Moving to net zero will bring fundamental changes to our homes, with new technologies creating a web of interconnected challenges and risks \u2013 made more problematic by having the oldest housing stock in Europe. Yet in our increasingly electric world, electrical safety is still not given the attention it deserves. Now a new report by campaigning charity, Electrical Safety First, offers a 360 degree look at the issue.<\/p>\n
Future Homes \u2013 Electrical Safety in the Net Zero Home, considers some of the key technologies of the home of the future and their associated risks, as well as recommendations to enhance electrical safety. The report offers an integrated approach to the future home, reviewing four key themes: housing infrastructure, electric vehicles, product safety, and growing the installer base.<\/p>\n
\u201cTransitioning to net zero is of critical importance but we need to ensure it is not at the cost of consumer safety\u201d, explains Lesley Rudd, Chief Executive of Electrical Safety First. \u201cWe believe that by addressing these key, interrelated issues now, will help ensure the future home is not only low carbon and smart, but also safer.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom 2025, all new homes must be future-proofed with low carbon heating, A net zero home is also likely to be highly insulated and may include on-site renewable electricity generation and smart technologies, as well as electric vehicle home-charging points. So electricity \u2013 now increasingly produced from renewable sources \u2013 is set to play a key role in new builds. However, retro-fitting existing homes will be a greater challenge. The UK has the oldest housing stock in Europe and deploying such new technologies introduces inherent safety risks, particularly since we are in the midst of a major skills shortage\u201d.<\/p>\n
To gain feedback on the report \u2013 to inform further research and campaigns \u2013 the Charity has established a series of roundtables. The first event, on housing infrastructure, took place recently, with representatives from housing associations, consumer protection organisations, fire and rescue services, and relevant professional bodies. Discussions focused on the report\u2019s recommendations for improving data gathering for effective policy planning and the need for interventions and safeguards, such as mandatory electrical checks and support for vulnerable consumers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moving to net zero will bring fundamental changes to our homes, with new technologies creating a web of interconnected challenges and risks \u2013 made more problematic by having the oldest housing stock in Europe. Yet in our increasingly electric world, electrical safety is still not given the attention it deserves. Now a new report by […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17217,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17216","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry-news","et-has-post-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/esf-1.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17216"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17216\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17218,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17216\/revisions\/17218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17217"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ewnews.co.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}