Brendan Beaver, Manager of Metrel UK – a supplier of innovative test solutions – explains how its multi-function testers can help with SPD testing.
This video from the Learning Lounge is amazing and justifies the use of SPDs in all installations, but it does not answer the question, “How you check they are working properly?”
At a recent exhibition, having a coffee, I shared a table with a contractor when he looked across at a stand and asked me, “How do you test them then?”
At first I was unsure what he was talking about, but then then realised we were looking straight at a stand displaying and selling surge protection devices. He went on to say, “If RCDs can fail out of the box, why don’t surge protectors? Of course, there is the indicator, but things go wrong in manufacture and the 18th Edition drives us to fit them now; but at the end of the day, I am responsible if these devices fail. There seems no way I can protect myself.”
I was about to sympathise with him, when I remembered that Metrel multi-function testers have offered an SPD function test for many years. It just hasn’t been spoken about because the installation of surge protection was relatively unusual until the 17th Edition Amendment 1 brought it to the forefront of contractors’ minds.
It is a very simple two wire test. The instrument ramps up a test voltage and detects when current flows, and displays and can record the value of the voltage at which this happens. This is quick, easy and reassuring.
For further information, visit www.metrel.co.uk.
