Cooker gap base units either side

Hello There is no need to leave a gap between your electric cooker and the units. You can use filler pieces (panels) either side if you are worried about inside the units getting warm but its not essential. These filler pieces are sold by kitchen suppliers, they come in different finishes and mainly used to hide bare sides of units to compliment the kitchen doors. The worktop should finish butt with the cooker so that food doesnt fall through and the result looks like a fitted appliance.

I'm not aware of any requirements to leave a specific size gap to the sides of appliances as there is always a gap behind and/or fans will blow air out of the front. When designing a kitchen with a free standing appliance, I would always allow a gap of 5mm each side, this will make installation and removal easy, but not allow things to fall in the there.