Even in a best-case scenario, an electrical fault will disrupt the education of students until the fault has been fixed and any damage repaired.
It’s best to prevent electrical faults before they occur – here’s how to avoid them in your school.
Fixed Wire Testing
To check for faults in your electrical installations, you should organise regular Fixed Wire Testing for your school buildings. Fixed Wire Testing checks the safety of your installations and identifies any faults that are, or could become, dangerous.
Testing should be carried out by qualified engineers who will conduct several tests on each distribution board in your school building. Afterwards, you’ll be provided with a detailed electronic EICR report which proves your compliance with electrical safety regulations. If faults have been found, your engineer will advise you on remedial work that must be carried out to make the installation safe again.
Each circuit will need to be isolated for a short period of time during testing, but at Intersafe, we will work with you to minimise disruption to the running of your school. We can test outside of school hours, for example, or during the school holidays. If faults are found, our experienced team can carry out the remedial work efficiently to keep your school running smoothly.
PAT Testing
PAT Testing is also essential to avoid faults in electrical appliances in your school. Schools have hundreds of electrical appliances, including computers, kitchen equipment, printers, telephones and cleaning equipment.
During PAT Testing, a qualified engineer will methodically test all electrical appliances and pass or fail them, based on their electrical safety. To best avoid electrical faults in your school, you should have all Class I and IT equipment tested every year, while Class II equipment should be tested every two years.
To minimise disruption to your school, Intersafe offer out-of-hours testing for no additional charge.
Thermal Imaging
To fully ensure that your school is electrical fault-free, you can arrange for Thermal Imaging to be carried out. Thermal Imaging uses innovative technology to detect heat by infrared energy. Electrical faults often release an excess of heat, making them easy to identify with an infrared camera.
Thermal Imaging can detect a range of electrical faults invisible to the naked eye, including loose connections, phase imbalances, overloads, corrosion and high resistance in fuses and switchgear.
Intersafe are electrical compliance experts, specialising in large and complex buildings – such as schools and universities – across the UK. To find out more about avoiding electrical faults in your school or to book Fixed Wire Testing, PAT Testing and Thermal Imaging services, get in touch with our team today.
