Electrical Safety Inspection: the Visual and the Test

Use the form below: inspect the equipment line by line, record the test results in the test table, set the next due dates from the schedule, and print the report. The visual checklist covers the items that kill — the cable, the plug, the RCD, the connection — and the test table is the record the electrician and the inspector both work from.

How to use the tool

1. Set the site, the date, the inspector — the report header
2. Work the visual checklist — the socket and the DB first, then the equipment line by line: the cable, the plug, the earth, the rating, the RCD
3. Record each test in the test table — the method, the result, the pass or fail, the date
4. Set the next due date from the periodic schedule — the frequency is set by the equipment risk and the environment
5. Print the report and quarantine every failed item — a failed electrical item is out of service, tagged, and on the repair list

Worked example

A workshop electrical inspection. Visual — the welding bay extension run fails (damaged cable, unmarked splices): quarantined, replacement run installed, the old one destroyed (not binned — a damaged lead in the bin goes back to work). Tests — the RCD at the main DB trips at 10 ms on 30 mA (pass), the earth continuity on the press is 0.4 ohm (pass), the insulation on the forklift charger is 2 M-ohm (pass, above the 1 M-ohm floor). The PAT table: 41 items, 38 pass, 2 fail (quarantined), 1 due next month. Next full inspection: 6 months; the monthly visual: the supervisors checklist. The report is filed, the fails are on the repair list with dates, and the next inspection opens by checking those three items first.

Standard & legal context

In the UK the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 require systems to be maintained so as to prevent danger — and the IET Wiring Regulations (BS 7671) set the testing standards, with the periodic inspection intervals from the BS 7671 guidance (1 year for hire and mobile equipment, 5 years for offices as a practice, 6–7 for industrial). PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) is the UK name for the portable-equipment programme. In the US, NFPA 70E and the OSHA electrical standards (1910 Subpart S) set the equivalents, and the NEC governs the installation. The form below is the UK practice with the international columns.

Common mistakes

1. PAT as a sticker exercise — a sticker with no test behind it is worse than no sticker, because it is evidence of a test that did not happen
2. Testing the equipment and skipping the system — the DB, the earthing, the RCD at the source: the equipment passes and the system kills
3. One frequency for everything — the forklift charger in a wet yard is not on the same schedule as the office laptop; the environment sets the interval
4. Leaving a failed item in service for this week — a failed electrical item is out of service, tagged, on the list; this week is how the arc flash starts