Green Equipment Ltd

Portable Appliance Testing

The Electricity at Work Regulations 1989, make it your responsibility to make sure all your electrical equipment is safe to use. You should regularly inspect, test and maintain electrical appliances to make sure they’re compliant.

If you don’t do this, you could be putting yourself, your employees and your business at risk.

All electrical appliances have the potential to cause electrical shock or present a fire hazard. Electrical appliance testing ensures that electrical faults are identified, which means that potential hazards can be removed to ensure electrical safety in the home or workplace. Electrical appliance testing is commonly referred to as “portable appliance testing” or PAT.

A portable appliance can be defined as one which can be relocated between periods of use, and is connected via a cable to an electrical power supply.

What Needs Testing

Any appliance that has a plug needs to be PAT tested. This can include:

A visual examination is carried out looking for signs of damage to the appliance that may cause it to be faulty.

This is an incredibly important part of PAT as most fails occur at this stage.

An inspection and test is then carried out that includes earth continuity, lead polarity and insulation resistance checks. This helps us identify a fault that may not be immediately visible. Further tests are also carried out for Touch Current and Load/Leakage.

Microwave ovens are also tested for radiation leakage

What is Tested on a PAT

Documentation

Certification