Commercial Electrical Testing in Nottingham

1) Commercial electrical testing is vital to ensure that you, your employees, and the general public are safe whilst in and around your premises.

It is also incredibly important to have your commercial premises regularly inspected to have proof in the event of an insurance claim that your electrical system is correctly maintained. 

2) What is Electrical Testing?

Periodic electrical inspections (electrical testing) is a process which looks not only at the visual condition of the wiring system but checks for all the things that cannot be seen with the eye that may present danger, potential danger, or upcoming troublesome issues on the horizon. 

3) Checking for Earthing

One of the most important aspects of an electrical system is how well the earthing performs. Without adequate earth connections on circuits, at the distribution board (trip switch control panel) and the incoming mains supply, there could be serious danger lurking. 

An electrical system will, in many cases, function completely normally with no earthing! That’s right, you wouldn’t even know there was a fault until something happens. Without adequate earthing an electrical fault has nowhere to go, no way of disconnecting the power supply and metal equipment around the premises could become live and STAY LIVE waiting for someone to touch it. 

When live equipment comes into contact with a person, THEY become the earth path for the fault to disappear and that is why it is imperative that Qualified and Professional electricians inspect and test your premises on a regular basis. 

4) Checking for potential problems

Running a business is hard enough without having major inconvenience from failing electrical systems. We carry out regular commercial electrical testing in Nottingham for our business customers to ensure that any upcoming maintenance issues or safety concerns are addressed and dealt with quickly to prevent unforeseen breakdowns. 

This saves your business time and money and prevents unnecessary shutdowns whilst keeping abreast of safety concerns. 

5) Electrical Testing Reports

Once Inspection and testing have been carried out you will receive a document called an “Electrical Installation Condition Report” or EICR for short. This document outlines the overall condition of the installation. 

A report has two outcomes:

• Satisfactory
• Unsatisfactory

If there are electrical issues that prevent the installation from being Satisfactory, these will be listed in the OBSERVATIONS section of the EICR. Each observation is given a code (C1,C2,C3, FI, NOTE). These observation codes have different meanings and a SATISFACTORY report will either have no observations or just C3 and NOTE observations listed. 

6) What do the observations mean?

In many cases, we have to use technical language along with reference to various wiring regulations but don’t worry, if there are issues that need addressing then we will explain these to you. 

• C1 – This is very serious. Immediate and Present Danger. These codes should be fixed immediately if practically possible or some action taken to disconnect the affected electrical circuit.
• C2- These are still serious. Potential Danger – urgent remedial action required. These observations could be things like overheated electrical equipment, signs of mechanical or thermal damage, missing earthing and so on.
• C3- Safety Improvement recommended. These observations are applied to situations where there is not immediate or potential danger at the moment. These are NOT observations that can be ignored and action should still be considered to ensure more serious situations do not occur at a later date.
• FI – Further Investigation. The inspector has identified a situation but has not been able to fully trace the issue, identify the cause or otherwise. These observations MUST be actioned without delay as the inspector believes that danger will present itself once further investigation has been carried out. 

7) Don’t Worry...

Most electrical systems require minor works to bring them up to modern safety standards. Age and use do play a part however. If you have an electrical system that is getting on a bit and has never been tested then it is likely that there will be some issues to rectify but modern installations that are regularly checked seldom require extensive works. 

8) Book your Test

If you would like to discuss Commercial Electrical Testing in Nottingham or surrounding areas then get in touch with us and we will give you a quote for testing your premises and have a friendly chat about any issues you are immediately concerned about.