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Re: Electrical Safety & Legal Legislation
This I think youll find is a legal requirement and that the results are documented.
Does anyone know if this is written anywhere ? The manufacturers own service departments & engineers have written instructions about safety tests but I have had a scout round the net and can find no specifc rules about what we are legally required to do. Obviosuly the people who made the rules for the above must base their requirements on some point of reference either legal , technical or more likely both.
I can rememeber joining my last company with 270 Service engineers, the first thing that was communicated to us all was that of the safety checks being done and for those who did not their job was at stake without any exceptions. Why after performing repairs we had technical supervisors who would on occassion without warning track you during the days work, they would go in and access the work that you had just done and if you had missed or not bothered to perform these checks that was real trouble, even the clever ones who thought that would just fill in the numbers came unstuck.
With trading standards and cowboy stings being common place these days its a wonder we are not all paranoid. But it each to their own in this subject as I see it, lets hope that if anyone comes unstuck although they may not be adept at using the tools for the diagnostics they will be able to argue the point with a hawk eyed quick thinking barrister.
Shiver me timbers !
Re: Electrical Safety & Legal Legislation
I use a Martindale Polarity Tester which gives the engineer or repairman information from the off. You can also check that you have a good earth by checking continuity from the earth on the appliance under test to nearby plumbing, I’ve had a couple fo situations where plastic piping has been installed which caused loss of earth to the Kitchen area and that test established that ,as did the day I found that the polarity was wrong due to a nail being knocked through a wall into the power supplyin another oart of the house. At the time the customer was having remedial electrical work being carried out and there was a spark on site working. When I told him of my findings he did not at first believe it. But when he actually checked he confimed my findings, that one always worried me as he was going to leave that particular installation like that !
I can understand the comments on how far do you go, its not our fault that there could be dodgy wiring in a customers house, but we should at least be aware of what we are working on and for me its a matter of course that I test.
Its interesting to see how each of us works along with our theories, it make the world go round
Re: Electrical Safety & Legal Legislation
I like the comparison with the annaul MOT test, the logic that it was alright when I tested it. I am not talking about six months after the repair but the days and immediate weeks that follow any repair. If it can be proven that an engineer left a dangerous appliance either by not testing or by leaving such a fault him/herself then the Health & Safety Excutive would be the body to next look at your repair and working practices.
In the real world I know that we all get pressed for time and I am very familair with doing 12 or 13 calls a day travelling some 150 miles, I used to work directly for a manufacturer for five years. They had a policy that EVERY repair WOULD be tested and the result recorded on the worksheet.
It cannot be a matter of chance but they realised that should an incident happen then it would be their engineer and them that would be under the spotlight. Personally for the sake of 10 mins extra I do these checks as if there were to be a serious problem loosing a fiver may well be the least of my worries compared to a large finacial claim and litigation against my company, Public Liablity Insurance may even be in question if it could be shown that the company or its staff failed to ensure even basic safety rules.Yikes ! Its time I stopped going on, we all know the score, dont’ we ?
Re: Electrical Safety & Legal Legislation
Of course that goes without saying does it not ! the electrical integrity of the ring supply must 100{e5d1b7155a01ef1f3b9c9968eaba33524ee81600d00d4be2b4d93ac2e58cec2d} with the correct polarity and earth.
I was making the point that NO test was being performed either on the appliance under repair or a polarity check on the ring. If the insulation is faulty on a appliance the insulation test would reveal that fact as would a check of the ring. As I see it the responsibilty is upon the service technican to ensure that a full test is performed at the outset of a repair and again upon completion of that repair.
Not only are you then protecting your own personal safety but that of the customer. In any event if a incident were to occur following a repair, the person who performed that repair would be the last person to have touched that faulty appliance and I would say that as that person was engaged as a professional competent person he/she would in the eyes of the law be responsible for failing to ensure that the appliance was left in a safe condition.
I can recollect not so many years ago a Heating Engineer who performed service work on a boiler system. That system had a serious earthing problem which due to the type of consumer unit fitted failed to show the problem in the obvious ways. The engineer had NOT performed the relevant safety checks and that failure resulted in the death of the householder! . That death would have been avoided had the engineer performed such tests without question.
Needless to say that the H & E became involved and subsequent tests showed that the engineer had failed to carry out any safety tests on that installation and had been incompetent also. That engineer was charged with manslaughter !
How many of us carry out these tests I wonder ? What are the legal implications of our work ? Can we be complacent ?
