Failure Modes in Electricity and Telecommunication Facilities in Dwellings in Spain

The value of a house depends not only on the quality of the construction elements but also on the functionality of its installations. Making mistakes during the design and even execution phases of installations in newly built homes is common. This paper determines, catalogues, and quantifies faults in electrical and telecommunications installations in dwellings based on owners’ complaints and using the ‘learning from faults’ philosophy. To this end, 154 complaints concerning these installations in all of Spain were analyzed and protocolized. The results show that, in all types of dwellings, the most common fault was ‘alterations and malfunctions’ (81%), followed by ‘incorrect or lack of placement of elements’ (14%). The pathological origin with the greatest presence in the research was ‘shortcomings and omissions in the installation’ (40%) and ‘anomalies in the installation’ (36%). Moreover, all functional deterioration processes as well as the type of dwelling where each of these parameters occurred most were defined and quantified (association between each fault and its cause). Finally, the ‘probability factor’ (PF) was determined, which numerically quantifies the probable existence of complaints according to four ranges. The results will pave the way for more precise inspections during the construction phase.