PAT or EICR

[nicck]

In a residential property, in Scotland and I believe now in England. There has to be an EICR and pat done.

Where would items like integrated fridges or washing machines be tested.

Specifically I am thinking of items which are plugged in but their socket is not accessible by the tennant without dismantling the kitchen furniture and hauling out the appliance.
The socket receives its power via a fused switch that is tennant accessible.

 

[flameport]

An EICR covers fixed wiring only, not appliances.
A fridge and washing machine would not be included.

 

[winston1]

The socket receives its power via a fused switch that is tennant accessible.

That is pointless as the appliance plug has a fuse.

 

[ericmark]

As said by @flameport the EICR should be fixed wiring only, the immersion heater, oven, fridge are all appliances, however they are not portable either, so I know the electrical safety council with their best practice guide 4 list wrong type of thermostat on an immersion heater, and extension leads running through door ways as unsatisfactory with an EICR.

All must be tested, but I don't know how Scottish law is worded. What we refer to as PAT testing is really called "The inspection and testing of in service electrical equipment" which would include a concrete batching plant which is transported using 22 wagons, and no one is going to test that at £2 per item.

I think where I live in Wales the EICR is only for premises with multi occupancy, but in the main laws are poorly written, and then court cases build up case law, I don't know about you, but I don't want to be involved in developing case law.

In Wales it says the person doing the test must be qualified to level 3 or better, so clearly has to have gone to collage, it does not say what level 3 they need, but sure it does not include art, so one would assume C&G 2391, can't off hand remember the two numbers for PAT testing and management. I think in Scotland you have to show resent training?

But the easy way is use same firm or guy for both, and stipulate all electrical installation and equipment must be tested to the standard required by law. i.e. a get out of jail free card.

 

[ericmark]

Many places where I worked there was a problem with electricians trying to say it was the other guys job. The inspection and testing of in-service electrical equipment has lists, the appliance list shows every items on the premises, there is also an out of service list and returned to service list, but in theory we were suppose to find every item on the list and test it, however items would be disposed of, and new items brought onto the premises and these caused a waste of time hunting for some thing that it not exist, and of course missing the testing of new items.

There are two exams for inspection and testing of in-service electrical equipment one to manage and one to actually do the job, neither really hard exams, but for the installation the exam was rather tough and many electricians failed the C&G2391 first time around. So the so called PAT testing, silly name as the T in PAT stands for testing, was often done by some one semi-skilled, and for an item they can plug into the testing machine it was not really a skilled job, the normal was for an electrician to do first test so he decided what needed testing, then a semi skilled guy took over, and the machine would prompt him as to what needed testing.

However with things like hand driers and immersion heaters they needed disconnecting to test, and in some cases needed two guys to ensure not turned on while being tested. Again theory we should have had locks to fit all MCB's but often the clips simply did not fit. So there was a trade off, with an extension lead clipped to the wall it was technically fixed insulation, but if it had a plug the PAT test guy did it, and the fixed installation guy did fixed items like the immersion heater.

Even then there were items like the cold drinks machine where we did not have the key, so these were on a service contract that included all inspection and testing. The HSE inspectors seemed happy with this.

However the time scale was based on the IET books so for example a computer would likely have a 4 year ticket and a hand grinder may have had a 3 months ticket, premises were the same and the private house had a recommended time of 10 years or change of occupant, it would seem the laws brought out in all three countries expect a higher frequency testing, and there are arguments in many forums as to what should be tested, and to what standard.

So a report made for a owner occupied house should be same as rented, but in real terms it's not, as the electrician is happy to give advice to owner occupied but put the same advice on an EICR for rented and the tenants can start demanding to have unnecessary work done.

I am sure it will settle down, but at the moment its going daft, we were always advised find some thing wrong, as if there is some thing wrong, then your not the last guy to work on the installation, so if you miss some thing you can shift the blame, to me a rotten way to work but I know it is done.