Electrical Safety
in the home
How to ensure
best practices
The presence of electricity in a dwelling involves two
kinds of safety risks. The first is the most obvious and
direct: the risk for the residents on electro-shock. The
second safety risk is indirect and therefore more difficult
to map: the risk of electrical faults causing fire.
Those risks can be reduced by the usage of safe
electrical appliances and by a responsible behaviour
of the residents. However, to make the system human-
fail-proof, a proper design of the electrical system in
the house is imperative.
There is a large variation in the quality level of
residential electrical installations. There are variations
between countries, but also variations due to the age
of the installation and the financial potential of the
owners. Those variations are clearly reflected in the fire
statistics.
Examples of Asian countries show that mandatory
certificates based on periodic inspections are an
effective tool to ensure best practices in electrical
installations.
Certification of new dwellings only is not sufficient.
One of the main problems is that older electrical
installations are not suited anymore for the number
and nature of today’s electrical appliances. Moreover,
they were often built according to weaker safety
standards than those in force today.
y Electrical safety risks can be minimized by a proper
design of the electrical installation.
y The quality of the electrical installations in dwellings
differs a lot; best practices can be propagated
through certification.
© Leonardo ENERGY - January 2010
y Certification of new houses only is not sufficient. The
European housing stock is ageing while electricity
use is increasing. Some kind certification based on
periodic inspections is imperative.
y Ensuring the electrical safety of appliances and
raising awareness among residents is equally
important, but will never guarantee a human-fail-
proof installation.
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 Electrical Safety in the home
Electrical safety
at three levels
Electrical safety in a residential dwelling depends on
three levels:
1. The electrical system, including the connection,
the switchboard with electrical protections, and
the cables, switches and sockets
2. The electrical appliances that are used in the house
3. The awareness of electrical safety among the
residents, and their corresponding behaviour
1. A safe electrical installation
A high quality residential electrical system can:
y Protect the residents against the risks of using
unsafe appliances; for example by including
an over current protection, a residual current
device, and a correct earthing system
y Stimulate the residents to make use of the
installation in a correct way; for example by
providing enough sockets so that residents don’t
feel the need to use adapters
The electrical installation should also be designed
in such a way that it is safe in itself, no matter how
it is used. For example, it should include separate
circuits for higher power appliances, sufficient
cable diameters, and an over-voltage protection.
2. A safe design of electrical appliances
By imposing certain standards to the design and
manufacturing of appliances, they can be made close
to fail-proof. Those standards can for instance describe
correct ways of earthing, the use of high quality materials,
a shock- and water-proof design, etc. This, however, still
leaves the opportunity for people to use old appliances
© Leonardo ENERGY - January 2010
which do not apply to the standards, or appliances
manufactured in countries with lower safety standards.
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3. The human factor
Bad habits like hiding extension cables under carpets,
the multiple usages of adapters, or the usage of
unsuitable electrical equipment in the bathroom,
have been registered to lead to electrocution or fire.
Information campaigns can raise awareness among
citizens and change their behaviour. However, as with
all cases where human behaviour is involved, houses
can never be made 100% fail safe only by this.
Highest return at system level
To gain maximum electrical safety at minimum cost,
an investment at the level of the residential electrical
system will yield the highest return. Not only does it also
protect the residents against improper behavior and
appliances, it is also an investment that produces a
long-term result, as the electrical system is build to last
for several decades.
The European Copper
Institute (ECI) and
electrical safety
ECI is actively cooperating with the International
Federation for the Safety of Electricity Users (FISUEL)
for raising awareness on this topic. Together with
FISUEL, AIE, Europacable, and UIE, ECI published the
study ‘Towards improved electrical installations in
European homes’. Released in 2004, this study is still
relevant for today’s European policy makers. In 2009,
ECI started writing the ‘Best Practice White Paper /
Assessing worldwide domestic electrical installation
regimes’. It is a country per country analysis of the
state of affairs of electrical safety in dwellings. The
first iterations for regional chapters [Asia and Europe]
have been completed. These will continuously be
updated and chapters for remaining world regions
will be completed by the end of the first quarter
2010. The Leonardo ENERGY blog, managed by
ECI, regularly writes about electrical safety issues.
Old European housing
stock is unsafe
Half of the homes in the EU date from before 1970. Many of
those homes have not yet undergone a renovation of the
electrical installation. As a consequence, those installations
are unadapted to the ever-increasing electrical demands
of a contemporary dwelling.
In some European countries it has been established that
10% of the installations date from before World War II. An
even larger percentage of installations date back to the
50ties and the 60ties, before strict building regulations came
into force. The cable diameters of those old installations are
in not suitable anymore for today’s electricity demand.
Potentially hazardous
As a result of this old housing stock, 60% of the installations in
Europe are under-maintained and potentially hazardous.
They urgently require renovation to comply with all safety
regulations and to safely connect the ever increasing
number of electrical appliances in the house.
The gap is widening
The annual renovation rate of electrical installations in
domestic buildings has risen from less than 2% to more
than 4% in the past decade. However, the percentage
of unrenovated homes that fall out of the safe zone due
to ageing and the increasing penetration of electrical
appliances is growing at faster rate.
Fire is the main risk
The main risk of under-maintained electrical installations
is fire. An investigation of the Merseyside Fire and Rescue
Service (UK) from 17 April till 8 December 2008 showed that
79% of the accidental primary fires were caused by faults in
the electric installation.
Leonardo ENERGY: The Global Community for Sustainable Energy Professionals
The positive examples
of Japan, South Korea,
and Singapore
In Japan, an inspection of the electrical installation
every 4 years has been mandatory for all dwellings
since the early 1960s. A similar law is in force in South
Korea since the early 1970s. Fire statistics in both
countries demonstrate the positive effect of this
measure: the number of fires has been reduced
with close to 90% since inspections became
mandatory.
In Singapore, there is a mandatory and very strict
inspection of the electrical installations in all new
dwellings built and in those undergoing significant
renovation. In addition, condominiums and multi-
tenanted buildings are inspected once every 6
months. On top of that, the Energy Market Authority
of Singapore carries out random spot checks. The
spectacular result is that zero electrical accidents
in residential dwellings have been recorded in
Singapore in the past 15 years.
Most OECD countries have similar patterns of
residential electricity use to those of these Asian
countries. Consequently similar successes through
mandatory inspections are likely to be possible in
those countries.
© Leonardo ENERGY - January 2010
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 Electrical Safety in the home

Towards regular inspections

of residential electrical
installations
Inspections by experts are the only way to bring all dwellings’
electrical installations on a similar high safety standard.
A mandatory inspection of the electrical installation in
all newly build dwellings is common practice in OECD
countries. But as mentioned above, the European
housing stock is ageing and most safety problems are to
be situated in older buildings. Many countries also oblige
an inspection after each large renovation of the house,
but the annual renovation rate of houses is too low to
enable these inspections to ensure safety. In order to
book similar positive results as in Japan and Singapore,
regular mandatory inspections are imperative.
A system that is similar to that of car inspections will
have to be established. For example:
y For buildings of 20 years and older, a valid certificate
is required for each new tenancy or sales agreement.
Those certificates are granted through inspections
and are valid for a limited period of time.
y After inspection and certification at 20 years of
age, for the renewal of the certificate the choice
could be given between a light inspection every 5
years or an in-depth inspection every 10 years.
y For high-risk groups, like student rooms, homes for the
elderly, or social housing, a mandatory inspection every
year could significantly lower the accident rate.
y Inspection and certification should also be made
mandatory when connecting a new major
electrical application in the house, like for instance
photovoltaic panels.
© Leonardo ENERGY - January 2010
PV installations
new potential risk
Climate change mitigation programmes have
resulted in a boom of residential solar energy
installations. This is to be welcomed from an
environmental point of view, but what about
the electrical safety of those photovoltaic (PV)
systems?
PV energy requires an electrical installation
that is relatively complex for the residential
environment. Attention points such as lightning
protection, earthing, and cable diameters are
crucial to ensure the safety of the installation and
the entire house.
An investigation by CONSUEL in France
has revealed that 50% of the residential PV
installations in France do not comply with
electrical safety regulations. A mandatory
inspection before the connection of each
major new system to a residential network could
counter this type of potential safety risk.
If you are interested in receiving more information
about electrical safety, please contact Benoit

Dôme, mail@copperbenelux.org.
Regular inspections of the electrical installation are
not purely a cost for the owner of the building. A good
inspection report demonstrates the quality of the energy
installations and increases the value of the house.

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Leonardo ENERGY: The Global Community for Sustainable Energy Professionals