Categories: Featured News, Safety

UL Solutions and IAFF partner on Residential Energy Projects

Residential,Home,With,Professional,Thermal,Insulation

Share this content

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn

UL Solutions, The International Association of Fire Fighters (IAFF) and United States Department of Energy (US DOE) have joined forces to address concerns with new technologies with enhanced energy performance when installed in residential properties.

Leveraging the safety science experience and industry relationships, UL Solutions and the IAFF initiated a joint project in 2022 under an agreement with the US DOE. The project will focus on two separate and important initiatives related to energy efficiency in residential buildings.

Initiative 1 — Fire Performance on Energy Efficient Exterior Walls

The first initiative of the project addresses concerns surrounding new technologies with enhanced, energy-efficient exterior walls installed on residential properties. The concerns of fire travel extending vertically or laterally were examined.

The IAFF and UL Solutions established a Project Advisory Panel and held several virtual meetings to present information on previous fire testing conducted by the UL Solutions Fire Research & Development team and the Fire Safety Research Institute of UL Research Institutes.

The panel discussed the development and goals of the earlier PNNL project, and then they developed a test plan.

Initiative 2 — Firefighting Tactics in Residential Properties with Building Energy Storage Systems

The second aspect focuses on the fire service response to Residential Battery Energy Storage System (RBESS) incidents. Again, the IAFF and UL established a Project Advisory Panel with several firefighters who have responded to BESS incidents, representatives from the battery industry, and engineers involved in designing commercial BESS fire and explosion protection solutions.

Next steps

Testing is complete for Projects 1 and 2, the advisory team will continue to analyse results and determine what next phase of tests will take place.

A report of this work will be released to the DOE and made available through IAFF and UL Solutions platforms.

Find out more about the project here.

Newsletter
Receive the latest breaking news straight to your inbox