BS EN 60079 Hazardous Area Electrical Inspections

Inglewood Engineering are leading experts in Hazardous Area Electrical Inspections and can advise you on the protocols and regime that are sufficient for your installation.

The British Standard BS EN 60079 Part 17 covers Inspections and Maintenance of Electrical Installations in Hazardous Areas. In order to comply with the standard a hazardous area inspection programme must be established. The employer must ensure that a competent body independent of the maintenance programme completes periodic inspections.

The programme is the basis for protecting against ignition sources in hazardous areas. It demonstrates good intent and is a core defence should one be needed. Within that regime every single ignition source must be accounted for, and inspection protocols put in place to demonstrate due diligence.

There are a number of inspection protocols detailed in BS EN 60079 Part 17. It refers to four inspection types – Initial, Periodic, Sample and Special (for movable apparatus); three inspections grades Visual, Close and Detailed; and a variety of inspection schedules for flameproof, intrinsically safe etc.

Inglewood Engineering site inspection and documentation is completed in line with BS EN 60079 guidelines to ensure that the client can prove compliance to the relevant authorities. Every piece of equipment within the hazardous area is subject to the installation and documentation checks that are detailed in the standard.

The inspection process can generate a large amount of data and we report on all of this data for your records. We also give you a simple summary and we brief you on the options available for tackling any non-conformances, which are singled out and categorised for your attention by criticality.

Non-conformances are analysed before allocating the most efficient remedial action which will ensure compliance but limit overall expenditure.

International (IEC) and European (CENELEC) committees set the series of standards for the designation of hazardous areas and the placement and use of electrical equipment in them. The IEC series 60079 are transposed into CENELEC equivalents EN 60079 and adopted by British Standards as the BS EN 60079 range.