Home insulation deaths spark new electrical safety recommendations

A new report by Master Electricians Australia, entitled ‘Switch Thinking - Preventing Electrical Deaths in Australian Homes’, has called on state governments to move immediately to cut the death toll by requiring safety switches to be installed on every circuit of all new homes, and mandating a staged program of retrofitting for existing homes.

Master Electricians Australia produced the report in the wake of three tragic deaths of young installation installers during the rollout of the federal government’s Home Insulation Program (HIP).

Master Electricians Chief Executive Malcolm Richards said Australians must learn the lessons of the HIP fatalities: “The tragic loss of three young lives under the insulation program has been well documented, and nothing can reverse that terrible outcome.

“However, as Australia’s peak body focused on electrical safety, Master Electricians has undertaken this major study aimed at ensuring tragedies such as these do not occur again.

“All three of those deaths could have been prevented if safety switches had been installed. A safety switch can detect the loss of current associated with electric shock and cut the power in as little as 30 milliseconds - fast enough to prevent death or serious injury.

“This technology has been available for many decades. Sadly, however, around 40% of Australian homes do not have any safety switches, and most other homes only have protection on the power or light circuits.

“The initial audit of homes fitted with foil insulation under the HIP has shown that around 20% of homes have pre-existing electrical faults - increasing the risk of death or serious injury to homeowners.

“In order to achieve maximum electrical safety in homes, safety switches should be on every circuit.”

The Switch Thinking report identified significant variations between states and territories in the level of protection available to homeowners. It also found widespread confusion among Australians about the role of safety switches, with many people falsely believing they were protected from electric shock if they had circuit breakers in their switchboard. Other homeowners were simply unaware of whether they had safety switches installed or not.

The report identifies a troubling disparity between perception and reality, with more than 80% of people indicating they feel well protected even though only 60% of homes have safety switches, and very few homes have protection for every circuit.

The report recommends state governments legislate immediately to require safety switches on all circuits in new homes, a move which would add only around $200 to the cost of a new home. It also recommends retrofitting of safety switches to all circuits of existing homes within five years, and calls on state governments to lead the way by upgrading public housing stock.

“This report reveals Australia has a deficit of between 25 and 30 million safety switches,” Richards added. “That’s the number needed to bring existing homes up to the highest level of protection. If we don’t start working to close that deficit, we must accept than we will continue to lose 15 lives unnecessarily every year, and consign 300 people to painful injuries and potentially lengthy rehabilitation.

“In a developed country such as ours, that outcome cannot be acceptable. Master Electricians urges the state and territory governments to consider these recommendations carefully and to work towards improving electrical safety for the residents of all Australian homes. And we urge homeowners to switch their thinking, and make a small investment in safety switches next time they are having electrical work undertaken.”