That's nonsense.  If it was important to capture seasonal variations you would be doing it every 3 months.

Just think of it as an annual check with some leeway.

Originally Posted by: johnc

the only time they stopped working was at Easter

They stopped for the local wakes week or Trades Fortnight - if everyone stopped at Easter there were not enough engineers available in the country for the servicing required so the towns and nations staggered their closures.

Well don't I look stupid now that the original post to which I was replying has been deleted.

Originally Posted by: mickpaulpeo

Please base answers on either knowlege or experience, not opinion.

From the header of the forum: Postings made by forum users are personal opinions.

Wakes week occurred at Whitsun which is also known as Pentecost, and it is always the 7th  Sunday after Easter, so it too is a movable feast and traditionally workers took that week off. In mill towns it was an opportunity to service the machinery including the extraction systems used to  control  cotton dust. As the date of Whitsun was movable the miller were allowed leeway as to when they tested and serviced their LEV. This was written into the Factory Act and carried over into COSHH.

Since 1971, Whitsun has been replaced as a Bank Holiday by the Late May Bank Holiday.

My understanding of the 14 month frequency for LEV is that as you are only considered to have undertaken the test once the system passes the examination, and some time is built in for repairs. The examination should be done 12 monthly which allows you to legally continue to use the system for up to 2 months whilst the system is repaired without the need to stop the process. Unlike other equipment, like lifting equipment simply not using the equipment will increase the risk to workers. An LEV system not functioning at design capacity (which is what it is supposed to be assessed against - not just a few measured face velocity readings) may well still be providing a significant reduction in the potential levels of exposure received by workers. It may even be providing sufficient extraction to reduce the exposure levels to below any given exposure limit. However, if the examination finds a significant reduction in performance, then temporary additional controls, for example the use of PPE may be required. 

If you choose to have the examination every 14 months, then you can run into significant legal compliance issues should the examination fail.

Tony.

My thoughts on this - if seasonal variation was deemed to be important, the legislators would have ensured that this was taken into account - and they didn't. 

We're asked to test at not greater than 14 monthly intervals - loads of people actually test at around about 12 monthly because its easier to plan for that, if seasonal variation was key they would have stopped you doing this? If we wanted to we could test as often as we like, as long as we don't exceed 14 months - which as some have already pointed out fits in neatly with moveable feasts like Easter and Witsun .. there may still be some organisations that can only shut down & test on these dates (I doubt it, but you never know) and so the 14 month rule has been left in (or too much like hard work to change it?)

Short answer is that we're all making assumptions and deep down none of us really ​​​​​​​know the answer

MickPaul - in ye olden days when all this was covered by the Factories Act 1961 and previous legislation, different parts of the country had their shutdowns (called "The Fair" in Scotland) at different times.

So the insurance company engineers (rarely anybody else) would do all the steam boilers, steam receivers and air receivers in say Glasgow in Glasgow Fair (3rd and 4th weeks in July) while everybody working in the factories had changed pub to say Blackpool.

When that Fair was done and dusted the insurance company engineers would move on to wherever had the next Fair fortnight.

Kept said insurance people in employment for months over a long Summer season of thorough examinations.

The law said 14 and 26 months which meant annually or every other year but gave some of what has been described on this thread as "leeway". There was always the odd bit of plant that might fall through the net.

This is not "opinion" - if you look you will be able to find lots of historical references to The Fair and similar terms!