Electrical PAT Testing - Understanding the Regulations For Electrical PAT Testing

Fires caused by faulty electrical appliances are one of the most common causes of fires in places of work. The problems that cause these fires are not always obvious to the untrained eye, so can only be discovered by carrying out a proper series of tests on the equipment. On some occasions, however, faults should be patently obvious to anyone who looks at an appliance (eg exposed wires, broken casing, etc), and the main problem is just inadequate maintenance and checking.

Electrical PAT Testing - PAT Testing Regulations

As an employer you have duty under UK law to properly maintain portable electrical equipment in good working order, and to test it at regular intervals. The main pieces of legislation that set out PAT testing regulations are the Electricity At Work Regulations 1989 and the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998. Failure to fulfil this duty could result in prosecution, but more importantly, could lead to serious injury to your staff and possible serious disruption to your business if you suffer a fire.

Electrical PAT Testing - What Is A Portable Appliance?

Portable electrical appliances are those pieces of equipment which can be moved around, rather than being fixed or permanently wired into the building. There is a tendency to simplify this definition to doing a PAT test on anything with a plug on, but while this may work in the majority of cases, it does not cover all situations. The best definition of a portable electrical appliance is that of something which is designed to be moved while connected to a supply of electricity.

The PAT testing regulations do not just relate to equipment which is the property of the business. The responsibility of the employer is for any electrical equipment brought onto the premises. So you must have systems in place to deal with contractors or temporary workers who may bring their own equipment in to use. Do not forget that it would also apply to any electrical equipment not directly related to carrying out your core work. Things like the sound and lighting system for the Christmas disco, or curling tongs or hair dryer brought in by a member of staff who plans to get ready at work before going straight out.

Electrical PAT Testing - Who Can Carry Out A PAT Test?

The explanation in the PAT testing regulations regarding who must carry out your electrical PAT testing is that it should be Competent Person. This is taken to mean that they have to know what they are doing, and must therefore have had the appropriate training or experience. Many companies use specialist contractors to do their electrical PAT testing, and others put their own staff through PAT test training so they can carry it out in-house.

There is no compulsory qualification that you have to gain in order to undertake electrical PAT testing. There are many one day courses which are available all around the country, most of which will provide a certificate, and some of which offer the City and Guilds 2377 qualification. There are also online or DVD courses available. If you are going to undertake electrical PAT testing in-house, you will also need to invest in PAT testing equipment.

Electrical PAT Testing - How Often To Do A PAT Test?

PAT testing regulations are suitably vague on this point and the end result is that the employer has to be responsible for assessing the degree of risk with each appliance and making a judgement about the frequency of testing. On average once a year is reasonable though some items definitely require more and others will be fine with a less frequent PAT test. A hand drill, for example, gets moved around regularly and is far more liable to damage than, say, a computer printer. A quarterly PAT test may be more appropriate for the hand drill, with a visual check each time it is used.

The frequency of PAT test that you decide upon can of course be adjusted according to your experience. If you find that you PAT test something and there is never any problem, you may be able to reduce the frequency, whereas something that regularly fails or has faults could probably do with an increased PAT test frequency.

Electrical PAT Testing - Recording Your PAT Test Results

The PAT testing regulations are not precise on this point, but it makes good sense to record your PAT test results. Why go to the trouble of doing all your tests and not record the fact that you have done so. If anything goes wrong you will have no evidence to prove that you have complied with the law and taken reasonable steps to prevent problems.

Downloadable PAT testing equipment has software that records all the test results and enables them to be downloaded to a computer. This is extremely useful and will also print labels for all items, displaying the PAT test date, when the next PAT test is due, the test result (pass/fail) and a unique ID number to aid reporting.

Electrical PAT Testing - Conclusions

There is no ambiguity in the PAT testing regulations about the actual need to PAT test electrical equipment, so if you are an employer or the manager for a workplace then you personally have a legal obligation to ensure that all portable appliances brought onto those premises undergo regular electrical PAT testing and are well maintained and safe to use. It is best to view your duty under the PAT testing regulations not so much as an onerous chore but as a sensible measure to help protect your business and your workforce.

PAT Testing Equipment – How To Choose The Right Type Of PAT Testing Equipment

Electrical equipment is one of the most common causes of workplace fires and this is frequently due to a faulty or damaged appliance. Workplace health and safety legislation requires all employers to carry out regular testing on all portable electrical appliances, and to ensure that they are maintained in safe working order.

Whether you buy in the services of a specialist contractor or train your own staff to do your PAT testing in-house will depend on the nature of your workplace and size of your business. PAT testing courses are normally only a single day, and you can purchase PAT testing equipment very easily. However, there are several different types of PAT tester out there, and you should consider which type is best going to suit your needs before you purchase. This article is intended to help you narrow down your search to find the most appropriate PAT testing equipment.

PAT Testing Equipment - Pass/Fail Type

Starting at the beginning, the Pass/Fail sort of PAT testers are the simplest and most basic models, giving only a straight pass or fail result and no further detail. PAT testing equipment can be designed to carry out various different tests, but the pass/fail type tend to only do the insulation and earth continuity tests. They are unlikely to offer the selectable earth continuity test current, which is an important point, as this can be a problem unless you only have a very limited number and type of appliances to test.

The difficulty with PAT testing equipment without a variable current are limited in the equipment they can test reliably. PAT testers with a higher current should not be used on IT equipment and testers with a fixed low current are not reliable for testing general electrical appliances. If you need to PAT test a range of different types of appliances accurately you will therefore need to have a selectable current function.

Another restriction with pass/fail PAT testing equipment is that they will have a fixed earth bond pass limit, which does not allow any adjustment. The problem with this is that it can result in some equipment failing the test, simply because they have very long leads, rather than because anything is wrong with them. While it may be tempting to increase the limit to compensate for this, doing so would actually contravene the IEE (Institute of Electrical Engineers) Code of Practice and perfectly good appliances may still not pass.

PAT Testing Equipment - Manual PAT Testers

Manual PAT testing equipment has greater functionality than the simple pass/fail type, which can overcome the problems highlighted above. These increased functions and the greater detail and variability do, however, mean that the PAT testers are a bit more complicated, so anyone using them would require a more in depth knowledge in order to fully utilise and understand them. There is therefore an implication for staff training. The selectable earth continuity test current in this type of PAT tester makes them suitable for testing IT equipment.

PAT Testing Equipment - Downloadable Pat Testers

Downloadable PAT testing equipment automates the testing process and stores the results so that they can be printed off or downloaded to a computer. This function can be a great advantage if your premises are particularly large or complicated. These testers can also have other functionality covering all sorts of things, some of which may be of more use than others, depending on your situation.

One function worth looking for is the ability to take true earth bond measurements. This is a feature that can save your testers time, and therefore cost you less. Carrying out earth bond measurements on appliances that have multiple earth paths (on a PC for example) cannot be done without disconnecting it from all other equipment first, unless your PAT tester has this function. That can add a lot of time and money if you have a significant amount of IT equipment to test.

For further information on PAT testing and many other workplace safety issues visit Fire-RiskAssessment.com

History Of The Fire Extinguisher – Find Out Who Invented The Fire Extinguisher

The portable fire extinguisher is an essential appliance in every workplace these days, not least because governments recognising their vital role in fire safety have made it illegal not to provide them. Have you ever wondered how long these ingenious devices have been around, or who it was who invented them?

History of The Fire Extinguisher – Who Invented The First Fire Extinguisher?

The answer to this depends on what you mean by fire extinguisher. The first example of something recognisable as a portable fire fighting device can be found nearly 200 years ago. George Manby made this breakthrough in England in 1813 with what he called an ‘Extincteur’. It consisted of a copper container which had inside it three gallons of potassium carbonate solution and compressed air. This was the first example of the basic principle behind all fire extinguishers today, where a fire suppressant is propelled out of a container by a pressurised gas.

Credit should be given, however, to the chemist Ambrose Godfrey, who devised the first automatic fire fighting device ninety years before Manby’s portable extinguisher. Abrose Godfrey’s fire extinguisher was not designed to be portable, but to be left in place in a room to protect it in case fire started. It could be seen as a precursor to modern day sprinkler systems. Godfrey’s device had a series of fuses, which would be ignited if a fire started in the area. These would then detonate a small explosive charge inside a container full of liquid, which was then scattered around the room, extinguishing the flames.

George Manby’s inventiveness did not end with this device, and he created various other inventions that depended on harnessing the power of small explosions. One of the best known of these was the Manby Mortar, which was used to help rescue ships in distress, by firing ropes from land onto the stricken vessels. His other ideas and inventions included a system to rescue people who had fallen into water through ice and a mechanism to save people trapped in burning buildings by allowing them to jump to safety. He was also the first person to come up with the suggestion that there should be a national fire rescue service.

History Of The Fire Extinguisher – Who Invented the Soda-Acid Fire Extinguisher

The soda-acid fire extinguisher works by mixing together two substances which react to produce carbon dioxide gas, which is then used to propel a liquid from the extinguisher. The first example of a soda-acid fire extinguisher was in 1866 when Francois Carlier patented his in France. In this example tartaric acid was mixed with a solution of sodium bicarbonate to produce the gas.

In the US the first example of a soda-acid fire extinguisher is the one patented by Almon M Granger in 1881, who used concentrated sulphuric acid in his version of the fire extinguisher. All soda-acid extinguishers worked on the same basic principle, which was that the acid was contained inside a small vial within the appliance, and one of several systems could be used for releasing the acid into the soda solution.

Usually the trigger to release the acid and mix the chemicals would be either a plunger or other system resulting in the breaking of the vial, or a lever system to release a stopper from one end of it. Either way, once the acid was released, the reaction produced carbon dioxide, which forced liquid out of the appliance in a jet, which could be directed at the fire through a nozzle or hose.

History Of The Fire Extinguisher – Who Invented the Chemical Foam Fire Extinguisher

The first known example of a chemical foam fire extinguisher was that invented in Russia by Alexander Laurant in 1905. The idea was very similar to the principles of the soda-acid extinguisher, but a foam compound was included, which caused some of the gas to be trapped in the liquid, producing a foam. The foam compound was apparently often made from licorice root, and this would be contained in the soda solution. The extinguishers were usually activated by turning the appliance upside down to mix the chemicals.

History Of The Fire Extinguisher – Who Invented the Carbon Tetrachloride Fire Extinguisher

Also known as CTC fire extinguishers, the carbon tetrachloride extinguisher was originally invented by the company Pyrene around 1912. The extinguishers propelled the liquid CTC at the fire by means of a hand pump. The CTC vapourised and produced a thick suffocating blanket over the flames, starving the fire of oxygen and preventing combustion. There was also a ‘bomb’ version of the CTC extinguisher in the form of a glass bottle that you threw at the fire.

The effectiveness of the CTC extinguisher on liquid and electrical fires made them very popular with the automotive industry for a long time, though the by-products of the process could have very serious health consequences, particularly in confined spaces. It was therefore later replaced by extinguishers using less toxic chemicals.

History Of The Fire Extinguisher – Modern Day Fire Extinguishers

That same basic principle invented by George Manby, where a gas is used to force a combustion suppressant out of a container, is still the main mechanism behind all modern day portable fire extinguishers. Most modern fire extinguishers will work on one of two main systems. The compressed gas will either be stored inside the main container itself, known as stored pressure type extinguishers, or in a small cartridge inside, known as gas cartridge type extinguishers.

Stored pressure are the most common type of extinguishers, the advantage of gas cartridge being that they are easier to recharge if used fairly frequently. Carbon Dioxide fire extinguishers are the only exception to this in that they simply contain liquid carbon dioxide under pressure.

The development and refinement of portable fire extinguishers has come a long way in the last two hundred years. The many different types of fire have now been classified, and all modern day fire extinguishers are given a rating show which type of fires they are safe to use on and how effective they are. These classifications and ratings are an important development because tackling a fire with the wrong type of fire extinguisher can have very serious consequences, such as electrocution cause by using a water extinguisher on an electrical fire.

For detailed guidance on how to carry out a fire risk assessment, and many other safety related issues visit Fire-RiskAssessment.com