Cooker and electric shower connected to one switch

Not handy at all, but have been doing a lot of googling on this lately. Seems that its not illegal, but not best practice?

Bought a place 7 years ago and the cooker and the electric shower were connected to the one switch. Never had a problem but I am getting a new cooker installed this week, and a new shower in at the end of the month.

Was wondering if it would be a big job to give them 2 separate switches? (and how much I may have to pay to resolve this)

They should both have a separate dedicated feed from the consumer unit, and both circuits should be separately protected in the CU.

Where is the current switch? Sounds like this was done as a DIY job by the previous owner, I doubt any electrician would have installed it like that.

What power rating is the current shower, and will the new one be more powerful?

You'll need at least one new run of cable to the shower, perhaps two if the cooker feed needs to be upgraded. How big a job that is depends on how the cable will be routed from the CU.

Thanks for the response Leo!

I am not sure how powerful the present shower is but I plan to buy one that isn’t too powerful – just incase! But if I manage to get it it’s own switch before buying it, happy days!!

The switch is in the kitchen beside the cooker. I am happy enough getting any work needed done to give the shower it’s own switch but was wondering how much roughly I may have to pay or how big a job it is (I am going to get some quotes but was looking for an idea before getting quotes).

No problem. Previous thread here on shower installation costs, there may be others also.

The switch you have complies with the wiring regulations for connecting cookers, it's against the regs to use this to supply a shower, or anything else. Cooker circuit should be separate. The cooker circuit is most likely wired with 6mm twin & earth (T&E) cable, a 10+kW shower will require 10mm cable.

Ideally, you should install a new feed for the shower so, with a separate MCBO in the CU to protect the circuit, and an isolator switch (ceiling mount or wall mount outside the bathroom door). That way you will have free choice of buying the best shower to suit your needs without worrying about creating a fire hazzard!

All that is good to know! Thanks very much Leo!

Getting the new cooker installed tomorrow so will tell the electrician to disconnect the shower from the switch while he is at it (I presume he might insist on that anyway!)

Re: rewiring for the electric shower. The walls in the shower are tiled – will this cause problems in getting a new shower rewired (sorry if this is obvious but I genuinely don’t have a clue about stuff like this!!)

The electrician should be able to use whatever cable is attached to the current shower to pull up a new 10mm cable, or worst case, go from the other side of the wall.

Leo said:

The electrician should be able to use whatever cable is attached to the current shower to pull up a new 10mm cable, or worst case, go from the other side of the wall.

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Thanks for all your advice Leo! I’m a constant reader of this site (read it a few times a day tbh) but rarely post, so I appreciate you taking the time to respond!

I will let you know how I get on (though don’t plan to get the shower sorted for another month or so)

No problem Sano, best of luck with it.

Got the new cooker installed yesterday.

The chap from power city who was installing it told the mother in law (who was there for delivery) that he never saw a cooker and shower connected to the once switch but it had the potential to be dangerous. He disconnected the shower from the switch and said that the shower would be easy for someone to reconnect as all it needs is it’s own switch.

Thanks again for your thoughts on this Leo!

No problem Shane, happy you're partially sorted anyway. As it was, using the shower while the cooker was on was dangerous, could have resulted in the cable/connections burning out and potentially starting a fire.