Who is the governing body for this? Where do you have to go t get a certificate, how long does ittake and how much does it cost?

Does it only apply to larger equipment with an output above a certain level and of defined proportions?

Any advice and information gratefully received.

It's a Health and Safety requirement that all portable appliances used by the public or in the vicinity of the public have to be tested by a competant person for electrical safety on an annual basis*.

Most local electricians / electrical contractors should be able to do this for you, if in doubt check the yellow pages or ask at a local electrical wholesaler for the name of a local company.


Some people buy the PAT tester itself, and test their own electrical equipment, and providing that you can demonstrate and understand basic test principles and electrical safety there is no law stopping you from doing your own. However this would only be cost effective if you had a lot of equipment, or hired equipment out to the public on a regular basis.

Any decent local electrician will be able to test your gear for you within a day, make sure that they are aware that you also need a certificate of test. Cost depends on the area and the electrician and also the number of items to test. A rough estimate would be between £60 and £120 in total.



*Annual, unless otherwise stated. Hire equipment has to be tested everytime it goes out on hire.

There is a lot of information about PAT testing on this forum, please try the search facility with the word PAT.

I notice from your web site that you have 10 years experience & full public liability insurance, Please note your insurance company will wriggle like a worm on a hook if the worst was to happen. Without PAT testing you are not complying with the LAW (HSE Electricity at Work Act 1989.) and as such, IF someone was to make a claim against you the insurance company would be within their rites make your policy null and void.

Pat testing pricing can very considerably from place to place we have had quotes from £1.30 per item to £5 per item, some places will come to you and charge a block price ie £60 for up to 100 items.
There are a few people on this forum who do their own PAT testing & I’m sure they will be along soon to give you more information.

Although I have been doing this for 10 years on and off, I have previously used the equipment provided at venues. I have only recently bought my own equipment as the need has only recently arisen.

Does it need to be certified immediately or only after it is a year old. i.e is it assumed to be safe in its first year?

If the equipment has been supplied with a certificate that details the factories' quality control test passes and the required PAT test information is on there, then you don't need to test it until 12 months from the date on the certificate - i.e the Date of Manufacture.

If this information isn't supplied with the product, then it really should be tested from the word go

You can check all details on PAT at the IEEE web site (don't ask me for the address, I've um, mislaid it). All kit needs testing from day one as there is no agreement between manufactures and the goverment, unlike the motor industry.

A course at your local college will cost about £250, but this dosn't qualify you to "go into business" only to check your employers (your own) kit.

If you want to do it as a job, then the IEEE run a course in London, and I believe it costs about £4,500.

Costs per item worst I've heard of is in West London £20 per item, my local electrical company charge £6 per item, I charge £3.00 per item with a discount to NADJ, MU and DJU members.

Great!

Fancy a cuppa tea and a slice of cake one evening after Plasa....

If you gotta come to plasa every year you might as well test all my bits and bobs

You can buy a box standard Pt tester for around £250 but it has to be sent away to the manufacturers to be calibrated every year at a cost of around £60.

My full time job is a studio lighting service engineer and anything that plugs into mains electricity has to be tested (including extension leads) and is classed as a light goods item (class II)

These have to be tested using a class II tester, if you buy one that tests both class I&II DO NOT test your disco gear as class I as you will more than likely blow it.

If a unit uses a power adaptor is does not need to be tested but the adaptor does.

Any item with a CE label (certificate of european conformity) on it does not have to be tested within the manufacturers guarentee but is best to just in case.

I do around 50 class I PATS a day using a Robin Smart Pat 200. The unit is labelled as passed, signed & delivered back to the customer. We keep the printouts as a record at the dept.

If you employ a tester to do your gear make sure his equipment is IT safe as it might cause damage to microprocessor items such as CD players etc.

To be perfectly honest it's just another red tape thing, just cause it's safe today, doesn't mean it's safe next week!!