6 February Electrical Safety: An Introduction This blog post identifies simple steps to electrical safety. Electricity can kill and can cause serious injuries and fires. The main causes of harm from electricity and electrical equipment are: Electrocution (death) Electric shock Electrical fire Slips, trips and falls from cables The basis of electrical safety can be a fairly straightforward for most businesses. The process is made up from some simple steps: Fixed electrical installation Portable electrical appliances Cable management With respect to electrical safety, the aim of the Employer can be broken down into the following concepts, which will help achieve the steps outlined above: Providing a safe workplace with safe electrical installations Providing safe electrical equipment (both portable and fixed) that can be plugged into the fixed system Providing suitable training / instruction in the safe use of the electrical installations and equipment to worker Implementing some simple checks Fixed Electrical Installation The HSE recommend that fixed electrical installations are tested and inspected by a competent person (such as an ECA or NICEIC accredited electrician) and determined to be satisfactory. The certification lasts for differing periods depending on the nature of the premises, and this can also be affected by poor installations. The general recommended inspection schedules are: Domestic – every ten years Commercial – every five years Industrial – every three years Places of entertainment (such as theatres and music venues) – every year Often, the documentation indicates remedial works on the fixed installation that should be completed. There are different categories for this remedial works: C1: Danger present. Risk of injury. Immediate remedial action required. C2: Not as severe as a C1, but is still a potentially dangerous defect. They may not pose an immediate threat but are likely to become a danger in the future. A C2 is described as Potentially dangerous – urgent remedial action required. C3: Improvement recommended – something has been identified which does not comply with the latest regulations but isn’t actually dangerous. Unsatisfactory Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR) C1 and C2 issues attract an unsatisfactory report rating. It is necessary to rectify these defects in order to demonstrate compliance. Other testing for fixed installations There are additional checks and inspections that may need to be considered, especially for industrial installations, such as Thermal Imaging (or thermography). Thermography is a method of inspecting electrical (and mechanical) equipment by obtaining heat distribution pictures. This inspection method is based on the fact that most components in a system show an increase in temperature when malfunctioning. Again, the condition reports will contain recommendations and remedial actions that should be addressed. In some cases, insurers will require thermography to be carried out annually for certain installations but they will advise on this. Having confirmed that the fixed electrical installation is safe, we can begin to look at what we may wish to plug into it. Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) Portable Appliance Testing (PAT) describes the examination of electrical appliances and equipment (by a competent person) to ensure they are safe to use. It should not be used in isolation. As many faults can be discovered by visual checks, PAT should be accompanied by regular visual examination by the users or by an appointed person. This should be supported by training and instruction. Therefore PAT demonstrates that the equipment is safe (at the time of testing), while additional visual checks show that there is no reason to consider that the equipment has deteriorated. How frequently should Portable Appliance Testing be carried out? The frequency of PAT is based on Risk Assessment and will vary from business to business based on the environment and the type of equipment being used. Items such as PCs (which are not moved) can be inspected less frequently than items that are moved (or pulled by cables), such as vacuum cleaners. The HSE have published useful guidance for frequency of examination on page 17 of their ‘Maintaining Portable Electrical Equipment document:’ which can be found here >> Portable Appliance Inventory In order to manage portable appliances, it may be useful to have a simple inventory of equipment that is accurate, up to date, and which shows the compliance status of equipment. Ensure any new equipment is added to this inventory, and remove an unsafe equipment from service and identify it on the inventory. Find out more If you have any questions about electrical safety, get in touch to find out how LRB Consulting can help.