Intervals marked as a regulation or standard requirement are drawn from the SafeWork NSW code of practice for managing electrical risks, the Queensland Electrical Safety Regulation 2013, AS/NZS 3760 and AS/NZS 2293.2 as summarised by the regulators and the industry. Where an interval is common practice or an insurer expectation rather than a requirement, it is marked as recommended practice. Section and clause numbers are quoted only where the source states them.
AS/NZS 3000, the Wiring Rules, tells an electrician how to install and alter a system. It does not tell a building owner how often to test it afterwards. The recurring duties come from the work health and safety regulation of each state, which requires plug-in equipment in higher-risk environments and every RCD to be inspected and tested regularly by a competent person; from AS/NZS 3760, the in-service inspection and testing standard that sets the intervals by environment; from AS/NZS 3012 on construction sites; from AS/NZS 2293.2 for emergency lighting; and from AS/NZS 3019 where a periodic assessment of the whole installation is called for. Queensland writes the RCD and equipment intervals into its Electrical Safety Regulation 2013, and those figures are the benchmark most contractors apply in other states.
Who does what
Two kinds of test run in parallel. The push-button test of an RCD and the visual check of a lead or an appliance are user tasks: any trained staff member can do them and record the result. The operating-time test of an RCD, the earth and insulation tests behind a test tag, the switchboard inspection and the emergency lighting discharge test are competent-person tasks, and in most states a licensed electrician or a trained tester carries them out. The owner or facilities manager remains responsible for the schedule, the records and for taking failed equipment out of service.
Routine tests, by system
RCDs (safety switches)
- Push-button test, fixed RCDs: six-monthly by the user in offices, shops, service and manufacturing workplaces; monthly on construction sites. Immediately after a new RCD is installed.
- Push-button test, portable RCDs: daily or before each use in construction and manufacturing work; six-monthly in office and service work; three-monthly in amusement work.
- Operating-time test, fixed RCDs: by a competent person with a calibrated instrument. Two-yearly for office and service work; twelve-monthly for manufacturing, amusement and construction work.
- Operating-time test, portable RCDs: two-yearly for office and service work; twelve-monthly for manufacturing and amusement work; three-monthly on construction sites.
- Failed device: an RCD that does not trip on the button, or trips outside its rated time, is taken out of service and replaced. Do not reset and defer.
- Monthly push-button test (recommended practice): the Standara library defaults to a monthly owner test on every fixed RCD, above the six-monthly minimum, because it is the cheapest check in the building.
The intervals above are those of the Queensland Electrical Safety Regulation 2013 for specified electrical equipment at workplaces. In New South Wales, clause 165 of the Work Health and Safety Regulation requires RCDs at a workplace to be tested regularly by a competent person, with the record kept until the device is next tested or disposed of; the code of practice points to AS/NZS 3760 for the indicative intervals, which follow the same pattern.
Plug-in equipment (test and tag)
- Before each use: the user looks at the lead, plug and body for damage and does not use damaged equipment.
- Higher-risk environments: at least every twelve months. Wet or dusty areas, outdoors, commercial kitchens, workshops and manufacturing areas are the regulator's examples. Six-monthly is the norm for manufacturing and workshop equipment and for commercial cleaning equipment; in Queensland the manufacturing interval is twelve-monthly for double-insulated equipment and six-monthly for everything else.
- Construction and demolition sites: three-monthly for portable equipment and six-monthly for fixed and transportable equipment, under AS/NZS 3012.
- Hire equipment: inspected at the start of each hire and tested three-monthly under the NSW code; six-monthly with records kept five years under the Queensland regulation.
- Lower-risk environments: offices, retail and classrooms. AS/NZS 3760 sets indicative intervals; equipment that is not moved in normal use and not exposed to a hostile environment can go up to five years between tests, and Queensland writes five-yearly into its regulation for office work.
- New equipment: does not need testing before first use, but is inspected for transport damage and tagged new to service with the date of the first test due.
- After repair or second-hand purchase: tested before return to service or before first use.
Switchboards and distribution boards
- Monthly (recommended practice): owner walk past every board: tripped breakers, fault indicators, discolouration or a hot smell, enclosure closed, switchroom clear and ventilated.
- Annual (recommended practice, insurer expectation): connections checked for tightness, interior cleaned, circuit schedule verified, RCDs and RCBOs operating-time tested, main earthing and MEN link verified, thermal imaging of every board under load with anomalies classified and the hot ones fixed within the month.
- Periodic assessment (AS/NZS 3019): a formal assessment of the whole installation for continued safe use. The standard does not set a single interval; the frequency follows the site risk, the age of the installation and the insurer's conditions. Five-yearly is a common choice for a commercial building and matches the Standara library's condition assessment task.
No Australian standard mandates thermal imaging and no statutory interval applies to it. It is the owner's duty of care under WHS legislation and, increasingly, a condition of the building's insurance policy, which is why it sits on the annual schedule and why the reports are kept.
Emergency and exit lighting (AS/NZS 2293.2)
- Six-monthly: every battery-backed luminaire and exit sign discharged for its rated duration, at least 90 minutes, with the result for each fitting recorded in the logbook and failed fittings repaired or replaced before the next inspection.
- Annual: inspection and cleaning of fittings and reflective surfaces; central battery capacity test where fitted; compliance certificate and logbook update.
- Monthly function test (recommended practice): above the standard's minimum.
Emergency lighting is an essential fire safety measure. In New South Wales it sits on the building's fire safety schedule and is certified each year in the annual fire safety statement; the AS/NZS 2293.2 logbook is the evidence behind that statement.
Standby power, solar and EV charging
These follow their own standards and the manufacturer's schedule rather than the rules above: a diesel generator under AS/NZS 3010 runs weekly checks, a monthly no-load run, a quarterly load run and an annual service with a full load bank test; a UPS has monthly checks, a six-monthly inspection and an annual battery capacity test; a solar array under AS/NZS 5033 has a six-monthly visual inspection and an annual electrical inspection; an EV charger under AS/NZS 3000 Appendix P has an annual RCD and electrical safety test. The Standara library carries each of them.
What the owner has to keep
A record of every RCD test other than the daily push-button test, kept at least until the device is next tested or disposed of. A test tag on every tested item showing the tester and the dates tested and next due, backed by a register. The emergency lighting logbook with the result for each fitting at each six-monthly test. The annual switchboard inspection and thermal imaging reports, which insurers ask to see and which most owners keep for five years. Where equipment is hired out, the Queensland regulation requires the test records to be kept for five years.
Turning the schedule into a register
The intervals only hold when every board, RCD group, emergency light circuit and plug-in equipment class in the building is listed with its interval, who does it and where the evidence lives. That is an asset register with a maintenance planner on top of it. Standara's library carries the electrical assets with these tasks and intervals attached, so selecting what the building has produces the 12-month schedule, and the compliance report is the record an auditor or insurer asks for. How to build a facilities asset register covers the site walk; the AS 1851 maintenance schedule covers the fire systems that sit beside the electrical ones on the same statement.
Related
- AS 1851 maintenance schedule: the fire protection intervals and the NSW record-keeping duty.
- Water systems testing schedule: backflow, TMVs, hot water, cooling towers and grease traps, with the authority behind each interval.
- HVAC maintenance schedule: air conditioning, ventilation, refrigerant, kitchen exhaust and smoke control, with the rule behind each interval.
- Lift maintenance schedule: lift and escalator servicing, annual inspection and plant registration.
- How to build a facilities asset register: the field list, the classification method and the review cycle.
- Planned preventative maintenance software: what PPM software has to do and how Standara does it.
You now have the test rhythm for RCDs, plug-in equipment, switchboards and emergency lighting, the rule behind each interval, and the records that prove it.