There are legal responsibilities placed on the occupiers of business premises to ensure the safety of electrical installations.
There are also statutory obligations to ensure the successful operation of life safety systems, such as emergency lighting and fire detection and alarm systems, when they are needed. Transportation systems such as lifts, escalators and conveyor belts also need periodic assessment. Insurance policies may be an additional driver for this – if periodic certification cannot be produced then insurance policies may not be honoured. Maintenance activity, especially on life safety systems, needs to be recorded and signed off. To demonstrate compliance of fire alarms and emergency lighting with statutory requirements a log book recording periodic tests should be used. Dates of test, anomalies and remedial actions should all be noted.
David Sykes Electrical can provide a dedicated reactive and planned maintenance service to our clients within the region. This may be 24-hour maintenance, planned maintenance or shift cover. We have the electrical engineering skills, together with the design, commissioning, and documentation skills, to be able to provide a safe and satisfactory maintenance service.
It is also important to recognise that an urgent breakdown is not a licence to bypass the normal safety requirements of thinking about risk and methodology. There will be financial drivers or, more importantly, health and safety duties, to get a system back up and running. It is imperative not to cut corners. Prepared electrical maintenance programs, which are reviewed and updated on a regular basis, can greatly assist in these situations and enable the maintenance team to remain focussed and react safely and promptly.
The availability of spare parts is one more maintenance consideration, especially for installations that operate shift patterns outside of normal working hours when wholesalers may be shut. The client will need to consider, along with our maintenance team, whether the factory can afford not to operate for several hours, and whether it can afford to carry the overhead of spares within the building. Working together with our client, David Sykes Electrical will develop an appropriate cost effective and safe electrical maintenance strategy for the premises.
