What is a Periodic Fixed Wire Test?
(Since January 2012 this test has been officially known as Electrical Installation Condition Report (EICR))
If you are a Facilities Manager, designated Duty Holder or a Landlord you will have the legal responsibility for ensuring that your electrical installation is ‘Safe for Use’.
To help you achieve this we are able provide a testing & inspection service to assess your premises electrical installation and ensure that it is safe for use and that you are compliant with current legislation.
What this entails is basically the ‘Testing and Inspection’ as to the condition of all the circuits within a buildings Electrical Installation, so as to identify any potential hazards associated with it such as the possibility of electrocution or fire etc.
For large installs with many circuits such as hotels and warehouses the testing can be spread over a five year period with a fifth of the circuits being tested per year.
If you are unsure whether or not you require an EICR then please click your questions answered.
Reasons for Testing
Over time a premises installation will deteriorate due to such things as general wear and tear, its environment plus the potential for damage.
The testing itself will highlight such hazards such as
- The overloading of electrical circuits.
- Low insulation that may result in short circuits.
- Inadequate or lack of earth bonding.
- Incorrectly rated circuit breakers giving insufficient protection.
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Ensuring that RCD’s trip out power under the correct fault conditions.
Any hazards identified during the testing are recorded in a number of test reports which on completion are passed onto the customer.
These hazards once identified in the test reports will need to be corrected by implementing a program of remedial work, click here for a description, which we would be more than happy to discuss with you the customer.
Duty Holders Responsibilities
It is a legal requirement of an appointed person(s) within a business, commonly known as Duty Holder, to ensure that they can demonstrate evidence of records of maintenance, which include the actual EICR test results. These will need to be to kept throughout the working life of an electrical installation and will serve to prove the effectiveness of their maintenance policies. 
Test certificates should show the date when the last test was carried out, and in the case of an EICR Report whether the installation was assessed as Satisfactory or Unsatisfactory.
Increasingly insurance companies are insisting that EICR testing and inspection is carried out in line with the timescales laid down in the industry recommendations. By not complying with these standards a Duty Holder can leave themselves open to prosecution by their own employees or others in the event of an avoidable accident which was caused by an Electrical defect.
In extreme cases this can even result in a criminal prosecution with the subsequent result that the person/company in question having difficulty obtaining insurance cover in the future.