When you become someone that provides a space and appliances to be used by other people, whether it is as an employer, providing working space and computers for your employees; or as a landlord, renting your furnished home to a tenant, you are required by UK laws specified in The Consumer Protection Act 1987 and The Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 to make sure that space and appliances are safe. One of the ways to make sure the appliances are safe is by getting an electrical safety test done. Electrical safety test, or Portable Appliance Testing (PAT), is a process that determines the unsafe electronic items.
To get all of the appliances checked, you need to contact a portable appliance testing engineer, who would bring the testing tools and carry out the testing process, and book an appointment. On the day of the appointment, PAT testing engineer will come to your house, office or institution and put every item individually through an electrical safety test. The electrical safety test starts with a visual test. PAT testing engineer visually checks the item to see if there are any damages to the casing, any problems with the wiring or fuse and if the cables have any breakage. During this part of the test, the PAT testing engineer also determines which type of appliance they are tested by checking its rating plate and looking over its Class, Watts, and Voltage. If the appliance doesn’t have a rating plate on it, it will immediately fail the electrical safety test and labeled to be disposed of. After that, if the appliance passes the visual test, the PAT testing engineer will connect the electrical item to the PAT testing machine and use that machine to check its safety according to the previously identified class of the appliance. The class of the item is connected to how much exposed metal surface the item has, and this factor changes the testing type. The PAT machine gives a result about the appliance and PAT testing engineer labels the appliance based on that result. This test is then repeated on every electronic appliance, labeling all of them with a “pass” or “fail” sticker.
The amount of time this process takes cannot be determined as it changes from item to item. If the appliances are complicated and there are many appliances to test, then getting through all of the items might take a couple working days. All of the results are then written into a form and given to you, the supplier of the appliances, with a PAT testing certificate. PAT testing certificate can then be used in HSE inspections and shown to the tenants if the need arose.
If you would like to talk to us about having a PAT test done, please call us on 0207 1188 445Or email cs@pattestingassociation.co.uk