If you are an employer, it is your responsibility to ensure that your staff and visitors to the workplace are protected from injuries and health risks.

As a result, you must handle any safety risks associated with electrical hazards in compliance with the OHS and WHS Acts and regulations in Australia. To minimize or monitor the risk of electrical hazards, you must use a structured risk management approach.

Following the risk evaluation, you can introduce a variety of control steps, such as:

• routine visual checks
• regular inspection
• maintenance
• repair
• replacement
• use of residual current devices (RCDs)
• and, testing of identified electrical equipment.

From time to time, an item can malfunction, and it is the technician’s duty to report the faulty item and mark it appropriately. These products are taken out of service, and depending on the nature of the fault, further testing or repairs may be required to correct the problem.

As specified by AS/NZS 3760:2010, a PAT is an electronic testing instrument designed to perform a variety of automated tests on plug-in type electrical equipment.

Yes, they do. It is an electrical hazard to perform research with live equipment. This is to protect both our operators and our customers. The equipment can be switched back on once the examination is finished.

An RCD (Residual Current Device) is a device that prevents you from getting a fatal electric shock if you contact a live object such as a broken light switch or an exposed wire. A regular fuse or circuit breaker cannot provide the same degree of personal security as an RCD.

The time it takes to test and tag an appliance varies depending on the device, but it should only take a few minutes at a time. A visual inspection of the appliance is conducted first, which assists the technician in determining which electrical tests are needed. Before being labeled as healthy and acceptable, appliances must pass many checks.