UK Kitchen grid switch help

[ibra123]

You wouldn’t.

The sockets are below the counter. The switches are above. Individual switches rather than a bank of 4 on one plate.

So you are saying have 4 switches as per below picture (on the right)?

I think a grid switch looks better and takes much less space.

 

[DPG]

So you are saying have 4 switches as per below picture (on the right)?

I think a grid switch looks better and takes much less space.
View attachment 111451

Yes but you wouldn't normally have them in a row like that. You would have one above each socket, so they would be much further apart, and sometimes on different walls.

 

[Dustydazzler]

a 4 gang grid is a neat option especially if you can get the switches with the little writing on saying what does waht

 

[DPG]

a 4 gang grid is a neat option especially if you can get the switches with the little writing on saying what does waht

The trouble is he wants a six gang and with possibly two circuits feeding it.

 

[ibra123]

a 4 gang grid is a neat option especially if you can get the switches with the little writing on saying what does waht

Yes a 6-gang to do oven, fridge, dishwasher, extract hood on a 32A ring, as well as dishwasher on 16A radial (all in the same grid switch)

 

[nicebutdim]

Appliance

If I am protecting several appliances that have plugs with 13A fuses and a 32A RCBO ring at the DB, wouldn't the 13A fuse blow first if there was an overload due to one of the appliances?

How would you circuit the above listed appliances?

The situation you describe applies to an appliance overload regardless of circuit type or rating, but is highly unlikely to occur. Short circuit is more likely and would probably take out circuit protection at board than appliance fuse.

 

[oscar21]

Honestly I don't know why people mess about with grid switches, they must be the hardest thing to fit in a domestic situation, every make I've come across has something stupid about them. The MK ones need a yoke and the switches keep popping out of them, same for other designs, others have screw terminals that are not up to the task of taking two 2.5 cables and most never look entirely straight when you put them on.

We occasionally have to fit them as per a spec and the only one I'll even consider fitting now is a click grid pro one, even the mini grid from click is pants.

So it begs the question as to why people chose them, sockets inside cupboards without any sort of extra isolator anywhere is by far the best bet in my opinion. I remember a Thomas Nagy video where he fitted one and he used a 20A switch marked "HOB" to operate a contactor back near the consumer unit which switched the 6mm to the hob, as if they aren't complicated enough.

 

[Dustydazzler]

I have been doing domestics since the late 1990s and I was under the impression the big ole kitchen grids became popular on new builds because it was cheaper and quicker to fit a single 6 or 9 way grid than to fix a whole load of swi fuse spurs all over the kitchen

that said as above I prefer to fit surface boxes inside units for appliances and keep everything as much as possible out of view

 

[baldelectrician]

I prefer to put a bank of DP switches in a cupboard next to the kitchen (there is usually a tall hall cupboard next to the kitchen)
Other times we put switches in adjacent to the consumer unit- all labelled. A bit more cable, easier to wire and also easier to put different appliances on different circuits.

 

[littlespark]

I was always taught that the isolation switches had to be accessible for emergency’s…. not hidden away in cupboards.

Whether that be on a grid, or all individual.

I believe there’s a Scottish building reg about this that doesn’t exist on the English side??