Forum for European Electrical Domestic Safety
"In Europe, 25% to 30% of domestic fires have an electrical source"
(FEEDS report, March 2020)
Theresa Griffin: “FEEDS has done excellent work on data collection and sharing best practice, publishing key reports in this field. I’m looking forward to working with its members comprising fire officers' organisations, consumer representatives, professional associations together with policy makers and legislators to share the unique expertise FEEDS has developed to keep all citizens fire safe.”
Theresa Griffin, FEEDS Chair
Krzysztof Biskup, former Deputy Director of the Scientific & Research Centre for Fire Protection, Chair of The European Fire Safety Alliance and FEEDS Vice-Chair: “Fire kills around 5,000 citizens in the European Union every year and marks many more for the rest of their lives. Most fires occur in homes and almost all, including fires from electrical sources, are preventable. With the minimum of effort, we can protect thousands of people in Europe against fire. Theresa always paid great attention to fire safety and vulnerable people and we are looking forward to working with her to take the necessary steps forward.”
Olivier Tissot, FEEDS Secretariat: “There are 273,000 domestic fires from electrical source occuring each year in the EU. The solution is the regular inspection of installations. With Theresa onboard, we will have the opportunity to put the issue higher into the political agenda.”
On Wednesday, May 18, the ENVI and EMPL Committees (co-Rapporteurs Esther de Lange MEP and David Casa MEP) in the European Parliament voted overwhelmingly in favour of their joint report on The Social Climate Fund (SCF)*, which included a number of references to fire safety measures and the upgrade of electrical installations, which have been included into the definition of “building renovation” **. The inclusion of key amendments to this report related to fire and electrical safety, further cements the role of electrical safety as one of the key enablers for the creation of a climate-neutral and fire-safe building stock.
* The Social Climate Fund
The proposed EU regulation creating a Social Climate Fund was adopted by the European Commission on 14 July 2021 as part of the 'fit for 55' legislative package, which is part of the European Green Deal. The Fund should provide funding to Member States to support measures and investments in increased energy efficiency of buildings, decarbonisation of heating and cooling of buildings, including the integration of energy from renewable sources, and granting improved access to zero and low-emission mobility and transport.
** Proposal for a regulation
Article 2 – paragraph 1 – point 1
(1) ‘building renovation’ means any kind of energy-related building renovation and accompanying safety measures,including by contributing to the renovation requirements established in Directive on the energy performance of buildings (recast) [2021/0426(COD)], aimed to reduce the building’s energy consumption, including: the insulation of the building envelope, that is to say walls, roof, floor, the replacement of windows; passive ventilation; the installation of heat pumps and cooling systems; the replacement of heating, cooling and cooking appliances; the upgrade of electrical installations and the installation of on-site production of energy from renewable sources, heat recuperation systems or the connection to nearby systems using energy and storage from renewable sources ;
FEEDS table of contents
About FEEDS
The Forum for European Electrical Domestic Safety (FEEDS) is a think-tank and a do-tank that brings together organizations aiming to improve electrical safety in dwellings.
The Forum aims to contribute to a safe, just and ambitious Energy Transition mainly focused on electrification by:
Providing harmonized data on domestic fires from electrical source at European level and contributing to improve data collection in each country,
Promoting proven solutions at European level to reduce electrical fires from electrical source in dwellings,
Putting electrical safety as a pre-requisite to the deep renovation and deployment of decentralized production (eg. PV), energy storage and increased electrical demand of 132 million dwellings across Europe with obsolete electrical installations,
Drawing attention at all policy levels on the close connection between energy poverty and electrical safety for vulnerable communities,
Participating in the achievement of the Green Deal targets.
FEEDS is a project founded in 2001 by the European Copper Institute (ECI). The FEEDS secretariat is managed by ECI with the support of members. FEEDS members contribute to the Forum on a voluntary basis with their time and expertise, they do not pay a membership. The Chair receives a quarterly allowance for his/her time. Specific activities are organized thanks to in-kind contributions of members or funding of ECI. The FEEDS functioning is based on the consensus, all materials publicly available and messages have been approved by all members.
European transparency register: 720468945742-06
Members
European Committee of Electrical Installation Equipment Manufacturers
Europacable
European Association of Electrical Contractors
European Copper Institute
European Fire Safety Alliance
Federation of the European Union Fire Officer Associations
International Federation for the Safety of Electricity Users
Insurance Europe Prevention Forum
Confédération Nationale du Logement
The UK’s Electrical Safety Experts
Groupe de réflexion sur la sécurité électrique dans le logement
Dutch Burns Foundation
Reports
FEEDS report 202002.pdfWHITE PAPER
Residential Electrical Safety - How to Ensure Progress
March 2020
In the past 120 years, electricity has become the overarching energy source in our everyday life. Its applications have improved our comfort and safety, multiplying the means of entertaining and communicating.
However, domestic electricity can be dangerous. Specifically, the safety of older electrical installations is a concern in the countries of the European Union, given the low renovation rate of dwellings and their electrical installations. At the same time, the uses of domestic electricity continues to diversify and develop, progressively posing increasingly important challenges in terms of quality and safety of electrical energy used in households.
The safety deficiencies of obsolete electrical installations generally result from the aging of their components, the lack of maintenance and inappropriate usage. The dangers they represent are also clearly identified. The risks of electrification and electrocution are well known, but fires of electrical origin and their consequences are the most worrying.
To learn more:
European Data, key figures by country - Sourced and extrapolated data
Prosiel published in 2020 a white paper entitled "Gli italiani e la sicurezza elettrica (Italians and electrical safety)" resulting of a qualitative and quantitative cognitive investigation that Prosiel commissioned to the Piepoli Institute.
FEEDS accidental fires 202104.pdfWHITE PAPER
Accidental Electrical Domestic Fires
April 2021
Reading fire statistics with the aim of prevention: when analysing fire statistics, the number of accidental fires is obtained by removing arson from the total number of fires. It is an interesting approach in the sense that it counts only fires that could have been influenced by preventive actions targeting the dwelling, its installation and its occupants. This is in contrast to data where arson is included, which falls within the field of crime prevention and is much harder to reduce, if possible, at all.
While investigating the fire statistics through the angle of accidental domestic fires and the potential impact of preventive actions, FEEDS made a more in-depth analysis: first, fires with unknown origin are usually so characterised because no inspection was carried out (for example because doing so was not requested by the insurance company). Therefore, the distribution of causes for these uninspected fires can be assumed to be the same as that of the inspected fires. Second, the figure for arson was taken out to limit the scope to accidental fires only.
Draft Report on EU Domestic Electrical Inspection Regimes
FEEDS mapping Electrical inspections regimes in the EU 2022_April_Final draft.pdfDomestic Electrical Inspections Regimes In The EU: a situation which varies strongly amons Member States
FEEDS analysed the general framework regarding the installation and renovation of electrical installations in dwellings in various countries. As conclusion, EU deployment of electrical inspection regimes is limited and mainly voluntary. Please help us to improve that document by providing any piece of knowledge likely to improve or correct the informations.
For a quick overview, click on the following buttons:
Social Media
Follow us on Twtter: https://twitter.com/EUElecSafety
Follow the dedicated hashtag about electrical safety: #SafetyEU
Follow us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/feeds-eu/
Events
The third European Fire Safety Week organised by EuroFSA took place in a digital format from November 29th to December 2nd 2021
You can have a look on FEEDS interventions by clicking on the following links:
Energy Transition Day on December 1st: event report, EPBD Policy Briefing
Realise EU-Wide data on residential fires on December 2nd
