I enjoy reading Bruce Greig's blog.
Bruce is Managing Director of 0800handyman Ltd and I see from a recent post from his blog that he like most electricians has had the phonecall from panicked clients wishing us to attend to finish installing their recently purchased ceiling light. Yes there can be more than one cable and three wires at your existing light.
Heres Bruces post on the subject
Wednesday, 10 October 2007
Electrical Testing for Landlords
We do lots of electrical testing and thats not just because we are required to by our electrical regulations.
The number of enquiries regarding electrical testing we receive from landlords, companies, and students to name but a few has increased dramatically over the past few years, to where now our testing services has become a large part of our everyday work.
The three main types of electrical testing are :-
Periodic Inspection Reports - now becoming widely known as fixed wiring testing
Electrical Installation Certificates and Minor Work Certificates
PAT Testing
A large percentage of our new work has come from landlords looking to rent out a recently purchased house or flat. Landlords are required to prove that they have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the electrical appliances they provide and the electrical system of their house/flat is maintained in a safe working order.
We are asked on nearly every occasion by landlords to provide an "electrical safety certificate" - but in the electrical world no such certificate exists.
What do exist is the following and this is what we recommend :-
A Periodic Inspection report is carried out on the premises which will provide a visual and test results using calibrated test equipment on the electrical system in a report format, which will list any deviations from the current electrical regulations with recommendations if any to bring the electrical installation up to current safety standards. Once the required standard is met, the Periodic Inspection Report should be carried out at least every five years and we would recommend on every change of tenancy. Within those five years we would suggest a yearly visual electrical inspection to check for signs of wear and tear on sockets, lights etc.
Further to the Periodic Inspection Report, which is the required and correct document for landlords, Portable Appliance Testing (PAT Testing) should be carried out on any electrical appliances the landlord provides to their tenants. PAT Testing is recommended to be carried out every year.
Further details of our Inspection and Testing Service - which includes Periodic Inspection Reports can be found here on our website
Further details of our Pat Testing service can be found here
A good resource for Landlords is a website called Landlordzone
We are always delighted to discuss with landlords and other customers the requirements regarding electrical testing and I personally would be delighted to discuss this further with anyone.
So if you have any questions regarding electrical testing and how our services can work with you, give us a call on 01786 813916
The number of enquiries regarding electrical testing we receive from landlords, companies, and students to name but a few has increased dramatically over the past few years, to where now our testing services has become a large part of our everyday work.
The three main types of electrical testing are :-
Periodic Inspection Reports - now becoming widely known as fixed wiring testing
Electrical Installation Certificates and Minor Work Certificates
PAT Testing
A large percentage of our new work has come from landlords looking to rent out a recently purchased house or flat. Landlords are required to prove that they have taken reasonable steps to ensure that the electrical appliances they provide and the electrical system of their house/flat is maintained in a safe working order.
We are asked on nearly every occasion by landlords to provide an "electrical safety certificate" - but in the electrical world no such certificate exists.
What do exist is the following and this is what we recommend :-
A Periodic Inspection report is carried out on the premises which will provide a visual and test results using calibrated test equipment on the electrical system in a report format, which will list any deviations from the current electrical regulations with recommendations if any to bring the electrical installation up to current safety standards. Once the required standard is met, the Periodic Inspection Report should be carried out at least every five years and we would recommend on every change of tenancy. Within those five years we would suggest a yearly visual electrical inspection to check for signs of wear and tear on sockets, lights etc.
Further to the Periodic Inspection Report, which is the required and correct document for landlords, Portable Appliance Testing (PAT Testing) should be carried out on any electrical appliances the landlord provides to their tenants. PAT Testing is recommended to be carried out every year.
Further details of our Inspection and Testing Service - which includes Periodic Inspection Reports can be found here on our website
Further details of our Pat Testing service can be found here
A good resource for Landlords is a website called Landlordzone
We are always delighted to discuss with landlords and other customers the requirements regarding electrical testing and I personally would be delighted to discuss this further with anyone.
So if you have any questions regarding electrical testing and how our services can work with you, give us a call on 01786 813916
Tuesday, 4 September 2007
Electrical Appliance Testing for Students
It's that time of year when Students are heading to university and like previous years we will once again be offering our Portable Appliance Testing (PAT Testing) service at discounted rates to Students heading to The University of Stirling.
All electrical appliances students take with them into their new residence at Stirling are required to be checked that they are are safe to be used and this is where we come in.
If you are a student heading to our City over the next few weeks and require Pat Testing carried out please click on the image above.
Monday, 6 August 2007
Gnome Rescue
First strange request of the week - "Can you rescue our gnome"
One of our tourist attraction customers rang this afternoon where thousands of people a day attend to sample some fine Scottish History.
We carry out electrical and audio visual maintenance work within the building and one of the audio visual displays which is a full figure of a historical character in Scottish history with a projected talking head display. The character is cordoned off form the pubic with a wooden surround which is 6 feet high with the character display within the surround and rising to 10 feet.
Seemingly a customer has went to this building with various garden gnomes and has been placing the gnomes in strategic positions within the building and next to various features then photographing the gnomes, presumingly either they have a strange sense of humour or it could be one of these stories you occasionally read in the newspapers about people removing garden gnomes from other peoples garden and then sending them postcards of the gnome spotted in various locations throughout the world.
Anyway, whatever the reason for the person taking photos of the gnome, seemingly a gnome had been placed on the ledge of this wooden surround around the character in preparation for a photo opportunity but had then fallen into the 6 feet void towards the characters feet and this person was ever so upset that their gnome had fallen and was demanding the gnomes immediate rescue.
The customer knowing that this was an audio visual feature of the exhibition called us asking what they could do to rescue this poor gnome, thankfully though we didn't have to dash and become the 4th emergency service, as with the correct ladders you could access this void without causing any harm to the electrics or audio visual equipment.
So perhaps I should add Gnome Rescue to our list of services.
One of our tourist attraction customers rang this afternoon where thousands of people a day attend to sample some fine Scottish History.
We carry out electrical and audio visual maintenance work within the building and one of the audio visual displays which is a full figure of a historical character in Scottish history with a projected talking head display. The character is cordoned off form the pubic with a wooden surround which is 6 feet high with the character display within the surround and rising to 10 feet.
Seemingly a customer has went to this building with various garden gnomes and has been placing the gnomes in strategic positions within the building and next to various features then photographing the gnomes, presumingly either they have a strange sense of humour or it could be one of these stories you occasionally read in the newspapers about people removing garden gnomes from other peoples garden and then sending them postcards of the gnome spotted in various locations throughout the world.
Anyway, whatever the reason for the person taking photos of the gnome, seemingly a gnome had been placed on the ledge of this wooden surround around the character in preparation for a photo opportunity but had then fallen into the 6 feet void towards the characters feet and this person was ever so upset that their gnome had fallen and was demanding the gnomes immediate rescue.
The customer knowing that this was an audio visual feature of the exhibition called us asking what they could do to rescue this poor gnome, thankfully though we didn't have to dash and become the 4th emergency service, as with the correct ladders you could access this void without causing any harm to the electrics or audio visual equipment.
So perhaps I should add Gnome Rescue to our list of services.
Give me Jobs Over Gates Anyday
Today reminded me why I just love Apple Mac Computers.
Unfortunately not every piece of our office software can run on Apple Mac's, namely PAT Testing software or Sage software etc, so I have to have the dreaded beige lifeless PC boxes in our office running Bill Gates Windows software
In preparation for Kerry our new office team member, I thought I would get our email spam filter and anti virus software up to date - Man I wish I never bothered. After installing the updates and one new program, there were .dll error messages here, and .dll error message there. I've just spent nearly all of my working day, trying to solve this problem and thankfully after about two dozens attempts, the PC decided it actually liked doing something instead of freezing up and I managed to restore the PC to a date last week.
It is just a simple yet powerful life over on the Steve Jobs led other side - so give me my Imac and Powerbook any day of the week, infact now that as well as running the super OSX operating system, Mac's can now boot up and run Windows with so much ease these days, that dreaded beige lifeless PC feeling in our office could be a thing in the past the next time we upgrade of office computers..
Unfortunately not every piece of our office software can run on Apple Mac's, namely PAT Testing software or Sage software etc, so I have to have the dreaded beige lifeless PC boxes in our office running Bill Gates Windows software
In preparation for Kerry our new office team member, I thought I would get our email spam filter and anti virus software up to date - Man I wish I never bothered. After installing the updates and one new program, there were .dll error messages here, and .dll error message there. I've just spent nearly all of my working day, trying to solve this problem and thankfully after about two dozens attempts, the PC decided it actually liked doing something instead of freezing up and I managed to restore the PC to a date last week.
It is just a simple yet powerful life over on the Steve Jobs led other side - so give me my Imac and Powerbook any day of the week, infact now that as well as running the super OSX operating system, Mac's can now boot up and run Windows with so much ease these days, that dreaded beige lifeless PC feeling in our office could be a thing in the past the next time we upgrade of office computers..
New Administrator Starts
Our new full time administrator started today. Kerry will play an important role within our team with her tasks ranging from our customers main contact person, job organising and scheduling through to general administration.
I would like to personally welcome Kerry to the team in what is a major milestone in the companies history, as Kerry becomes our first ever full time office member of our team to compliment our 6 electricians.
I will also use this opportunity to thank all the people who took the time out to apply for the position.
I would like to personally welcome Kerry to the team in what is a major milestone in the companies history, as Kerry becomes our first ever full time office member of our team to compliment our 6 electricians.
I will also use this opportunity to thank all the people who took the time out to apply for the position.
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