Electrical testing is an important part of the lighting design process. It helps to ensure that your light fitting is safe, and it can also identify any issues with electrical circuits before you install a lighting fixture. If this sounds complicated, don’t worry: we’re here to make sure you understand everything there is to know about electrical testing. In this article we’ll explain what electrical testing is and why it’s so important when designing lighting installations.
Electrical safety is a key part of lighting design
Electrical testing is a key part of lighting design. It’s important for both the designer and his or her client, because it’s a legal requirement in most countries. The end user also has a stake here—if you’re going to be operating your lights as designed, you’ll want them to be safe!
So how does one ensure that electrical safety is present? The first step is testing all components before they enter into use. This ensures that nothing will malfunction once installed, causing injury or damage.
Electrical testing helps to ensure electrical safety
Electrical testing is a vital part of the lighting design process, and it’s also important when installing your lights. Electrical testing helps ensure that your lights are safe to use and won’t accidentally shock you or someone else. Checking voltage levels can help you figure out if there’s enough power flowing through the wires of your new light fixtures to function properly, which means you’ll know if any modifications need to be made before putting them into service.
What is electrical testing?
Electrical testing is a process that can help you ensure your products comply with the required standards. Testing shows whether your product has been designed properly and will function safely when used in the real world environment.
- What are PAT tests? PAT (Portable Appliance Testing) checks all electrical appliances to make sure they meet safety regulations.
- What is a PAT certificate? A PAT certificate allows you to legally sell or distribute an electrical appliance in any EU member country
What does testing outdoor lighting systems involve?
As a designer, you’re responsible for ensuring your lights are safe and functional. It’s important that you check a number of things to ensure your lighting is safe. You must also ensure that they are energy efficient, will last a long time and look good (this is really important for the end user experience.)
- Safety testing. This ensures that the equipment works properly and that there are no broken wires, or open circuits which may cause injury if someone touches them.
- Functionality testing. Once the safety testing has been carried out, functionality testing is next. Functionality testing makes sure that everything works properly. It also ensures there are no faults in the wiring or that there is any buzzing or flickering.
- Efficiency testing. This is next on the list. Power supplies and kilowatt meters can be used to check how much electricity is used per hour at various levels of brightness. Once this has been measured, you can figure out how well a light fitting performs and how efficient it is.
In summary
There is a lot to know and a lot to learn about electrical testing. We hope that this article has helped you to see the importance of electrical testing in lighting design and given a good overview of the main considerations. Electrical safety is a key part of any project and without it, there would be no safe lighting design whatsoever!
We know from experience that it can be tricky to know exactly what needs testing and when, so if you’re looking for some help with your next project then get in touch today with one of our friendly experts who will be happy to assist. Why not take a look at our team page where you can see just some of the expert skills that go into creating our stunning light fittings.