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testing safe of a 16 Amp commando socket/plug

Former Community Member
Former Community Member
Hello,i am an RF engineer and we have equipment that is fed by rack mounted AC/DC converters which charge batteries. these converters are wired into fused spurs using 2.5mm arctic blue cable routed into cable trunking. the 2.5mm cable is fixed in the rack before entering the trunking.

At the moment we are all trained in testing the circuit is switched off using a martindale VIPD138 voltage indicator and proving unit and then we lock off the circuit.

Everyone's training is due to expire and our company health and safety department want to change the installation from the fused spur to 16 Amp commando sockets/plugs rather than retrain everyone in proving the circuit has been switched off.


I have no issues with using commando sockets instead of the fused spurs but my concern is that if the nearest location the commando socket can be mounted is the other end of the room and there are numerous commando sockets supplying different racks how do you prove you have pulled the correct plug? surely you have to still be able to test the circuit has been switched off using the tester and training required.


I am having a discussion with the Health and safety department next week so any advice would be gratefully received.

Thanks
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    if the light is on, it's alive.

    But bare in mind that the converse isn't necessarily true - if the light is off it's not necessarily dead - it could be live but with a failed lamp - a small chance perhaps but not what you'd want to bet you life on. If you were to rely on an indicator lamp you'd perhaps need to adopt a procedure similar to testing for dead - i.e. check it's on first, then pull one plug then check it's off (and perhaps put the plug back in and check it lights again to prove that it didn't just happen to fail while you were tugging various flexes about trying to pull the plug out, before pulling the same plug finally out) - which isn't really much less onerous than using a voltage indicator.


       - Andy.
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  • 0
    if the light is on, it's alive.

    But bare in mind that the converse isn't necessarily true - if the light is off it's not necessarily dead - it could be live but with a failed lamp - a small chance perhaps but not what you'd want to bet you life on. If you were to rely on an indicator lamp you'd perhaps need to adopt a procedure similar to testing for dead - i.e. check it's on first, then pull one plug then check it's off (and perhaps put the plug back in and check it lights again to prove that it didn't just happen to fail while you were tugging various flexes about trying to pull the plug out, before pulling the same plug finally out) - which isn't really much less onerous than using a voltage indicator.


       - Andy.
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