France in Focus

I'm fitting a new induction cooker later this week (if they actually have it when they promised). There is a 32A socket in position that I provided when I rewired the house years ago. I have never used it because we had a gas cooker. I noticed in the showroom that the electric cooker doesn't have a power cable on it (cheap sods) but the salesman showed me one they offered as an extra. A little over a metre of mains cable for over €20! Needless to say, I declined his kind offer of a kick in the goolies. I am aware that it needs to be larger in cross section to have a higher current capacity than for smaller ordinary appliances. Does anyone know what size/type/rating I should use. I may have some in stock or can source it from Brico D at far cheaper than €20+. Also, the dedicated feed to that cooker socket is already larger than normal (sizing was taken from the 2009 edition of "L'installation electrique") and is connected to a 32A disjoncteur. The disjoncteur is not yet connected to an interrupteur différentiel. I see (from the book) that there are two types of these, Type A and type AC. I believe I have both types on the board but there is no way to tell which is which. They are both marked 40/0.03A. Is there any way to tell which is which? The book says the
cooker should go to Type A.

What is the rating of the cooker?

This is all I can find online.
• Cuisinière 60x60
• TABLE: Induction
• Foyer avant gauche: Induction, 2300W/3600W/210mm
• Foyer arrière gauche: Induction, 1400W/2500W140mm
• Foyer avant droit: Induction, 1400W/2500W/140mm
• Foyer arrière droit: Induction, 1800W/2800W/180mm
• Grilloir Electrique 1650 W
• Eclairage intérieur 15 W

No mention of the oven power. ???
I just found some more on another site.
Nombre et type de foyers : 4 foyers induction
Puissance totale : 9905 W
Type de commandes : Sensitives
Type de grilles : Métallique chromée
Nature de la surface : Verre
Nombre de positions (+ d'infos) : 9
Nombre de booster(s) : 4
Puissance maximale du foyer principal (W) : 3600

Looking swiftly at those figures it appears that the total power of the appliance is just under 10 KW, making a maximum demand of about 40amps, having been out of touch with it for some years I am not familiar what the diversity factor would be for the appliance if indeed there is any on this type of item, surely the actual oven isn't induction is it?
I have come across this scenario before where people have purchased instantaneous showers or ceramic hobs admittedly from the UK, and wonder why the main switch trips out within seconds of switching on. Have you got sufficient EDF supply to cater for this sort of item?

You have given me a sinking feeling in my stomach.
The oven is (I think) a simple electric fan oven.
I have had a look at the little box on the wall (between the meter and the distribution board) and in a tiny window is says 30A. This is the switch that pops if we switch on one too many items so I assume that is the available supply.

This info suggests one of two actions. Either make sure to never use all of the pan positions and the oven at the same time, especially in the evening when lights are switched on.............or cancel the order for the cooker before its too late. I can't afford to up my supply rating. We are struggling as it is.

@ Hotrodder,

1/ Your supply, the so called puissance souscrite, is 6 kVa / 30 amps. See also your facture EDF.

2/ Not enough? Your cooker will probably never drive full speed, perhaps 50 %. For the time being, don't worry.

3/ Your main breaker, the disjoncteur de branchement between your meter and distribution board takes an overload of 30% with ease, In the case of the smart meter LINKY things are different: much easier to trigger when approaching the limit of your abonnement.

4/ Sockets etc.: the French prefer a much cheaper solution, less bulky than the special high power plugs: the sortie de câble. Available in two sizes: for a standard back box and topped by such a thing, and a square one for 32 A appliances, bigger.

5/ Wiring size: from tableau électrique to your kitchen: 6 mm in single-phase. From socket to oven, only one meter, almost no voltage drop under load even when using a smaller wiring size: 2.5 mm will do the job.

6/ Hot topics: ten years ago on TotalFrance and Pontnoir vivid discussions, one of the answers.

Hotrodder wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:28 pm You have given me a sinking feeling in my stomach.
The oven is (I think) a simple electric fan oven.
I have had a look at the little box on the wall (between the meter and the distribution board) and in a tiny window is says 30A. This is the switch that pops if we switch on one too many items so I assume that is the available supply.

That 30A is only a 6Kw supply .. I'm no expert but you will struggle using an all-electric cooker on 6Kw unless you are very very careful.
We have a 9Kw supply, even so we ditched our big electric oven (we have a gas hob) when it died and bought a table-top oven that is just under 2KW. I don't do roasts obviously.

Edit : Robert came in whilst I was writing .. with good advice as usual.

Many thanks, RA. Lots of useful understandable information in your reply. Just one more question. Is there a way to identify type A and type AC interrupteur differentials? Is there a problem if I connect to the wrong type? If I remember correctly, one type was for potentially "wet" appliances and the other for "dry" like lights and sockets in other living rooms.

suein56 wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 1:00 pm

Hotrodder wrote: ↑Tue Oct 19, 2021 12:28 pm You have given me a sinking feeling in my stomach.
The oven is (I think) a simple electric fan oven.
I have had a look at the little box on the wall (between the meter and the distribution board) and in a tiny window is says 30A. This is the switch that pops if we switch on one too many items so I assume that is the available supply.

That 30A is only a 6Kw supply .. I'm no expert but you will struggle using an all-electric cooker on 6Kw unless you are very very careful.
We have a 9Kw supply, even so we ditched our big electric oven (we have a gas hob) when it died and bought a table-top oven that is just under 2KW. I don't do roasts obviously.

Edit : Robert came in whilst I was writing .. with good advice as usual.

Sue you say Robert came in with sound advice, but you say that it will be extremely difficult to run this oven effectively with such a small incoming supply, I am afraid I would have to disagree with Robert, where he gets the fact that the oven will only be operating at 50 % I am unsure, if you check the ratings originally given for each foyer, plus whatever the oven takes it will be hard to do a good old Sunday roast with veg. As for a bit of 2.5 for the last connection, is that flex or hardwire?

Hi Hotrodder, Have a look at this link, it shows the different symbols on the interrupteur differentials denoting the types.

https://hager.com/uk/support/regulation ... -rcd-types

Michael