What many people do not realise about portable appliance testing is that you do not need to be a trained electrician to perform such a test. The law simply states that such testing must be carried out by a competent person. This leaves a huge amount of potential interpretation as to what actually constitutes a competent person.
The easiest way to learn how to perform a PAT test is to take a course and receive official training. However, the cost of such a course can often be far higher than employing an outside company to do the portable appliance testing for you. Therefore, unless you can be sure that those you are sending on such a course are going to be with your company for a very long time, finding a company that specialises in electrical testing and inspection is likely to be a much better option.
Not only will this save you money in training a person to be ‘competent’ but you will also save money on having to buy any relevant equipment that may be needed to test certain appliances.
Should you see electrical problems down the line, having had a PAT test by an outside company will ensure you are covered legally, whilst utilising someone in your own company to do the same could leave you open to questions about the fairness and quality of the electrical testing and inspection that was carried out.
PAT testers can also be expensive to buy and knowing exactly how they are used and whether they are working in the right way will also be extremely important. So whilst, technically, anyone can carry out a PAT test in the UK, making sure someone is competent to do so might not be as straight forward as it seems.
The best way to carry out such a test will be to have extensive training, or to save yourself money, time and hassle and just utilise an outside company to get the job done quickly for you.
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