Units, workshops and estates
Electrical testing for industrial units
Planned testing beats unplanned downtime. We book the day round your production, test the fixed wiring and the distribution boards, and leave you the certificate before we drive away.
Testing built round production
A unit that stops costs money. The whole job is planned so that it does not.
A shutdown plan first
We walk the boards before test day and write down what each one feeds. You get the order the circuits come off and how long each is down, so the shop floor can plan round it.
Boards and sub-mains
Main switchboard, distribution boards, sub-mains and the machine supplies fed from them. Three phase is normal work here, not an exception we charge extra to look at.
Certificate on the day
Signed report emailed as a PDF the day we finish. No waiting a fortnight for a typed up version from an office you never visited.
Out of hours if you need it
Nights, weekends and shutdown weeks. If the only safe time to switch off is when the machines are cold, that is when we come.
Remedials quoted with the report
Every coded item comes back with its own price. You can approve the safety critical work now and put the rest in next year's budget with a figure already attached.
Same person throughout
The person who quotes it is the person who tests it and writes it up. Nothing is handed to a subcontractor who has never seen your building.
Why three years and not five
The duty is the same one that covers every workplace. Regulation 4(2) of the Electricity at Work Regulations 1989 says electrical systems must be maintained, so far as is reasonably practicable, to prevent danger.
The interval is not fixed in law. It follows the wear the installation takes. Three years is the usual interval for industrial premises, against five for a shop or an office, because the environment is harder on the installation.
- Vibration from machinery works terminations loose over time.
- Dust, swarf and coolant get into enclosures that were sealed on day one.
- Heavy loads run for long spells, so cables and connections sit hot.
- Layouts change, and supplies get moved, extended or abandoned as machines come and go.
- Damage is physical, from forklifts, pallets and racking rather than wear and tear.
The report sets your next date. Where one part of a site is harder worked than the rest, it can carry a shorter interval of its own, and we write down why.
Read the plain English guide to EICRs and the codes →
Sites we test
- Engineering and fabrication units on estates around Poole, Ferndown and Christchurch.
- Workshops and joinery shops, including extraction and dust plant supplies.
- Garages and vehicle bays, with ramps, compressors and welding supplies.
- Food production and cold storage, where refrigeration cannot simply be switched off.
- Storage and distribution units, with high bay lighting and dock equipment.
- Estate landlords with a run of units and one renewal date to manage.
Working alongside your maintenance team
If you have an in house engineer, bring them. Knowing which machine hates being restarted saves everybody a bad afternoon, and they usually know the site better than the drawings do.
How the price works
Fixed quote before we start. Priced per circuit, so the figure holds.
Site walk or a board list
For a small unit a list of the boards is enough. For anything bigger we come and look first, and that visit costs you nothing.
Fixed quote
Priced on the circuit count and the access, not on an hourly rate. One figure in writing, and it does not move unless you add to the job.
Testing to the plan
We follow the agreed shutdown order. Boards get labelled properly and anything found live and dangerous is made safe before we leave it.
Certificate and priced remedials
Report the same day, with a price against each coded item. You decide what gets done and when.
Questions from site managers
Can you test without stopping production?
Partly. Live inspection and some checks happen with the plant running. Dead testing needs the circuit off, so we split the site into blocks and take them down in an order you have agreed first.
What about a machine we cannot switch off?
Tell us on day one. Anything that cannot be isolated gets recorded as a limitation on the report, with the reason written out, so nobody reads it later as an oversight.
Do you need our permit system followed?
Yes, and we would rather you insisted. Send the site rules and the permit forms ahead of the visit and we work to them. Induction time gets built into the quote.
Can you test the machines themselves?
No. An EICR covers the fixed installation up to the isolator that feeds the machine. What sits beyond that isolator belongs to your machinery inspection, not to this report.
Will you do the remedial work?
Small remedials and board work, yes, quoted item by item. We do not take on full industrial rewires or new installations, and we will tell you straight when a job is bigger than us.
Which areas do you cover?
Dorset only. That takes in the estates around Poole, Bournemouth and Christchurch, out through Wimborne, Ferndown and Verwood, and west to Dorchester, Weymouth and Bridport.
Book the test before it books itself
A planned shutdown is a diary entry. An unplanned one is a lost day. Send us the board list and we will come back with a fixed price and a date that suits the shop floor.