Early in the year my employer put me and a couple of other colleagues on a PAT.... sorry *ahem* In-Service Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment course (what a mouthful, let's just call it PAT testing) and as I managed to score highest in the exam guess who gets to do most of the testing 
It's just for our own equipment. Various other bodies we work with were needing everything on site to be diligently inspected and tested which the facilities team were starting to find it hard to find time for so essentially it's become another IT function.
However, a 3 day course does not an expert make, and I've already come across some very unusual things that I struggle to work out how I'm supposed to test. Turns out in the real world there is much more exotic electrical equipment than the obligatory toaster, drill, kettle and table lamp you look at at the training course. It's gone from "well this is easy enough, I've been told the legislation, what too look for, what the readings mean on the actual testing part of it, here's a nice simple class I toaster check the plug the fuse the flex the housing, plug it into the tester, hold the probe here hold the lever down, press the button, write the report" to "what in the heck is this connector on this piece of specialist equipment? Can they just use a junction box like that? How do I PAT test an exhibition stand?!" So I'm here to have a read through some threads and possibly ask some stupid questions.
It's just for our own equipment. Various other bodies we work with were needing everything on site to be diligently inspected and tested which the facilities team were starting to find it hard to find time for so essentially it's become another IT function.
However, a 3 day course does not an expert make, and I've already come across some very unusual things that I struggle to work out how I'm supposed to test. Turns out in the real world there is much more exotic electrical equipment than the obligatory toaster, drill, kettle and table lamp you look at at the training course. It's gone from "well this is easy enough, I've been told the legislation, what too look for, what the readings mean on the actual testing part of it, here's a nice simple class I toaster check the plug the fuse the flex the housing, plug it into the tester, hold the probe here hold the lever down, press the button, write the report" to "what in the heck is this connector on this piece of specialist equipment? Can they just use a junction box like that? How do I PAT test an exhibition stand?!" So I'm here to have a read through some threads and possibly ask some stupid questions.
