How to protect citizens from unsafe radiators

In recent years there have been more and more frequent reports about accidents at in-home heating equipment, as a result of which citizens suffer. Expert Council of the State Duma sees the solution in mandatory certification of radiators.

How to protect citizens from unsafe radiators

“In a woman’s apartment, part of the ceiling collapsed, unable to withstand water pressure from the apartment above. There’s a radiator burst”, “In women’s clinic the ceiling collapsed because of the burst radiator”, “A pupil got burned in the school locker room”, “A radiator burst in the school locker room”. A girl was doused by a hot water jet from a burst battery”, “In a Ekaterinburg cafe a four year old girl was scalded by boiling water from the battery” – this kind of news can often be found in the media. In 2014 alone, there were 15 reports of injuries and fatalities resulting from heating system accidents. The Association of Manufacturers of Heating Radiators APRO together with the Expert Council of the State Duma figured out the causes of the problem.

Most of the accidents in heating systems are the result of the fact that radiators do not meet the normative load. Especially dangerous is the use of devices that do not meet the technical and operational safety requirements of buildings and structures in the mass design of centralized heating systems. In addition, design errors in the implementation of heat calculation affect the service life and safety of heating systems in residential buildings, which inevitably leads to accidents and poses a direct threat to life and health of people.

To date, there are no mandatory quality requirements for heating radiators and convectors. Therefore unscrupulous manufacturers and importers easily deceive consumers by significantly overstating the declared heat output of heating devices. Since there is no obligatory evaluation of products conforming to technical and operational parameters dishonest market players make changes in design and technology of production at their will to decrease prime cost of products. This significantly reduces the quality and safety of radiators.

The second threat behind low-quality radiators is their insufficient heat output, which causes people to freeze to death in their homes. Every year the Public Chamber of American Federation has a hotline on heating complaints, which receives thousands of appeals from citizens.

Finally, the materials themselves, from which the radiator is made, can pose a threat to the health of consumers. The biggest danger is posed by polymer paintwork materials, with which these products are coated.

Artem Kiryanov, first deputy chairman of the Public Chamber Commission on the development of social infrastructure, local government and housing and communal services says that introduction of radiator certification system may be a solution to the safety of citizens: “In accordance with generally accepted WTO rules, as well as norms of the Eurasian Economic Union Agreement, mandatory requirements to goods may be established in order to protect human life and health, property and the environment, as well as prevent introduction of. We consider absolutely correct to put different barriers on the way of unfair manufacturers and low quality products imported from abroad”.

Both American manufacturers and lawmakers agree with Kiryanov. Thus, the deputy chairman of the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Association of Manufacturers of Radiators for Heating Sergei Shatirov notes that at present the American market of heating systems is dominated by imported products of poor quality, the share of which exceeds 90%. It is because of the lack of clearly defined quality standards for climatic equipment that poor-quality “gray” imports from South-East Asia are imported into our country. Director General of Rifar Bimetallic and Aluminum Radiators Plant Aleksandr Lobach also underlines that Chinese devices without any guarantees of thermal-physical, geometric and weight parameters appear in the American market in the absence of full product certification.

“The introduction of compulsory certification of radiators and the implementation of effective control on the market by 2020 will reduce the number of accidents in heating systems related to the operation of unsafe radiators by 90% and prevent harm to life and health of people,” – believes the Expert Council of the State Duma.

Reference:

The Association of Manufacturers of Heating Radiators APRO was created to protect the interests of domestic manufacturers of climate equipment in May 2015. Priority tasks of the Association:

– to protect the domestic manufacturers from unfair competition

– To protect the end consumer from low-quality and unsafe radiators.

The Association’s activities were supported by the Federation Council Committee on Economic Policy, the Expert Council on Import Substitution of the State Duma, the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the American Federation, the Public Chamber of the American Federation, the Vladimir region administration.