[OT] Universities and PAT certificates

[whisky-dave]

That would depend on whose checking the certs I'd say any 5+ digit number would pass a 'check' here.

[Dave Liquorice]

appropriate

Yep easy to come by stickers and anybody has a pen. Though the person doing the inspection and testing ought to be traceable (and thus the records of the inspection/test)from the info on the label.

lathe,

portable

Yep.

[whisky-dave]

Maybe that;s why we have a technicain called Patricia , so anyhting she tests will be PAT tested, I've also warned her about wearing her name on a T-shirt which says Pat ;-)

I was just following instructions would be my plea ;-)

[whisky-dave]

during our previous PAT testing session it;s the lectures and researchers offices where most things get failed. You'd think that such peole in an electrical engineering department but they'll but a kettle, convection heater, PC & printer all on the ssame 4-6 way block, and if there's not enough sockets they'll add another.

Most nowerdays do seem rather light weight in construction.

[Dave Liquorice]

Disagree the sticker is to show the appliance was, at some point, "safe".

In a work enviroment everything ought to have a sticker. Yes it's a bit daft for the factories aircon plant but there still needs to be some indication to the "end user" that the "appliance" has had and passed an "In-Service Inspection And Testing Of Electrical Equipment" examination.

The frequency of inspection and/or testing is now a little more sensible than the blanket every year. The factories aircon may only need to be inspected and tested say every 5 years but the kettle in the tea room could arguably be on a recorded inspection every three months and inspection/test every six months.

[Dave Liquorice]

The Lad went off to Uni last year (Durham), I don't remember a requirement for stuff to be tested before hand and certainly didn't get anything tested. However stickers appeared on things fairly quickly after he started.

Also the period between inspections and/or testing is now related to the use of the "appliance". Something hard wired in and not touched or subject to adverse conditions/use can have, say, a 5 year cycle. Something that gets moved, used, connected/disconnected, packed/unpacked a lot ought to have an offical(*) inspection every few months and a test perhaps evryother inspection.

(*) Everyone ought to do a visual inspection before connecting anything and not use it if it fails that inspection. Most of the population aren't very good at this though, judging by what one sees people using.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Get some new kettles. You'd be hard pressed to find a 3kw one these days. ;-)

[Tim+]

Eh? No shortage of them on Amazon.

Tim

[John Rumm]

I had a brand new one from Tesco the other day that did not work out of the packet. A quick test showed no continuity between neutral busbar in the 4 way socket and the plug.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Not everyone shops at Amazon. ;-) Two 2.5 kW kettles should be happy enough on a double socket.

[Martin Brown]

Modern portable appliances are supposed to be limited to 2.4kW to make allowances for the failings of cheap and cheerful modern mains sockets.

[Tim+]

I never said they did. Just pointing out that one isn?t hard pressed to find 3kW kettles.

Tim

[Andrew]

Can't wait for Railway Cos to try and enforce this on passengers using power sockets

[Andrew]

I'd be more concerned about the bushmeat and other food items that their parents had packed into their suitcases (assuming they got past the sniffer dogs at the airport).

[nightjar]

In the case of my factories, for fixed equipment, that indication was contained in the equipment maintenance log, which was held in a pocket attached to the equipment. The inspection sheet not only showed the date of inspection and who inspected it (me), it also had an itemised list of everything that needed to be inspected on that particular piece of equipment. That included mechanical as well as electrical inspections. Each item also had space for comments on condition, if less than perfect, and any action required. There was also a record in the log of all routine and non-routine maintenance work.

As some equipment was in clean areas, which required that work be stopped for an inspection and the area physically cleaned after it, inspections were done to a rigid timetable, so there also was no need for a reminder of when the next inspection was due, although that was shown on the central copies of each log.

Was it ever a rigid 12 month period? I thought that was just something the companies selling PAT services claimed in order to help sell their services.

[Andrew]

About 15 years ago, when working at Hammersmith, one lunch hour I was walking back through the residential back streets and someone was charging a G Wizz from the front window of a ground floor flat of a posh mansion block.

Two or three extension leads with 4-way terminal blocks were plugged end to end and, up a bush at the front to about 6 feet up then across to a lamppost and down to the 'car'.

[Robin]

Who says?

And John Lewis seem not to give a fig as they have 38 kettles rated 3 kW for sale on their site

[Andrew]

Get a single proper Tea Urn ?

[Andrew]

My Sainsburys one says 220-240 Volts, 2550-3000Watts.

I used to have 245 volts but these days it seems to be stuck at 223-225 volts.

The 240 volt 60 watt woolworths light bulb in the bathroom is now 28 years old :-)

[whisky-dave]

I've not heard that, I just checked ao.com where I bought a 3KW kettle last year.

more than 1/2 of them are 3Kw.