Any ideas on reasonable charges for PAT testing ?
Friend of mine has a market stall. Market rules now require all electricals to be tested by their visiting PAT testing chap. Prices are per-item tested, and seem excessive IMHO. What would the team think was reasonable ?
It's a long time since I looked at this, but the figure I have at the back of my mind was £6/item, which included minor repairs (such as making something pass if it just needed the plug refitting to do so), and included the cost of new plugs on up to 10% of appliances tested (any more than that and the plugs were charged for extra). It was a figure for bulk testing (one-offs would be more) but it would not include the record keeping, which is not relevant in this case.
I would say that it was unreasonable to insist that one particular electrician had to carry out the work -- anyone with C&G 2377/02 certificate should be able to do the work, and it is specifically intended that this can be done by non-electricians. If you are being forced to use one electrician, be bloody minded and insist on seeing his C&G 2377/02 certificate (Certificate of Competence for the Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment) - claim your insurance company requires a photocopy of the certificate or some such;-). Most electricians do not have this, and have no clue how to perform PAT testing. If he starts the test by connecting the appliance to a PAT tester, then he isn't competent to perform PAT testing -- that's something you can easily spot.
If your friend sells many electrical goods, is competent at wiring plugs, and knows the difference between millohms and megohms (that's the bit which many electricians seem to have a problem with), he should do the course and exam himself (takes 2 days and evenings), and then buy a suitable PAT tester.
So £20 / item would be excessive ?
No. 8-) They do have a fair few extension leads and lights though, all of which needed testing.
I'm thinking of doing this myself. A S/H PAT tester would seem to pay for itself pretty quickly, just from cost-savings.
I've got a robin Smartpat 5000 for sale for £250 ono.
And £160 for eight items is a rip off, should be nearer £50 - £60, because of the few items.
Steve Dawson
Possibly not for a one-off, but I'm out of date on such pricing. One Art Deco shop I know sells all its original electrical items as non-working and needing rewiring. I guess that's their way around this.
If he is a charity, he might find an electrician who will PAT test the appliances for free. I used to know one who did this for a charity shop.
You'll also need to get it calibrated, and to have appropriate professional insurance cover, depending on what you're using it for.
Hi,
What does a PAT tester do, does it test the insulation between L/N and E? What about double insulated appliances in that case?
If the OPs friend got the kit and qualifications for PAT testing he could make the cost back doing PAT testing for other traders.
cheers, Pete.
What are the record keeping and traceability requirements? I assume these would be needed if defending a claim.
They are part of a periodic inspection regime. Firstly, the existance of them would be very useful to show an employer is taking seriously their legal requirement to provide a safe workplace. An appliance might still fail and injure/kill someone, but this goes some way towards showing, at least in this respect, the employer was not being negligent. Secondly, you can look at measurement trends. An appliance might still be within spec, but if its insulation resistance has dropped by a factor of 10 since the last measurement, this should ring alarm bells. It would be reason to investigate further, and either fail the test or require retest at a much shorter interval, or a service and repair. Without records, you will have no indication of an impending problem. Thirdly, the amount of wear/tear/damage/faults can be monitored, and you could use this information to decide that less frequent testing is required with a consequent reduction in costs, or that more testing is required or a more rugged version of the appliance is required.
Is there a law that says all Portable Appliances need to be Tested? If so - please educate me - Thanks Rich
Methinks it is just people scaremongering and making money!
More bullshitt
That's a £32 kettle. Even though it's new, it still needs a Magic Sticker if it's to be used on site. It's even crazier when you apply this £20 test to a £4 extension lead.
I'm also unimpressed by the quality of this overpriced testing. One extension lead showed clear signs of past overheating near a socket - I condemned that one myself on a visual inspection, as the contacts weren't making a good low-impedance connection.
Doesn't matter. It only matters if the market's manager and maybe their insurers are affected. They get to make the rules.
No specific law, But the Health & Safety At Work Act, Electricity At Work Act, and Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations would be used in a prosecution to prove neglience in the event of an accident.
Stephen Dawson
Yes, if the tester is on site anyway and doing multiple items. When my father moved into a residential home all his electrical items had to be tested. I was pleasantly surprised at how cheap it was, something like £3.50 per item plus VAT. There was no extra charge "call-out" charge either.
Ring round a few electricians and get some quotes.
MBQ
Another good question would be the huge number of extension leads needed, and whether the provision of fixed electrics and the number of sockets was basically inadequate. But of course they'd need to be provided by the market, PAT testing charges hit the stallholder.
If you're talking about a regular domestic kettle used in a workplace, I would suggest that should be tested every 3 months, at least until your record keeping can show that a longer period would be satisfactory. It's not really an appropriate appliance for the workplace, and it would be much better to provide a wall-mounted kettle for such an environment which is designed for a much higher workload, depending on the number of people using it, and this would need far less frequent testing.
The buying new and replacing often strategy is a viable one in many cases. Some items of IT equipment have a recommended test period of every 4 years, and you could decide you will dispose of them at 4 years old anyway since they will be verging on obsolete rather than test them. This is still something to record in your records though, so you can justify why you are not PAT testing them, and it's not just down to negligence.
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