{"id":73,"date":"2013-04-18T12:04:38","date_gmt":"2013-04-18T11:04:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/77.104.130.18\/~instrote\/blog\/?p=73"},"modified":"2016-09-09T12:09:05","modified_gmt":"2016-09-09T11:09:05","slug":"what-are-the-changes-to-the-iee-code-of-practice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/what-are-the-changes-to-the-iee-code-of-practice\/","title":{"rendered":"What are the Changes to the IEE Code of Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"

“When it comes to PAT Testing and the 4th Edition of the IEE Code of Practice, there has been a lot of uncertainty about the recommendations and who is responsible for what. Some appliances may not need testing at all, whereas others may need testing more frequently. Ultimately it is the responsibility of the duty holder to determine the test frequency, however they may seek advice from their PAT contractor in regard to the risk level and requirement to test, but the duty holder still remains responsible regardless.<\/p>\n


\n\"ieepats4\"\"\"<\/center> <\/p>\n

The Risk Based Approach<\/b><\/p>\n

In truth, this has always been the recommendation by the IEE. There is a common misconception that all appliances should be tested annually, however if you consider the recommendations for test frequency in table 7.1 of the Code of Practice, you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see that even in older editions, the test frequency would range from 3 months to 2+ years and in some cases no formal electrical test was required at all.<\/p>\n

The revised edition has extended some of the recommended times even further (up to 60 months in some cases) and also recommends that tests & inspections should be reviewed regularly to see if the intervals should be reduced or increased.<\/p>\n

The requirement for maintaining electrical equipment is as follows:<\/p>\n

“”Electrical equipment is required to be properly maintained to prevent danger. Inspections are necessary and testing may also be required.””<\/p>\n

Further to this, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 state:<\/p>\n

“”Every employer shall make a suitable and sufficient assessment of:<\/p>\n

(a) The risks to the health and safety of his employees to which they are exposed while they are at work, and<\/p>\n

(b) The risks to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in connection with the conduct by him of his undertaking.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

So, in short, the appliances and the environments they are used in, should be risk assessed and the necessary testing frequency set based on the risk level. For instance, appliances that are in an office environment, such as PCs and printers, would be a lower risk level than appliances such as powertools that are used outdoors and in harsher environments.<\/p>\n

So what are some of the other changes to the Code of Practice<\/a>?<\/p>\n

Labelling<\/b><\/p>\n

Whilst labelling is not a requirement, it is recommended good practice. The new edition states that re-test periods are no longer put onto test labels, because the test and inspection frequency is subject to regular review and change, the exclusion of the re-test date is there to ensure this will be done and also to ensure outside contractors do not impose a too frequent re-test regime.<\/p>\n

Fixed Equipment<\/b><\/p>\n

Further clarification has been offered on the testing of fixed equipment. Where possible this should be tested and inspected at relevant intervals, however this should be carried out by a competent person, which the Code of Practice defines as follows:<\/p>\n

“”The inspector must be competent to carry out safe isolation procedures in all cases<\/a>“”.<\/p>\n

The inspector must be competent to carry out this more complex arrangement of work<\/p>\n

The inspector must ensure safe systems of work are observed at all times<\/p>\n

The inspector must ensure all inspections and tests are relevant to the classes of equipment as described in the Code of Practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In short, any fixed appliances that are being electrically tested, where the appliance would need disconnecting from the mains supply, should be done by a qualified person.<\/p>\n

Microwave Leakage Testing<\/b><\/p>\n

This has been removed from the Code of Practice altogether, however this does not mean it should not be done at all. The key reason this was taken out was due to the fact the leakage test is a secondary test and not a test of the electrical safety of the appliance.<\/p>\n

Whilst there are a number of cheaper microwave leakage testers on the market, these often give spurious and inconsistent readings therefore anyone carrying out this test should ensure they have an accurate, calibrated tester. If you are carrying our this particular test, we would recommend using something like the Martindale TEK500<\/a> (Which featured in the 3rd Edition of the Code of Practice).”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A risk based approach, changes to labels, testing frequency and more – we explain some of the key changes to the IEE Code of Practice 4th Edition.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pat-testing"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/09\/IEEPATS4_large.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7Siyi-1b","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":196,"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/196"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/instrotech.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}