# Can I Place My Cooker Under A Window?



## Cats are nice

Hi!

I have been told by my (Corgi registered) plumber that I can't place my electric cooker under a non-opening window, even though I intended to use a qualified electrician to put in the cooker point. I have spent hours and hours searching the Web for any regulation about this but all I have found are lots of people asking the same thing and no one able to answer them. I have even visited the IEEE website.

Can anyone tell me if there is such a regulation or give me a contact number or email address to help me find the answer?


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## blackandgolduk

As I'm in the middle of a pretty dramatic house renovation (sympathetically restoring a neglected Victorian terrace) I'm pretty much up to speed with Part P and the like. I can't recall anything stopping the installation - if your sparky is happy to install it, and he's up to speed on the building regs and 17th ed then you should be fine as he'll sign it off. For the best answer, call your Council's Building Regulations Office - they have been terrific with me (Waltham Forest) especially seeing as I've done all of the work myself. They're happy to give advice and make the whole process very easy.


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## Cats are nice

Thanks so much for that advice. I will gladly do exactly as you say and get in touch with the local council.

Good luck with you restoration.

Again, many thanks.

I do love this Forum - it's members are so kind.

:thumbup:


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## mel

It may be something as obvious as that you can't physically fit the cooker switch and supply point because there's not enough room above the cooker/worktop height but below the window frame opening for the switch, especially if the sink (water) is alongside the cooker, and where the supply outlet point would have to be located below the worktop normally. I'm no longer "au fait" with IEEE regs since I retired about 12 years ago now, but general provisions were that you had distances from sink and cooker and cooker to switch and sink you adhered to.

You should have access to the cooker switch, but not be able to touch the switch and sink at the same time type of thing. I don't recall opening or non opening windows being part of the equation, but you need wallspace to fit the switch.


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## blackandgolduk

mel said:


> It may be something as obvious as that you can't physically fit the cooker switch and supply point because there's not enough room above the cooker/worktop height but below the window frame opening for the switch, especially if the sink (water) is alongside the cooker, and where the supply outlet point would have to be located below the worktop normally. I'm no longer "au fait" with IEEE regs since I retired about 12 years ago now, but general provisions were that you had distances from sink and cooker and cooker to switch and sink you adhered to.
> 
> You should have access to the cooker switch, but not be able to touch the switch and sink at the same time type of thing. I don't recall opening or non opening windows being part of the equation, but you need wallspace to fit the switch.


Hadn't thought about that. I positioned my cooker switch 140mm above the worktop to the right of the cooker - the switch shouldn't be above the cooker. The regs no longer specify a height above the worktop, but 140-150mm seems to be the norm. This then runs down to an outlet plate behind the cooker.

If you can post a pic I can give some (unqualified, but recently experienced) advice, or a proper sparky can give you some pointers.


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## Who. Me?

I Googled around this last night, as I'm sure that gas cookers can't go under a window, but couldn't see why an electric one couldn't.

There is a fair amount of stuff out there saying don't put cookers under windows, but I couldn't see anything that says it's illegal.

The reasons quoted as to why not make sense though - primarily that someone might put 'window dressings' up (curtains, blinds etc) and the heat from the cooker or potentially a fat fire could catch those alight. Also the heat could physically damage the glass in the window if it was close enough.

Plus, thinking about it; you wouldn't want anyone leaning over the cooker to clean the glass, if the cooker had recently been on. And, the glass would get filthy pretty quickly, so you'd need to clean the glass a lot.


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## mel

This was bothering me. so I looked at my "bible" from the day job. It's under "Best Practice" rather than a reg, (I'm ex leccy board for those who don't know, licensed to ZAP up to 400Kv) , and the suggested best practices from our old board book confirm it's not good to put a cooker uncer a window. (Quoting the points Andy makes) Additionally Andy, there are some "Where Possibles" that the switch should be *in view* and *to the left* of the cooker, and about 150mm above the worktop level.

The "in view" is obvious, you need to be able to see it to use it, the "to the left" assumes a majority of Right handed folks in the house will therefore step to the side of (and thus away from) the cooker to switch it off in an emergency.

All electrical outlets "where poss" as far as you can get them away from the taps and thus water and suggested that you cannot touch the tap and a switch at the same time. In smaller modern kitchens this is obviously a "not possible", as it usually means around two metres plus from tap to nearest switch.

The connection point from the supply to the cooker should be as near as possible to the cooker location, to allow for as short as possible a flexible connection to be made, using appropriately rated cable - add up ALL the rings and oven and work out the Amperage that may be drawn with everything on at once. Heat resistant cable of some kind. You should be able to pull the cooker all the way out for cleaning without disconnection if it's freestanding.

HTH a tad


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## BondandBigM

Surely the other consideration would be the frames themselves, given that these days they are mostly UVPC or wood + heat might not be a good idea, you have a choice, melt them or set them alight :lol: :lol: the other issue that comes to mind would be access from out side in the event of an emergency, do you want Fireman Sam climbing in on to the top of a hot cooker ???


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## William_Wilson

BondandBigM said:


> Surely the other consideration would be the frames themselves, given that these days they are mostly UVPC or wood + heat might not be a good idea, you have a choice, melt them or set them alight :lol: :lol: the other issue that comes to mind would be access from out side in the event of an emergency, do you want Fireman Sam climbing in on to the top of a hot cooker ???


Those are the first things that I thought of when I read the original post. Where I live, I have never seen a window on the same wall as a kitchen appliance (within the kitchen, that is).

Later,

William


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## tixntox

Have a shufty here

It mentions cookers and windows lower down the piece.

Mike


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## LJD

If its real close? then put a large pot on top and then work out distance to glass . then work out how much it will cost to replace the galls when it cracks due to the heat !


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