the kitchen units. I bought a joist/live wire detector and spent a few weekends cutting out all the existing wiring, routing the new cabling correctly and then getting a qualified electrician to check it all out. I then had to wait weeks for my excellent plasterer to become available to replaster the entire kitchen. What should have been a weekends work followed by a couple of nights tiling turned into a mammoth project. I consider myself a bit more clued up than the average guy when it comes to electrics having done the ONC and worked in theatre, but that simply means I know when to leave it to the professionals (which is most of the time).
As a follow on from that I agree with you on the professional route - I'm a chartered electronic (not Electrical) engineer but did cover Electrical at Uni and have a pretty good grasp of how it works but I wouldn't do any more than replace an existing fitting at home these days - we did have to get our house rewired when we moved in - one of the first things I found was a cable where there had been an immersion heater - it was live just sitting there without even any insulating tape over it. also found a couple of extra bodged in sockets with sub optimal cabling. I did know a really good domestic electrician but he has moved to Australia, and a really good commercial one - but now he works on oil rigs so don't know any good ones I can use these days. will need to find one next time I want some work doing though.