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Pat testing infomation

Portable appliance testing or ‘PAT Testing’, as it is more commonly known is the process of testing electrical appliances for safety.

If you are visiting this site, you may be the person who has been put in charge of managing ‘PAT testing for your company. If this is the case you will find the wealth of free information contained here to be invaluable for your research.

We have not put everything on this site, such as; the secrets for saving money on ‘PAT testing, how to train yourself to do PAT testing, or the myths about PAT testing that the electricians do not want you to know. These are guides are available for free download by clicking here.

Whatever your organisation, PAT testing is a very important part of your health and Safety arrangements. A planned maintenance program that includes PAT testing is a requirement of The Electricity at Work Act regulations (1989).

If you meet the following criteria you need to have a planned maintenance program for your electrical equipment in place.

  1.  Electrical appliances are hired or supplied.

  2. Electrical appliances are used by employees.

  3. Electrical appliance are serviced or repaired.

  4. Members of the public use appliances such as in schools, hotels, libraries, hospitals etc.

There are three levels of testing these are user checks, formal visual inspections and combined inspection and testing. The last of these is the traditional ‘PAT test’ as it is commonly known.

One of the main myths about portable appliance testing is that it has to be carried out every 12 months on everything. The frequency of inspection and testing depends on a number of factors such as;

  • Environment

  • Type of equipment

  • Competence of the user

Download our list of the top ten myths about PAT testing which will save you money if you intend to have your PAT testing carried out by an electrical contractor.

 
The IET Code of Practice

 The IET code of Practice for the In Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment is a joint publication issued by the institute of engineering and technology and the health and safety executive. This book gives guidance on how PAT Testing should be carried out and is a must have publication for anyone carrying out portable appliance testing. Due to copyright laws, this book is not available for online download, but it can be bought from Amazon.com -

 
PAT Labels

The Code of Practice states that once appliance have been tested, they need to be clearly identifiable. This is achieved by applying a label to the appliance to define it’s status. As a minimum the label should include:

Identification Number

Date Tested

Date Re-test Due

Status (Pass/Fail)

Other items may include things like the tester name, company name or details and more frequently a barcode. This barcode is generally used as part of an ongoing asset register so that the label can be scanned each subsequent year for faster testing and greater asset traceability.

If an appliance fails the PAT test, it should be clearly labelled with a ‘failed’ sticker.