What does the upcoming 5th edition of the PAT inspection code of practice mean for your businesses?

The 5th edition of the Code of Practice of In-service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment from the IET (Institute of Engineering and Technology) is set to come out next week and will be making changes to how PAT inspections are carried out as well as what equipment they need to be carried out on and when.

This post will hopefully get you excited [Ed: Really?] about the changes we saw from a quick skim of the draft version. Look out for an update from us once we have the published document! 

The biggest thing to point out, is that this new version doesn’t fundamentally change the PAT inspection. It will not require all staff to do a two-month course with completely new working practices. It, however, does clear up some ambiguities and close some gaps.

One of the more interesting updates in this edition is the loss the words ‘portable’ and ‘appliance’. [Ed: Does this spell the end of the OCD triggering ‘Portable Appliance Test’ Test?] Seemingly this is a move to close the gap between Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) and traditional PAT inspections, but we are curious how companies will fill this gap in practice. There is also removal of terms ‘stationary’, ‘portable’, ‘fixed’ and ‘moveable’, allowing more clarity on exactly what equipment needs to be tested. 

Whilst not so relevant for the events industry, engineers inspecting lower risk sites such as offices and schools will see a big change with the better clarification on testing electrical equipment that has a functional earth (I.e. laptop power-supply unit) rather than a protective one. Previously, because it has an earth connection, it would have been considered a Class 1 appliance, even though it’s not possible to do any meaningful tests on it as there are no exposed conductive parts. With this new update, these can now be marked Class 2 FE and will only need a visual inspection. 

Insulation testing voltage has been revised, taking into account the design of modern electronic equipment, as has selecting of the Earth Bond current level.  

There has been a complete rework of the frequency of testing in this upcoming edition - which will be interesting to see how inspection companies charge for work if they need to do fewer tests. 

Overall, our first look opinion of the 5th edition is that it will resolve many bugbears and remove room for interpretation where unscrupulous companies have pointed their advice towards their commercial interests rather than safety. Other changes reflect advances in the equipment being tested. All of which are a good thing. [Ed: Even if it has lost its name.] 

For more information see: IET Electrical Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing off electrical equipment 

Buy the full Code of Practice at: https://shop.theiet.org/code-of-practice-for-in-service-inspection-and-testing-of-electrical-equipment-5th-edition

Published 08 October 2020 14:25 by Dawn Richards