Blog

  • Condo cooking for 2

    By Tracey Paska in Manila/Philippine Daily Inquirer | Asia News Network – 

  • Top expert sees China’s rebound in 2nd half

    By Lan Lan in Beijing/China Daily | Asia News Network – 

  • Household employers face tax deadline

    By Kay Bell | Bankrate.com – 

  • Household wealth boost for Aussies

    New Treasury data shows average household wealth jumped by greater than 20 per cent between 2004 and 2010.

    Treasurer Wayne Swan has linked the rise to the government’s stimulus in accordance with the worldwide financial crisis.

    In comparison, median household wealth within the Usa declined by greater than 30 per cent inside the same period.

    “Contributing to this was our stimulus response to the GFC, which protected thousands of jobs, in addition to our decent social safety net and government policies that spread opportunity,” Mr Swan wrote in his economic note released Sunday.

    Mr Swan said Australia, like several countries, had not been immune from the impact of worldwide turbulence lately.

    “This was clear within the Budget papers in May, which showed $150 billion wiped from government revenues for the reason that onset of the worldwide financial crisis,” he said.

    “Australians have also seen the impact on their household wealth.

    “This can be obvious not just within the performance of people’s superannuation accounts in recent times, however the more cautious attitudes towards debt which have contributed to the softness in house prices.”

    Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb attacked the govt for taking probably the most optimistic forecasts available to develop its budget.

    “The budget was predicated on everything going well worldwide,” Mr Robb told Network Ten on Sunday.

    “In fact even the budget papers indicated that for each four per cent change inside the terms of trade you’re talking a couple of $7 billion increase within the budget deficit.”

    Our terms of trade were 50 per cent higher than average compared with the 1980s and 1990s and commodity prices were coming off way over anticipated, Mr Robb said.

    He pointed to BHP Billiton considering shelving its Olympic Dam expansion and Royal Dutch Shell throwing $17 billion worth of LNG projects into doubt.

    “Half the pipeline that Mr Swan brags about has not reached Final Investment Decision and possibly won’t,” he said.

  • PAT Testing Regulations

    PAT Testing Regulations Posted on March 14, 2013 by Mark Fuller

    4th Edition of the Code of Practice Emphasises Risk Based PAT Testing

    In November 2012, the IEE released the 4th Edition of the Code of Practice for In-service Inspection and Testing of electric Equipment.

    There was loads of uncertainty in regards to the recommendations and who’s answerable for what. Some appliances won’t need testing in any respect, whereas others might have testing more frequently. Ultimately it’s the responsibility of the task holder to find out the test frequency, however they will check with their PAT contractor in regard to the chance level and requirement to check, however the duty holder still remains responsible regardless.

    The Risk Based Approach

    If truth be told, this has always been the advice of the Code of Practice. There’s a common misconception that each one appliances must be tested annually, however in the event you consider the recommendations for test frequency in table 7.1 of the Code of Practice, you will see that even in older editions, the test frequency would range from 3 months to 2+ years and often times no formal electrical test was required in any respect.

    The revised edition has extended among the recommended times even further (as much as 60 months every so often) and in addition recommends that tests & inspections ought to be reviewed regularly to work out if the intervals must be reduced or increased.

    The requirement for maintaining electrical equipment is as follows:

    “Electrical equipment is needed to be properly maintained to avoid danger. Inspections are necessary and testing can also be required.”

    Further to this, the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999 state:

    “Every employer shall make an appropriate and sufficient assessment of:

    (a)    The hazards to the health and safety of his employees to which they’re exposed while they’re at work, and

    (b)   The dangers to the health and safety of persons not in his employment arising out of or in reference to the conduct by him of his undertaking.”

    So, briefly, the appliances and the environments they’re utilized in , must be risk assessed and the required testing frequency set in accordance with the chance level. As an example, appliances which are in an office environment, which includes PCs and printers, could be a lower risk level than appliances reminiscent of powertools which can be used outdoors and in harsher environments.

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