An aged residential park and poor electrical installations are the perfect combo to stop the electrification of homes in Spain, key to the energy transition. About 80% of Spanish houses have deficiencies in this regard, a circumstance that puts their residents at risk. According to the Housing Electrical Rehabilitation Observatory in Spain, only 22.4% of the 26.6 million homes have been built after the approval of the last technical regulation by low voltage (establishes the technical conditions and guarantees that They must gather the electrical installations) of 2002. The most likely to have overloads, fire risks and electrical failures are built in the 1980s of the last century (the first regulation is approved in 1973), since its facilities does not They are designed for the passage to the energy transition. They are insecure housing. MODERNIZING THESE FACILITIES It is essential to implement new electrical services such as aerothermal heating, vehicle load or renewable solar production, and progress with the decarbonization of the residential building park. “An electrical installation cannot efficiently support the increase in energy demand associated with both the electrification of household consumption (currently, 40% of the energy consumption of homes is of fossil origin) and the incorporation of new elements, such as the recharge of the electric vehicle, a self -consumption installation or the incorporation of aerothermia ”, maintains Óscar Querol, general director of the Association of Manufacturers of Electrical Material and spokesperson of the Observatory of the Electrical Rehabilitation of the Housing in Spain (Oreve). Sanz, president of the General Council of the Technical Architecture of Spain (CGATE), states that the replacement of boilers with aerothermal and combustion cars by electricity implies an increase in power in homes that will necessarily force the facilities to change. This, experts warn that not only energy rehabilitation and energy savings are important, but also to attend to the state of the electrical system when reforms or rehabilitations are carried out in homes and buildings. If that update of the electrical installation is not done, the property could have premature obsolescence. Only 20% of the owners consider priority to update these facilities, according to Oreve. “Many of the aids are aimed at improving the global energy efficiency of buildings, reducing consumption, but are not directly focused on the renewal of electrical installations, which remains an important issue of safety and adaptation to adaptation to The growing electrification, ”says Samuel Espinosa, responsible for the Technical Department of the National Association of Rehabilitation and Reform Companies (AERR). In fact, experts criticize that in European funds Next Generation Electricity has been the great forgotten. For Querol, “these aids have focused mainly on actions for the improvement of the energy efficiency of the thermal envelope, leaving aside the update of electrical installations in homes. It would be essential to include it to ensure that the residential sector can adapt to electrification demands. ” In this regard, some autonomous communities, such as Asturias and the Basque Country, have contemplated aid for the modernization of the electrical facilities of neighborhood communities. And some municipalities such as Madrid, which approved in October the Plan rehabilitates 2024, which includes within the subsidable actions the electrical installation of the interior of the house, although only in single -family. From the Professional Association of Electric and Telecommunications Installers of Madrid (APIEM) they consider that these grants should extend to the owners of the floors that make up a residential building. Security plays against obsolete homes from the electrical point of view. Ancient buildings can face failures in the internal network, fire risks and the inability to take advantage of essential technologies for energy transition, such as self -consumption systems, heat pumps, recharge points or automation and control systems. 30% of the accidents due to electrical causes are produced in the Housing Hall, recalls the Technifuego Association with 2023 data from MAPFRE and the Professional Association of Fire Technicians. To guarantee the safety and preparation of the facilities before the green transition , from Oreve they demand that the government be mandatory periodic inspections in homes, as are those for common facilities in buildings. Also Ángel Bonet, president of the APIEM, considers that “just as we pass the ITV of our car and check us the installation of the gas, we believe that it is equally important to perform a periodic inspection every five or ten years, depending on the degree of electrification or power of electrical installations, to homes over 25 years old ”.
The ITV of the Light
In this association they have designed a basic review package that, they believe, could be subsidable by the administration. Includes, among other actions, a reappriee of the electrical panel, a differential and conductive insulation check, review of the plug bases or a verification of appliances to avoid derivations. These works have been estimated for 1.5 hours and a cost of between 120 and 200 euros for a house between 70 and 80 square meters. In change, from the schools of technical architects of Spain they estimate, although positive, this inspection measure It would be difficult to execute by the number of existing housing: “If there are no periodic inspections, unless a situation report is necessary where a technician recommends or not the change of some elements every time a revenue or rent a dwelling. In France it is mandatory to inform the owner about the conditions in which the electrical and gas facilities are found because they have some associated risk. ”In Spain there are mandatory inspections for communities of owners or public concurrence. However, the facilities of single -family housing or floors are not subject to rigorous control, «which leaves the responsibility of maintaining these facilities in safe conditions in the hands of the owners,» concrete Samuel Espinosa. However, the person in charge of the Anerr Technical Department emphasizes that the houses have an electric bulletin or electrical installation certificate (CIE), in which all the characteristics of the installation must appear.
