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Quick fix power distro?

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MattStolton View Drop Down
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote MattStolton Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 January 2017 at 1:07pm
Originally posted by shagnasty shagnasty wrote:

PA Testing is in real terms a joke for gigs.

 
See you right on that one, especially since 4th Ed, Nov 2012.

For those that don't know, the big thing for peeps like us, is that "hired" equipment is now outside the remit of the IET 4th Ed PAT regs!!!!

PAT regs for hired equipment, is now overseen by the HAE - http://www.hae.org.uk, a body solely set up for the Plant Hire industry, by the plant hire industry, to right their own rules and best practice regs.

If you consider the environment that a "portable appliance" is most likely to incur damage to make it unsafe, or an environment where there are the least knowledgeable and shonkeist of practitioners, Plant Hire has to be it. And now they get to right there own rules on PAT?

PA, AV and lights technically come under the EHA - http://www.eha.org.uk, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the HAE.....

PAT is, sort of, one way of demonstrating maintenance of electrical equipment. PAT is not legally binding, but Electricity at work act, is. EWA requires you to maintain, and prove maintenance of electrical plant. Electrocute someone, and the breach of EWA will the thing that gets you imprisoned or fined, not IET PAT or 17th Ed Reg, or BS7909. However, if you can prove you followed IET PAT, 17th or BS7909, you may be able to minimise your time inside, or the fine imposed.

To question of qualifications, this is more grey. 17th has recently changed wording from a "Competent" person to a "Skilled" person. Doesn't mention qualifications per-se, but a qualification (C&G or whatever) and experience, would led to skill?

Either way, PAT, 17th or BS7909, require planning, understanding, skill, and then measuring. PAT perhaps less so, but you get the idea. Competent/Skilled measuring, and understanding the results, is probably one of the most critical bits. Means if you F up the planning and design, or it is installed by a dick, you spot the screw up before anyone uses it.

Experience and understanding, particularly of what to measure, why you are measuring it, and what a good or bad result looks like, I would say are absolutely critical. Difficult to learn that solely from a book or C&G course. Hence why sparkies do apprenticeships.
Matt Stolton - Technical Director (!!!) - Wilding Sound Ltd
"Sparkius metiretur vestra" - "Meter Your Mains"
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote dylan-penguinmedia Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 14 January 2017 at 1:17pm
Originally posted by MattStolton MattStolton wrote:

Experience and understanding, particularly of what to measure, why you are measuring it, and what a good or bad result looks like, I would say are absolutely critical. Difficult to learn that solely from a book or C&G course. Hence why sparkies do apprenticeships.

Too true.

Back in my previous life many moons ago as a sparks, I did the electrical work for my local.
Landlord played golf, so did the local plumber, so they became pally. He went and did his Part P wossname as all that jazz kicked in, just as i was coming out of it all, so he took over the work. Ended up doing a full test on the pub, landlord paid the money, all was happy. 'Til the pub nearly burned down, issue with the supply cable under the car park. Not directly an issue with the installation, but all the loop readings were sky high, barely any of them passing. 
Now, if he knew what the pretty numbers were that he was writing in his new certificate book, he would have known that strange things were afoot - however, he was a plumber - so all he knew was that water flowed downhill, and payday was Friday. Could have been avoided. 

Luckily, UKPN took responsibility and all the work got done on insurance. I told landlord to hide those certs like they were never written as it'd land his mate in serious shit.
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