What AS/NZS 3760 covers (and what it does not)
AS/NZS 3760 — In-service inspection and testing of electrical equipment — is the joint Australia/New Zealand standard that defines how portable electrical equipment is inspected and tested after it leaves the manufacturer and is in service. It covers visual inspection, electrical safety tests (earth continuity, insulation resistance, polarity, leakage current) and the documentation that goes with them.
It does not cover fixed wiring (that is AS/NZS 3000), and it is not a regulatory document on its own — it is the technical standard that workplace safety regulators reference when they say electrical equipment must be safe to use.
Recommended intervals by environment
AS/NZS 3760 sets test and inspection intervals based on the environment the equipment works in. Harsher environments (construction sites, factories with vibration, dust or moisture) need shorter intervals; offices and similar low-risk environments need longer ones.
The common intervals you will encounter in Perth workplaces:
- Construction, demolition and like environments — 3 months
- Factories, workshops, warehouses and similar — 6 months
- Commercial cleaning equipment — 6 months
- Hire equipment — inspection before each hire; test every 12 months
- Offices, shops, low-risk commercial environments — 12 months
How risk drives the interval
The intervals in AS/NZS 3760 are not arbitrary — they are based on the rate at which damage accumulates in a given environment. A power tool on a construction site sees impact, dust, moisture and abrasion that a desktop power supply in an office never sees. Shorter intervals catch developing faults before they become hazards.
Your own risk assessment can shorten an interval, never lengthen it. If you have evidence that equipment is failing tests more frequently than expected, that is the signal to shorten the cycle.
New and out-of-the-box equipment
New equipment is required by AS/NZS 3760 to be visually inspected before first use and tagged with an 'inspected' indicator — it does not need to be electrically tested until its next routine interval. That visual inspection picks up shipping damage or factory faults before they put someone at risk.
Hire and loan equipment
Hire equipment carries an extra requirement — visual inspection before each hire — because it cycles through many users and environments in a year. The 12-month electrical test cycle still applies on top of the per-hire inspection.
RCDs and safety switches
Portable RCDs that protect site power tools are subject to push-button testing (typically daily on construction sites) and operating-time testing at the AS/NZS 3760 cycle. Fixed RCDs are tested under AS/NZS 3012 / AS/NZS 3760 depending on the installation.
What your asset register should contain
A workable register has, at minimum, an item identifier (asset number or description + serial), the test result, the test date, the next due date and the technician who tested it. Most quality systems also want the environment classification (so the interval can be defended) and any free-form notes.
How AmpTech runs test and tag in Perth
AmpTech runs scheduled test and tag rounds across Perth construction sites, factories, workshops and commercial offices. Each round includes the visual inspection, the AS/NZS 3760 electrical tests, a durable tag with the test and next-due dates, and an itemised register supplied as a PDF or in your asset-management system’s format. While we are on site we can collect any instruments due for calibration and return them from our Caversham lab — one supplier, one register, one invoice.