Periodic Electrical Installation Inspection – How Often? 

By on

periodicInspectionsInspection of electrical installations on a periodic basis is essential to ensure the continued safety and reliability of such installations.

How often installations are inspected is up to the owner of the installation, provided such durations do not exceed any regulatory maximums in force. The criticality of the electrical installation to the continuation of the business, often determines how frequently the installation is inspected, for example many banks will carry out annual inspections of their installations. Other types of enterprise may do inspections more frequently and many installations are only inspected as often as required by regulation.

It is also possible, that different parts of an electrical installation are inspected with varying periods. Critical systems may be inspected more often than non-critical systems.

Depending where you live, it is likely that electrical installation regulations will exist, which will state the maximum duration allowable between inspections. For example in the IEE Wiring Regulations in the UK and the National Electric Code in the US, both deal how long an installation can be left without being inspected.

As an example in the UK, IEE Guidance Note 3, Inspection & Testing contains a table which gives the maximum allowable periods between inspections - offices, residential accommodation five years, leisure complexes, theatres three years, marinas, swimming pools one year, … , etc.

Now that the when has been covered, my second post will look at what should be inspected:

Periodic Electrical Installation Inspection – What to Inspect?



Steven McFadyen's avatar Steven McFadyen

Steven has over twenty five years experience working on some of the largest construction projects. He has a deep technical understanding of electrical engineering and is keen to share this knowledge. About the author

myElectrical Engineering

comments powered by Disqus

  1. Eurotechworld's avatar Eurotechworld says:
    6/7/2012 7:11 PM

    It is wonderful information and very helpful in business. Thanks for shearing this topic friend.

    Third Party Inspection


Comments are closed for this post:
  • have a question or need help, please use our Questions Section
  • spotted an error or have additional info that you think should be in this post, feel free to Contact Us



IEC 61439 - The Switchgear Standard

The new standard IEC 61439 replaces the old 60439. Compared to the old standard, the new 61439 is a more clearly defined and takes into account the assembly...

Operational Amplifier

The fundamental component of any analogue computer is the operational amplifier, or op amp. An operational amplifier (often called an op-amp,) is a high...

Voltage Levels to IEC 60038

The standard aims to consolidate AC and traction voltages within the industry and defines the following bands: band 1 - A.C. systems 100 V to 1...

Arc Flash Calculations

Working in the vicinity of electrical equipment poses an hazard. In addition to electric shock hazard, fault currents passing through air causes Arc Flash...

How Electrical Circuits Work

If you have no idea how electrical circuits work, or what people mean then they talk about volts and amps, hopefully I can shed a bit light.  I’m intending...

Battery Sizing

This article gives an introduction to IEEE 485 method for the selection and calculation of battery capacity.

Photovoltaic (PV) - Utility Power Grid Interface

Photovoltaic (PV) systems are typically more efficient when connected in parallel with a main power gird. During periods when the PV system generates energy...

Maximum Demand for Buildings

Estimating maximum demand is a topic frequently discussed. Working out how much power to allow for a building can be very subjective . Allowing too much...

Load Flow Study – how they work

A load flow study is the analysis of an electrical network carried out by an electrical engineer. The purpose is to understand how power flows around...

Generator Sizing & Operation Limits

When selecting a generator, there are inherent limits on the active and reactive power which can be delivered. Generators are normally sized for a certain...

Have some knowledge to share

If you have some expert knowledge or experience, why not consider sharing this with our community.  

By writing an electrical note, you will be educating our users and at the same time promoting your expertise within the engineering community.

To get started and understand our policy, you can read our How to Write an Electrical Note