Electrical Safety Testing UK Ltd

An important part of a maintenance regime is the formal visual inspection of electrical equipment by a trained person. Basic user checks should be carried out by the person using the equipment to identify obvious defects or damage, but formal visual inspections are also necessary because they can reveal the majority of potentially dangerous faults. Visual inspections can be the precursor to electrical testing which is designed to highlight ‘invisible’ electrical faults or dangers. This is a process of simply inspecting the appliance, the cable and the plug for any obvious signs of damage as well as making sure the item works as it should i.e. turn on/off, heats up etc. Functional testing would be performed last to ensure that the equipment is working correctly. This test is carried out on Class I and Class II appliances during PAT Testing. The purpose of this test is to ensure that there is adequate insulation between the Live parts of the appliances and the user touchable metal parts. Adequate insulation is defined as greater than 1 M ohm for Class I appliances and 2 M ohm for Class II appliances.