At one of my sites PAT testing was recently conducted and a small 230V UPS (APC Smart-UPS SC 420VA 230V) failed a PAT test. The manufacturer is telling us that it didn't fail and should never have been PAT tested, although the user manual doesn't mention this, they have pointed us to http://emea-en.apc.com/a...detail/a_id/9200/kw/9200

Has anyone come across this issue?

Use this reference doc:

IEE Code of Practice for in service Inspection & Testing of Electrical Equipment ISBN 978-0-86341-833-4

Decent testers will hold this qualification:

City &Guilds course - C&G 2377-01 and 02 – Management, Inspection and Testing of Electrical Equipment

Neither are cheap but will save money in the long term due to elimination of inappropriate testing & test intervals

If the tester is a contractor I suggest you bill him for a repacement UPS.

Thanks to you all for the replies we will be discussing the issue with the tester.

The UPS is a small plug in unit not a fixed battery bank.

Hello PH2

Thank you for the reply, any information or help always gratefully received.

That particular site has had no electrical testing or inspecting either fixed or portable since 2002 so we are testing everything, numerous faults found in office areas with faulty extensions, plugs etc and some significant safety issues with the fixed circuits.

I am new to this company but not to Health and Safety but I had not come across the issues of testing UPS before.

Once all the issues are corrected and a local inspection regime is in place we will not test again for some time, the exact frequency and nature of testing has still to be determined as we operate in 12 sites across 9 countries and I want to standardise and simplify procedures where I can.

Walker, I completely agree - I have often struggled to convince people that they don't need to test as frequently as they have been "sold".

Hello Graham

UPS stands for Uninterrupted Power Supply - basically a big battery- it keeps computers and other vital equipment running during power failure or fluctuation usually until emergency generators kicks in or until the power comes back on.

I think your search found some more interesting results.

Aaah!... That'll be why the guy in the Brown uniform looked so unhappy when I tried to hook up up to the tester! ;-)

Many thanks for the helpful responses about UPS.

Last September while on holiday on a Scottish island with its own hydro-generated 240 volt power supply I was shown a new building with a large room containing numerous large lead-acid batteries which were kept charged up and capable of keeping the power supply going for some time if the hydro generators (pelton wheels) stopped working for any reason. The island supply also had two diesel generators which I understood would supply power in place of the hydro generators or perhaps even supplement their output at times of high demand. An engineer was working on sophisticated new control gear apparently to enable the 3 systems to be interlinked and controlled remotely, and hopefully ensure a wholly uninterrupted power supply in future.

I understand that the average desk computer tends to incorporate a small battery to provide a sufficient trickle of power for a long time (weeks or months?) to keep the computer's clock circuit running when the computer is not fed with mains power, so guess this is a micro-version of a UPS in a way similar to a vehicle battery continuing to power equipment such as the vehicle's clock and security system when the engine isn't running.

As I regularly remind my MD there is no legal reguuirement to do it, its just recognised as being best practice.

I always use the analogy that its like travel insurance. Its not compulsary, but boy are you glad you've got it if something goes wrong !

What about the old 'its brand new and comes with a 12month guarantee' argument that often happens on sites??
Do you rely on the quality assurance of the foreign sweat shop and hope that the outlet that sold you it hasnt dropped it or had it submersed in a flooded warehouse.
Personally i always insist that all new equipment is tested before first use.