Ian Morris
Ian Morris loves televisions so much he's been banned from wedding chapels in Las Vegas for trying to marry them. When he's not romancing technology, he can be found watching American TV. Ian likes roast potatoes, but he doesn't like digital rights management.
Tuesday 2 June 2009, 4:27pm
Electricity wants me dead
Last week CNET got a little visit from a man who had come to test the electronics in our building. This largely involves walking around with a machine that drives grown men mad with its beeping, making sure that every cable and appliance isn't going to suddenly go all sadistic and kill us with mains electricity. Everything that passes gets a little sticker, and everything that fails gets a slightly different sticker. I'm pretty sure the 'fail' sticker is red, but you don't see many of those.
I can tell you, however, that the sticker for 'pass' is green, because these bloody things are everywhere. I mean, we work with items that need to be plugged in -- so can you imagine how many kettle leads and figure-of-eight cables we've got knocking around? I'm pretty sure the electrical safety testing man must go home and cry himself into a nightmarish dream-state where he's pursued by a beeping collection of unsafe cables and satanic red stickers, while geek-clutter overlord Rupert Goodwins cackles maniacally.
Anyway, I'm told this testing is essential -- you know, to stop us from getting blown across the room. But if I'm honest, I'm still slightly worried. I mean, it's all very well a sleep-deprived electrician coming and testing our cables at one fixed point in time, but what happens when he's gone home? What happens if a cable gets pulled too hard and spontaneously transforms into a murderous serpent of electrical venom?
And what happens to all the cables that arrive in the building on any one of the 363.242199 days he isn't in the office? Seriously, I'm really worried about this. I deal with mains power more than most people, so I'm much more likely to be struck down by its cruel hand. Personally, I think we should employ this man full time. Then he can test absolutely everything, every day. That's quite a lot of beeping for one man, though. Perhaps we should employ a whole team of them to constantly test everything.
Yes, that sounds safer.
Comments on this post
I work in a school and we have to have the same thing done - they sent one of the staff on a course so that he's qualified to do it and then you just fork out on a machine and bingo... If you're really that worried... ;)
Posted by KS Rees on Tue 2 June, 2009 8:42 PM
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 Great post, thank you
Posted by johnstevens on Tue 23 June, 2009 7:38 AM
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PAT Testing innit? COMPLETE fackin' waste of time & money in my opinion.
Posted by Simon B on Fri 26 June, 2009 1:21 PM
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I remember in my first year of Uni, when I lived in Halls the woman in charge of accommodation INSISTED on everybody's kit being PAT tested - by us taking all our gear from our block to the central office about 200 metres across campus. This was only requested in the ninth month of us living there too, so we were well in and settled at that point... No way was I carting all my gear down two flights of stairs and across campus just to get a sticker! I just showed her the shambolic condition of my room (and all the devices plugged into two six-ways) and she ran away screaming. Unsurprisingly, the PAT testing never happened... ;) PAT testing is the bane of my life, I have to deal with it far more often than I'd like. I'm considering doing a course so I can just PAT test everything myself at work. (Plus, I'd like to own some more Fluke gear, that stuff is ace)
Posted by Christopher on Sun 5 July, 2009 5:12 PM
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I used to work as an IT engineer for a high street store. They sent all of us on a PAT testing course at great expense so we could go around the south coast downing stores for hours while we tested everything. We then learnt that our PAT testing equipment had not been calibrated for years and, as such, all of the work we'd done was meaningless...... Ask your PAT testing bloke if his gear's got an up to date certificate. If not, that electrical explosion and subsequent high-speed flight across the office could happen sooner than you think. Or maybe it's all a load of rubbish, anyway...
Posted by Jon on Sat 1 August, 2009 10:49 AM
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