The various risks or possible hazards to individuals, buildings and contents while using potentially faulty electrical devices may seem obvious but there are still many individuals and businesses who don’t always make sure that electrical equipment is safe for use. A detailed electrical assessment and testing of individual equipment by a PAT qualified person or organization goes a very long way to ensure that the people and structures around them remain safe. Many individuals and businesses don’t necessarily realise that, regardless of its size or number of employees, PAT Testing has been a legal requirement for all businesses since 2007.

This legislation was introduced within The Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Regulations and all businesses should ensure that they are consistently providing a safe and risk free working environment for staff. Added to this, in the event of electrical accidents causing any damage to individuals, structures or buildings, insurance companies can refuse monetary compensation within a working environment if a business cannot supply valid and in date PAT testing certification in the event of a claim.

In addition to an insurance company delaying or even rejecting a claim if certification cannot be provided, there is also the possibility of a business receiving Local authority fines, only making an already bad situation much worse. A wide range of insurance companies for businesses are often offering a discount on policies to businesses on their insurance premiums if they can supply documented proof that all of the correct safety checks are in place.

Many smaller businesses do not necessarily have a separate Health and Safety department which should make sure that consistent PAT Testing of electrical equipment has been undertaken but the fact remains, that this is one paramount duty which should always be taken care of by all businesses on at least an annual basis and is one resolution that PAT Testing Dublin will always fully endeavour to support!!

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More and more insurance companies are now asking to see a valid PAT testing certificate in the event of a fire or electrical injury occurring in a working environment. Your claim may be delayed or even refused if you cannot prove that all of your electrical wiring and electrical appliances were safe for use. Local authority fines are also possible which was seen earlier this year when cinema group Cineworld were fined over 10, 000 euros and found guilty of failing to ensure that all electrical itms were of a safe standard to be used by staff. Lastly, you may also leave yourself open to a personal injury claim from the injured party if you failed to ensure that the correct safety checks were in place.

In order to protect your business from any of the above happening, an active PAT testing approach should be undertaken each year and the results and recommendations added to your Health & Safety Statement. You may also qualify for a reduced premium from your insurance company on production of these documents so it is always worth checking with your insurance broker.

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With a population of approximately 200,000 according to the 2016 census, Meath is very well recognised as one of the fastest growing counties within Ireland. Considering this significant population increase, it makes sense to suppose that Meath features a wide array of businesses and various professional industries. There are also a number of construction sites under development in Meath that will, no doubt, have a broad range of electrical equipment that will require regular PAT Testing to maintain a building development’s high level of safety for its employees. 

 With the county town of Navan and various other well populated towns situated across County Meath and being less than an hour’s drive from Dublin, Meath has become an ever expanding and always thriving hub for various businesses, many of which maintain offices within the county. After considering these factors, County Meath was the next logical step for PAT Testing Dublin from the point of view of ensuring peace of mind regarding the electrical safety of devices for both business and home owners.

Meath also features an extensive array of markets and boot sales, from the Trim Farmer’s Market and various other localities that can be found all over County Meath that offer produce from refreshing teas and coffees to a wide variety of homemade produce and traditional crafts. Many of these Market Traders will oftentimes need to use PAT tested electrical equipment to supply their customers with the finished products that they have been looking for. As we are currently in the middle of summer, it has not been unusual for PAT Testing Dublin to frequently receive calls to provide some last minute PAT Testing for any electrical equipment that may need to be tested so a trader can happily and of course, safely, participate in these events.

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What is PAT testing?

PAT testing means portable appliance testing and can also be sometimes known as PAT inspection which simply means a process of ensuring that electrical devices are regularly checked to determine their safety for use.

Who can complete a PAT Testing process?

For any individual or professional business entity to consider engaging a PAT testing professional to undertake this process, there are a number of factors that need to be taken into account but, without question, two of the most important factors are to insure that the engaged individual is qualified to do so and just as importantly, that they can demonstrate that they, and the PAT testing business that represents them, are adequately insured and be able to supply insurance documents to confirm same.

If an individual is to be engaged to complete PAT testing assessments, they should be able to supply a copy of their qualifications to demonstrate their ability to do so. A PAT testing professional does not need to be a qualified RECI certified electrician to complete a PAT testing process although interestingly, most RECI certified electricians may not usually be trained to perform PAT testing procedures either.

How often should a PAT testing process be undertaken?

The frequency of performing this process can vary greatly depending on a number of factors. The actual location of where an electrical device is used must be strongly considered with regard to how often various devices should be comprehensively PAT tested. While the majority of domestic and commercial electrical devices may only need to be retested either every 1 to 2 years, electrical devices that are often used on a building site will understandably need to be tested much more often than this due to the wide array of potentially increased hazards that a construction site can present.

How long does it take to complete a PAT testing process?

The completion time of a PAT testing process can differ greatly depending on how many electrical items may need to be assessed for safety. Understandably, it will take longer to successfully finish a larger building with 4,000 items than it will to perform a testing process in a small home with 100 electrical items that need to be tested.

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After carefully reviewing all of these factors, there was one clear choice after considering all of the available information about the wide range of PAT Testing equipment available on the market. PAT Testing Dublin were supremely confident in its decision to acquire the Apollo 500 SEAWARD PAT Tester to provide customers with a proven way of identifying potential safety problems with electrical items before a device could even begin to cause an issue and be dealt with accordingly.  The SEAWARD Apollo 500 has the ability to safely store the details of an impressive 10,000 test records and boasts the ability of advanced data transfer and storage features making it perfect for complete and consistently accurate high-volume testing of PAT Testing devices.

The SEAWARD Apollo 500 can be used for portable and fixed appliances as well as RSDs or Residual Current Devices. A Residual Current Device is also known as a sensitive safety device which has switches that can immediately turn off electricity supply automatically if a fault is detected. Various types of RCDs can be found in both residential and commercial buildings. These RCDs are often better known to individuals as fuse boards or consumer units and should be easy to locate by any individual as this is where any buildings electricity is controlled and distributed throughout the premises. The position of a fuse board should always be in an easily accessible location of any building.

The SEAWARD Apollo 500 is widely known by PAT Testing engineers for its excellent design which enables straightforward, professional and prompt PAT testing for all of its customers. Other worthwhile and helpful features of this device for a qualified PAT Testing engineer include remote data transfer, USB upload/download and an impressive memory of a vast amount of complete test sets. With point-to-point measurement, fast boot-up and a helpful risk based calculator which can further enable the PAT Testing engineer to quickly determine suggested retest periods for electrical equipment, this impressive machine was the ideal choice for PAT Testing Dublin to use.

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A Safe Pass Card is a must have legal requirement for any building professional to hold and must be able to provide to an employer before successfully gaining any access to a building site. The Safe Pass Programme is a safety awareness training course which is a complete necessity for all construction site personnel. Both full time site workers and any individual that have been engaged to perform specific duties on site must have a current Safe Pass Card in order to demonstrate that they have a qualified knowledge of health and safety with a view to being able to work safely on a construction site without being a risk to either themselves or to others. The purpose of the Safe Pass programme is an unquestionable and absolute legal obligation for every employer to be able to prove that all individuals on site have a proven knowledge of health and safety policies with a view to avoidance of all health hazards and prevention of accidents on a construction site workplace. To obtain Safe Pass accreditation, an individual must successfully complete a Safe Pass Programme. Courses for these programmes entail are consistently and often held at various venues all over Ireland.

Any individual that may have gained a Safe Pass Card with a view to working on building sites will always need to ensure that the issue date on this Card has not passed its expiry date as this card is only valid for 4 years from date of issue and any personnel with an expired Safe Pass Card will not be allowed onto a construction site.

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Under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005, it is a vital obligation of an employer to ensure that complete provision of a safe working environment for staff members is made for all employees. This 2005 Act has since been revised and updated as to 12 July, 2018 and is an administrative consolidation of the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act 2005. It is prepared by the Law Reform Commission in accordance with its function under the Law Reform Commission Act 1975 (3/1975) to keep the law under review and to undertake revision and consolidation of statute law.

The key to complying with this detailed workplace legislation is for all employers in Ireland to consistently ensure that any electrical office equipment that may be made available to staff to assist in a working day is always entirely safe to use and rechecked and PAT Tested on at least an annual basis.

This is where PAT Testing Dublin comes in as we will provide a qualified expert in electrical device safety to test and certify that the equipment you are utilizing meets the recommended safety standards. Our Engineer will test your portable and fixed devices, document these items and provide a business with an in depth report on all electrical equipment. This report will include the items that have successfully passed the Appliance Testing process and will also make note of any that may need to be repaired or replaced.

All of our Engineers are specifically qualified and fully insured to perform comprehensive PAT Testing on both fixed and portable electrical appliances and can provide detailed reports on all successfully tested equipment to a business. These detailed PAT Testing reports are often becoming more of an insurance requirement for businesses in operation today. So much so, that the ability to successfully acquire a comprehensive insurance policy may well depend on the provision of these reports. A  Compliance Certificate can be provided as businesses may choose to forward this to their own insurance companies in order to determine if a reduction of insurance premiums can be arranged.

If any business in the Greater Dublin area would prefer to arrange a PAT Testing visit to a premises outside of usual working hours, PAT Testing Dublin’s team are completely happy to organise this for you. Our Engineers have often undertaken PAT Testing assessments early in the mornings, later into the evenings and even over weekends if a business would prefer!

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Electrical appliances that should undergo the PAT testing process in a workplace can be listed under many different categories but a detailed visual inspection should always be undertaken as part of the initial testing procedure. This visual inspection is very important for a PAT testing engineer to help determine if, upon primary inspection, the item shows any signs of cosmetic damage. However minor this damage may initially appear, it could potentially expose the user of the equipment to an electrical shock. Encountering any sort of electrical shock is definitely not something that any business owner would ever want any members of staff to be subjected to within their working environment. The solution to this is quite straightforward and is easily and quickly resolved by ensuring that extensive PAT testing of electrical items is undertaken on a regular basis. This confirms that equipment is professionally certified as safe for use by a qualified PAT testing technician. If any electrical device fails an initial visual inspection, details will promptly be reported back to the client with a recommended course of action to safely remedy the issue.

Upon a business engaging a PAT Testing expert, it can be helpful if the engineer is made aware of how many portable and fixed items may be encountered before arriving at the premises. Knowing how many appliances will require testing allows the engineer to advise a business of how long this process is likely to take.

It is always helpful for any business that wishes to engage a PAT testing engineer to previously ensure that any foods, liquids and drink items are safely secured away from all electrical devices before inspection commences. To do this before a PAT testing engineer arrives to a business premises will further ensure that there are no unnecessary disturbances to the working day.

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At first glance, when a person hears the expression FAT PAT, it may just sound someone’s overweight friend or family member but the actual explanation of this is so much more important to any successful and conscientious business. The acronym FAT is an abbreviation for Fixed Appliance Testing, while the term PAT means Portable Appliance Testing. Both of these terms are becoming more prevalent in today’s business world and indeed have already become a legal requirement for many business insurance policies. These guidelines seem to be presenting to employers on an ever more frequent basis, but what exactly do these terms mean for business owners and staff, and why are they so significant?

Fixed Appliance Testing is a vital safety requirement that needs to be routinely carried out on any immobile electrical device within a business location. This process needs to be undertaken by a qualified engineer in any office building that has even one fixed or portable electric appliance on the business premises. Often, a company may need to have a number of stationary electrical appliances available for staff to perform tasks within the office building so it is imperative that management are confident that any of these fixed electrical devices can always be safely used by all personnel.

The same testing guidelines also apply to any Portable Electrical Appliances within an office space. These Portable items of office equipment often range from PC’s, Printers, Fax Machines and the ever important Coffee Machine.

To further understand the undertaking of the Appliance Testing procedure, it can be useful for a business to know what this practice should entail.  For both Fixed and Portable items, all units will be bar coded and uniquely identified and a comprehensive asset list with all pass or fail statuses will be made available. A compliance cert should be issued afterwards upon full completion of all tested items.

For any conscientious business that has undertaken to engage an engineer to provide correct certification for its Fixed and Portable Appliance devices, it must ensure that the individual who is undertaking the testing process is fully qualified to do so. Any engineer who has been commissioned to complete these procedures should always make sure that documented proof of their qualifications to perform this process can be made available to any business that may wish to see them. It is also helpful that copies of these documents are provided to any enterprise that has commissioned the Appliance Testing request.

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