Hi All

What size wire is used for cookers & showers?


I'm thinking of up rating the wire that links my consumer unit to the garage so that I can put in a socket for a MIG.
At the moment it's all done in 13amp stuff (I think that's 2.5mm)

Is a blue socket the biggest I can go with single phase?

Cheers
Paul G

When i put my feed in to the garage, i put in 8mm - the same as my cooker. My shower is 6mm, being a small unit.

It all depends on the rating of your equipment and how much you want to run. The mains switch is a good indicator of this. The cable should be rated at least the same as the main switch in your garage.

The 16A blue "Commando" plugs are good, but a pain in the arse on domestic installations. Nothing else will fit the sockets, and your limited to where you can plug your kit in.

Stay with plugtops, as most domestic stuff is manufactured that way. Commando sockets are only really for commercial or light industrial.
Heavy industrial uses three phase normally, and these are bigger still, and red. Yellow is for 110v. - in case you wondered.

[Edited on 19/4/09 by MakeEverything]

Current regs for showers and cookers is 10mm, totally overkill but there you go

8mm cable does not exist. the sizes go from 6mm to 10mm. where is the cable eg burried or on an overhead wire?
it should really have a 10 mm earth wire so if its on an overhead cable a seperate cpc should really be put in!
if the cable is under ground then a 10mm 3 core swa would be your best bet.
u2u me if you need anymore help

blue sockets are all for 240v, I've got 16amp and a 32amp sockets in my garage though

we ran a cooker cable (i forget the actual cable size, but its rated to 32a) out to the garage. i'm never going to weld and use a compressor at the same time, and the compressor doesn't draw 32a anyway, but says it should be on a 32a circuit.

Sorry, i meant 10mm!

Thanks for the replies chaps.

The garage and house are 1.3m apart and the wire that joins them is 2.2m in the air.


If I remove the joining wire and replace with 10mm and use 10mm to go from isolator switch to the welder socket (spur) will that be OK? (yellow wire in second pic)


Many thanks
Paul G


wire diagram