Portable Appliance Testing is an essential aspect of your company’s health & safety policy.
The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) claims that nearly 2000 fires in one year were caused by faulty leads to appliances. Around 1000 electrical accidents at work are reported to HSE each year and about 30 people die of their injuries. Therefore the importance of regular electrical safety testing cannot be emphasised enough.
As a business, you are required by law to protect all users of portable appliances from electrical shock as
well as fire hazards. PAT Testing should be carried out to protect your employees, customers and you against accidents and liability.
It should be carried out regularly by your business in accordance with guidelines stated in the IEE Code of Practice.
HSE employs Electrical Inspectors with the aim of reducing the number of electrical accidents by enforcing the Law, providing advice on good working practices, and developing guidance in response to technical changes in equipment and working methods.
Regular PAT testing of your companies electrical equipment will help you to identify faulty items and protect you against liability for electrical accidents in the work place.
For more information and statistics about electrical safety at work, visit the HSE website at www.hse.gov.uk/electricity.
Firstly, the code of practice for inspection and testing states that leads should be tested and labelled separately.
Secondly, the leads get different tests to the equipment this necessitates them being unplugged from the appliance. For example, a test for an IEC lead would be Visual, Earth Bond at 25Amps, Insulation tests and finally a polarity test.
The test for a piece of IT equipment would be Visual, Earth Continuity test at 100mA (soft test so as not to damage equipment), and Earth Leakage test (Insulation test too harsh for IT).
The tests are quite different and you would not be able to enter results for both lead and appliance under one item. Additionally, the polarity test on the lead, which is an important test, requires both ends of the lead to be plugged into the tester so needs to be detached from the appliance; it would not be possible to carry out this test as part of the appliance.