James Eade, author of the 5th Edition, gives a brief insight into the changes to this important Code, due for publication later this year.
He provides an update that reflects on the history of the code for discussions relating to appliances or equipment and reflects on the changes in brief.
While the industry is familiar with portable appliance testing, generally the approach in most workplaces is simply to check those things fitted with a plug that are – to varying degrees – ‘portable’. An appliance, however, is actually defined in standards as “apparatus intended for household or similar use”, which of course excludes many types of electrical equipment found in the workplace. It’s also noteworthy that generally, the EWR does not apply at home in a domestic setting, with a few limited exceptions. It can be seen that use of the word ‘appliance’ is not representative of what the COPISITEE seeks to embrace, namely ‘electrical equipment’ that is ‘in-service’, i.e. used at work.