PA Testing

[The Medway Handyman]

A regular customer (care home) has asked me to do the PA testing for them (at my normal rates). They have the test equipment.

(They used to have a full time maintenance guy, made redundant, cheaper to get someone like me in as & when needed. I'm finding this more & more often in the current climate).

Anywho, do I need to pay to go on a course to get a piece of paper in order to do so? Quite happy to if necessary, but £80 to £390 for a course??

According to this site;

specific qualifications are required to under take the PAT testing, rather that they must be competent to do so. However a City & Guilds

2377 - Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment, qualification is available. The City & Guilds 2377 course has been designed jointly by the IEE and City & Guilds.

And

The IEE Code of Practice states, those carrying out the inspection and testing must be competent to undertake the inspection and, where appropriate, testing of electrical equipment and appliances having due regard of their own safety and that of others. What should be considered is that the 'danger' to be prevented, includes not just the dangers which may arise during the testing procedure to the tester and others, but also the dangers which may arise at a later date as a result of using equipment which has not been effectively tested.

So, provided I know what I'm doing & understand how the equipment works, do I need the course?

[John Williamson]

I'd say definitely, if only to cover you @rse in the unlikely event of something going wrong. If you don't have a piece of paper, the insurance could be very sticky about paying out, which leaves you with lawyers queueing outside your door with papers to serve.

[Owain]

within calibration? And a check box also within calibration?

If you don't have the piece of paper, how do you prove to the coroner's court that you knew what you were doing?

If you do a lot of rented property maintenance, agents are increasingly keen on PAT testing too.

Owain

[Paul - xxx]

Generally yes, if only to prove you're qualified when getting contracts.

It may well also be a requirement of your third-party insurance.

I have C&G but because I haven't renewed it annually for 7 years our school 'buys out' PAT testing too ...

[Tim Watts]

I've never seen anyone with a check box. But the test instrument should have a current calibration cert.

Doing it professionially, yes, I would agree. I did the course a few years back with the IEE in London (now the IET).

[To Dave:]

Sadly the IET has decided to stop running courses.

The one you want is:

PAT testing - City and Guilds 2377-22 "Certificate of Competence for the Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment"

but there are loads offering this course - I would not be surprised if you couldn't find one in or around Maidstone.

300 odd quid is typical for the course and the exam - typically 2 days plus sometimes an extra half day for the exam.

The exam is straighforward - if you can wire stuff up and grok Ohm's Law, you are pretty much home and dry. The Inspection and Testing Guide Book (the "rules" so to speak) is a very thin tome and can be read in an hour or two.

This could be a worthy addition to your skillset as the instrument can be had for a few hundred (anywhere from 300 to 3000 depending, but unless you want to test a massive company with computer uploads and much automation, a basic tester does fine - you just have to record everything manually). It would be fine for small companies and renta-house type testing which could be a cushty number if you can build up a contract base of Letting Agents.

Cheers,

Tim

[Tim Watts]

I'm surprised, as the basic tests are not disimmilar to installation testing.

I do the odd "pat" on my own stuff with a megger - eg insulation test and end-end continuity, mostly on extention leads which get abused and the only thing a megger cannot do is bang a big test current down them in isolation.

But, yes, I agree that visual inspection is half the battle and soemthing anyone can do :)

Cheers,

Tim

[Dave Plowman (News)]

How often can you do that these days?

[thirty-six]

If you need to ask (you have already shown that), then yes. Competence includes remembering it is the IEEE (Institute of Electrikill and Elechronic Engineers).

[Owain]

Mid Kent College do it.

The places which also sell PAT testers (sorry about the tautology but I keep reading the subject line as written as Public Address Testing) are perhaps more likely to have a wider selection of testers to play with and decide what sort you like than a tech college

Owain

[Tim Watts]

do I need the course?

They are called the IET. They used to be called the IEE. They've *never* been called the IEEE - someone else entirely.

[Tim Watts]

Seaward testers are a pretty decent brand.

[charles]

from across the 'pond'

[Brian Gaff]

Although our gear at the talking newspaper studio was done by a bloke from the council and all he had was a checklist and told us nobody needed any qualifications but just the list.

Brian

[Huge]

I have *never* seen a PAT tester do that.

[Tim Watts]

It's true. I've never seen anyone do that other than a couple of colleagues and myself who were trained but did it as a secondary role.

Which is rather disturbing...

[Newshound]

I have

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I would if it looked home fitted. Or the equipment was so old it likely had been.

[Graham.]

I threw an electrical appliance into a pond once. it went WEEEEEEE...

[Davey]

Not being familiar with the current terminology, and having recently returned from the US where 'PA' is used instead of the English term 'Tannoy', that is what I thought the original thread message was referring to. Then I wondered why there was so much involved in testing it. Now all is clear. I can put away my earplugs now. Thanks.

--=20 Davey.

[fred]

In article , Davey writes

TMH was correctly avoiding the Portable Appliance Testing testing error cf PIN number error.

Unfortunately these acronyms were chosen badly as they don't stand well on their own without the extra ref.