Rising prices for electricity have caused Danes to move a greater part of their electricity consumption to the evening and night hours, when the electricity price is often lower. But even if it benefits the electricity bill, it is not necessarily good for fire safety.
This is what it says from Danske Beredskaber - the association of municipal emergency units.
- I can understand that people want to use electricity when it is cheap. But from a fire safety point of view, it is actually not particularly appropriate to use electrical appliances or charge batteries at night when you are not supervising them, says Head of Secretariat Bjarne Nigaard.
The risk is that a short circuit or a fault in the electrical device will not be detected, and this could result in a fire, says Bjarne Nigaard.
Changed consumption pattern
The branch organization Green Power Denmark published figures earlier this autumn that show that Danes have changed their consumption patterns in light of rising electricity prices.
The figures showed that a larger part of electricity consumption has moved to the late hours between 10 pm and 2 am. This means that part of the consumption is moved from the period between 5 pm and 8 pm, which the electricity companies usually call "the peak". This is the time when families typically cook and when the electricity price is often the highest.
At least once a week, the fire service goes out to a fire caused by a tumble dryer.
- We cannot yet see in our statistics a sharp increase in fires in electrical appliances at night. But we can be nervous that if the trend continues, it will result in more fires, says Bjarne Nigaard.
If you want the washing machine or dryer to run at night to save electricity, according to the head of the secretariat, you should protect yourself with a smoke alarm.
- Our strongest recommendation is that if you want to use electricity at night and do not have the opportunity to monitor what is going on, get a smoke alarm. A working smoke alarm is the best and cheapest life insurance you can get. If something goes wrong, it will wake people up and you can get out in time, says Bjarne Nigaard.
Approximately 75 percent of Danish homes are equipped with one or more smoke alarms.
/ritzau/
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