Portable appliance testing

In electrical safety testing, portable electrical appliance testing (PAT, PAT inspection or PAT testing) is a process in the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand and Australia by which the safety of electrical appliances is regularly checked.The formal term for this process is "In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment".Testing includes visually checking that the equipment and any flexible cables are in good condition and, if required, verifying earth (earth) continuity, as well as testing the integrity of the insulation between current-carrying parts and any exposed metal that may be touched. The formal pass/fail limits for these electrical tests vary by the category of device under test.Other countries have similar procedures, e.g. testing of devices according to DGUV Vorschrift 3 in Germany.

Purpose 

Health and safety regulations require electrical appliances to be safe and maintained to prevent injury to workers.Many equipment manufacturers recommend periodic testing to ensure continued safety; the interval between tests depends on the type of appliance and the environment in which it will be used.The European Low Voltage Directive governs the manufacture or import of electrical appliances.Compliance with this requirement must be declared and shown by displaying the CE marking on the product. Responsibility for this lies with the manufacturer or importer and is regulated by trading standards.The test equipment has been developed specifically for PAT inspections and is based on the test equipment used by manufacturers to ensure compliance with British Standard Practices and European product standards relevant to that type of equipment.This in turn allows testing and interpretation of results to a largely reduced skill level. Inspection of appliances can be carried out to a large extent within many organisations.This results in cost savings and more flexibility in determining when to perform PAT.

Origin of name

Portable Device Testing is abbreviated as PAT.The correct term for the entire process is "In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment" (as defined by IET/IEE and City and Guilds).In Australia and New Zealand, the common name for PAT is "Testing and Marking". Regulatory guidance is contained in AS/NZS3760:2010. [citation needed]

British legal obligations

Appliances

UK law (Electricity at Work Regulations 1989) requires that all electrical systems, including appliances, be maintained (so far as is reasonably practicable) to prevent hazards.Private dwellings are excluded from the scope of this legislation, although tenant responsibilities require that tenants not knowingly expose residents or visitors to unreasonable risks.The HSE and local authorities are responsible for monitoring the legislation.

Fixed wiring in buildings

Guidance from the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET, published under the IEE brand) and the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) recommends that supervisors must regularly inspect installations in any public building or where people work.They recommend initial intervals for joint inspection and testing ranging from three months (construction equipment) to a year, with retesting in many cases longer (certain types of appliances in schools, hotels, offices and shops).Although the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 is an obligation on UK businesses, there is no obligation to undertake PAT inspection.In reality neither act nor their corresponding regulations and associated statutory instruments detail PAT inspection as an obligation, but rather impose a requirement of maintenance of safety and evidence of routine maintenance for all hand-held, portable and plug-in equipment.Today a great many private companies and other organizations do meet their legal obligations to protect their workers by an enforced PAT regime, but it is not the only route.Recent HSE publications have relaxed their tone somewhat to acknowledge this, and now point out that in many situations annual PAT is disproportionate to the risks and is often not required. In 2011, the HSE reviewed its approach to portable appliance maintenance in its own offices.Thinking about the type of equipment in use, and how it was used, the HSE looked back at the results from its annual testing of portable appliances across its estate over the last five years.Using the results of the previous tests, the HSE decided that further portable appliance tests are not needed within the foreseeable future or at all for certain types of portable equipment.Also, they decided to continue to monitor any faults reported as a result of user checks and visual inspections and review its maintenance system if evidence suggests that it needs revising.Electrical equipment will continue to be maintained by a series of user checks and visual inspections by staff that have had some training.

Annual portable appliance testing is not always necessary in low risk environments.You do not need to be qualified as an electrician to carry out visual inspections.Regular user checks and visual inspections can be a good method of maintaining portable electric equipment.For landlords maintaining legal requirements it is not compulsory for them to have all appliances tested, but they do need to show a "duty of care" and most letting agents recommend that a test certificate is obtained.