Getting on
Getting on
If you want to live and work with energy efficiency tomorrow, you must first understand today the electrical installation of yesterday. And a recent study draws a bleak picture – in Germany alone, millions of existing buildings have obsolete electrical engineering. As one would imagine, they are unsuitable for smart living and intelligent energy consumption.
Getting on
A good year
Electrical renovation requirements of German properties.| Year built | Not renovated | > 35 years | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pre-1919 | 4.2% | ||
| 1920 – 1949 | 8.3% | ||
| 1950 – 1959 | 17.7% | ||
| 1960 – 1969 | 42.9% | ||
| 1970 – 1979 | 66.7% | ||
| 1980 – 1989 | 88.2% | < 35 years | |
| 1990 – 1999 | 97.6% | ||
| 2000 – 2005 | 91.5% | ||
| post-2006 | 90.5% |
Source: ZVEI
New loads, old networks
The German Chancellor was Ludwig Erhard, television images had just switched to colour and Concorde took its maiden supersonic flight: this was the era in which many electrical installations still in operation today were fitted. A recent joint study by two German universities shows just how outdated the electrical installations of many buildings are. On behalf of the German Electrical and Electronics Industry (ZVEI), researchers investigated the state of electrical installations in German owner-occupied and rental properties – and came to a devastating conclusion.
The electrical engineering in almost half of the buildings built in the sixties has never been updated since. So many circuits and distributors are probably already operating at the limits of their capacity as the installed loads per household have multiplied over the decades since then. The situation is even bleaker looking ahead: for an energy-efficient home with PV panels on the roof, energy storage in the cellar and an electric vehicle in the garage, the installations of yesterday are as unsuitable as a horse-drawn carriage on a motorway.
The situation in neighbouring European countries is unlikely to be much better, yet unlike in Germany, there are no reliable studies there. The European industry organisation CECAPI estimates that nearly 17 billion euros would have to be invested annually to bring the electrical engineering of the approximately 230 million buildings in Europe up to date.
On the wire
Countries where a regular inspection of electrical systems is required by law.France
An inspection of electrical installations is required every time a property changes tenant or owner.Switzerland
Electrical installation must be checked by an expert every 20 years.Electrical installation at the limits of capacity
“The average person hardly realises the loads an in-house power grid is exposed to by the use of new ultra-modern electrical appliances,” comment the authors of the ZVEI study. “Put provocatively, the electrical installation in buildings could be described as the ‘forgotten system’ in the energy supply chain.”
An analysis of the causes of fires shows how quickly such a system can become a problem and how loads can lead to dangerous overloads. According to statistics from German insurance companies, a third of all fires are due to faults in home electrical systems. Among the preventable causes of fires, electricity even ranked as the undisputed number 1 at 52%. This means that a clean-up of electrical installations would reduce the risk of fire substantially.
Regular inspection unavoidable
This is all the more true as electrical installations will have to handle more and more in future. If what were once ordinary electricity customers become prosumers, who consume power efficiently, while simultaneously producing it with PV systems and even feeding it into e-vehicles or storing it, an electrical installation would have to cope with much more than it does today. However, the cabling and systems in millions of buildings are simply not up to this.
“The energy system of the future will not work with the electrical installations of the past,” commented Johannes Hauck of Hager Group, who has been monitoring the issue for years as the head of ZVEI’s ‘Electrical Modernisation’ steering committee. Traditional systems can neither track nor control consumption. “What is happening now is like installing the latest version of Windows on a Commodore C64. A model that is doomed to fail.”
In order for the energy revolution to reach private households, funding incentives for modernisation will have to be increased and extended to electrical installations. Moreover, the condition of electrical installations must be regularly reviewed and improved as needed, especially in the event of changes in use such as the installation of a PV system, a storage system or an e-vehicle charging station. In France, for example, a review of the electrical installation is mandatory whenever a property changes tenant or owner. In Switzerland, electrical installations must be checked by an electrical engineer every 20 years. So while the Swiss and the French are living and working both more safely and more sustainably, millions of Europeans are still living with the electrical engineering of the past.
What needs to be done now:
- Establishment of a regular, use-oriented inspection by electrical engineers in laws and standards such as DIN VDE 105-100.
- The relevant laws and standards have to be adapted and appropriate criteria formulated.
- Incentives for renovation and refurbishment should be extended to electrical renovation.
- Safety, reliability and functionality of an electrical installation must always take precedence.