Archicentre warns of hot weather stress on electrical wiring

Archicentre recently warned that electrical faults in homes can result in fires when home owners switch on air conditioning to cope with soaring temperatures, overloading the electrical system with the heavy demand of air conditioners.

Robert Caulfield, Managing Director of Archicentre, commented that such overloads on poorly maintained, illegally installed or older electrical systems can result in injuries, deaths or severe damage to houses or appliances. In some cases the excessive demand on electricity to keep cool has closed parts of Australia's electrical grids.

“People usually associate house fires with winter; however, it is important to recognise electrical safety and fire hazards exist all year round,” said Caulfield. “We have become particularly concerned by the number of summer house fires recently reported throughout Australia.

“Of particular concern are the number of houses our architects pick up during pre-purchase inspections where previous owners have undertaken their own illegal wiring. Often the buyers of older homes are totally unaware that they could be buying a death trap.”

Archicentre carries out over 20,000 pre-purchase home inspections and design reports each year and is concerned about the number of homes inspected found with electrical faults in a survey of over 100,000 homes.

Victoria topped the list of electrical faults in the homes inspected with 34%, followed closely by New South Wales with 32%, South Australia 31%, Western Australia 22% and Queensland 21%.