Carrying out the Pat Testing

Whoever carries out your Pat Testing if it be your own employee or someone from an external Pat testing company.

The person carrying out the Pat testing needs to be deemed to be competent to undertake the inspection and appropriate, testing of electrical equipment and appliances.

IEE Code of Practice

As stated in the IEE Code of Practice - In order to comply with this the tester must have an understanding of the modes of electrical, mechanical or thermal damage to electrical equipment and appliances and their flexes which may be encountered in a work environment.

Training for testers must include the identification of equipment and appliance types to determine the test procedures and frequency of inspection and testing.

Persons testing must be familiar with the test instruments used and in particular their limitations and restrictions so as to achieve repeatable results without damaging the equipment or the appliance.

Attending a Pat Testing Course

The PAT Testing training will allow you to become a PAT Tester in just one day! A PAT course will run you through the theorical and practical sides of PAT Testing and typically, you can even bring along your own tester.

Completing a one day Course will make you a competent person and you can become a Pat Tester after one day's training.

Skills you should have

It is important to be able to identify Class I and Class II appliances when undertaking PAT testing.

The tests carried out, the frequency of tests and the PASS/FAIL limits all depend on this.

	Class I	Class II
Protection	Uses basic insulation and Earth connection to protect the user.	Uses double insulation (ie basic and supplementary) to protect the user.
How to identify?	Use of an earth connection. Absence of the "double box" symbol.	"Double box" symbol on the rating plate.
Construction	Majority of metal construction though not exclusively.	Majority of plastic construction. May have parts made of metal.
Examples	PC, Electric fire, Kettle	Drill, Hairdryer, Video player
Which is safer?	Depends on the provision of Earth for protection. So Class I is not as safe as Class II.	There is no dependence on outside factors for safety. Class II is inherently a lot safer than Class I.
Earth Bond/Continuity test	Needs to be done to check that this connection is available and is of a low value.	Not applicable to Class II.
Insulation Resistance test	Needs to be carried out.	Needs to be carried out. Pass limit is higher than for Class I.