Nothing can be more terrifying than to discover the home you live in is on fire. Hopefully, you have time to get out and call the fire brigade, but even if the home is saved it may be too damaged to continue to occupy and you will need to find other accommodation until the restoration is complete.
Unfortunately, roof fires in homes is on the increase. They have jumped more than five hundred percent in the past three years and the fire brigade attribute this to faults in rooftop solar installations. There were 139 solar panel fires last year compared to just 22 in 2018, and there have been 18 in the first month of this new year.
The fire authorities attribute this to direct current ( DC ) isolate switches - designed to isolate the solar panels from the rest of the house - with the Federal Clean Energy regulator proposing to make these mandatory devices voluntary from next year.
The fire investigation research unit concludes that most fires are caused by water inflow from faulty installation or manufacture, and one of the reasons this is happening is because safety inspections of the work performed has decreased sharply. Solar roof installations established a new record in New South Wales last year when 101,234 installations were recorded and this was twenty-six percent higher than the record set in 2011.
At the same time, only 619 random inspections were carried out in the twelve months to June 30 last year compared with 954 inspections the previous year, and the regulatory framework is complicated by three agencies sharing responsibility for work supervision.
The Federal Clean Energy regulator randomly inspects solar panel installations, NSW Fair Trading monitors electricians licensing, and Safework NSW is responsible workplace safety. The end result is that only a miniscule number of jobs get an adequate safety check.
There is every indication that the popularity of solar with home owners will continue to grow and safety is a multi directional concern. It poses a risk to fire fighters as what these solar panels produce constitute a work hazard. Water and electricity are a bad mix and that is what they have to contend with in a solar panel fire.
We are getting more frequent storms because of global warming and solar is being installed on a mix of old and new roofs. Timber weakens with age and a roof that sags puts stress on the average solar installation. It is important that those isolation switches are in place and that householders know where they are - and how to use them.
Perhaps it is time to delegate the responsibility for correct installation back to the local council, but if so their building inspectors will need exacting tuition on the solar industry to be effective. It is evident that unless the inspection routine is improved we can expect an increasing number of house fires.
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