2024: SafeBatt
The Faraday Institution's SafeBatt Project wins for significant contributions to lithium-ion battery safety. This research is crucial for the UK's net-zero goals, ensuring safe operation across various applications such as automotive, micro-mobility, stationary storage, and aerospace.
Led by The Faraday Institution, the team collaborated with seven universities (Oxford, University College London, King’s College London, Newcastle, Sheffield, Warwick, and Cambridge) and industry experts. The work focused on understanding battery failure modes and mechanisms of failure propagation, with an emphasis on detecting and mitigating events such as thermal runaway.
Using advanced instrumentation and innovative testing techniques, SafeBatt investigated how material properties could trigger safety issues and varied responses. The team developed models to predict thermal runaway, flame, and cell-to-cell propagation, providing valuable insights for future battery system designers.
SafeBatt also actively engaged with stakeholders, including government bodies and first responders, offering training and advisory support to enhance safety protocols. Since 2021, the project has conducted more than 100 public and stakeholder engagement activities, including lectures, media interviews, and presentations to raise awareness.
2023: Prefect Controls
HobSensus makes kitchens safer by ensuring hobs are not left switched on and alerts residents to potential fires. It's particularly useful for student accommodation (2022/23 saw a five-year high for electrical fires in student halls of residence), communal kitchens, and residents in sheltered or assisted-living property.
Designed by Prefect Controls, the device uses an integrated timer and a 64-zone sensor which reads temperatures across the hob, identifying hot spots with pinpoint accuracy. This enables the unit to react before flashpoints are reached.
Users press the red button to activate the unit and start the timer. When the time elapses, the hob is switched off. But if the temperature on the hob approaches 280°C, the unit flashes and emits an audible alarm. If no action is taken the power shuts off.
In addition to the award winner, the Highly Commended entry for 2023 went to South Tyneside Homes for its Post Occupancy Electrical Safety Check initiative, which educates tenants on electrical safety risks.
This improves awareness of how tenants can keep themselves and their families safe in their homes over the short and long-term. And it offers protection by reducing issues of disrepair, electrical faults, electrical fires, and overspending of budgets.
2022: Connected Innovations
Connected Innovations wins for its complex and innovative socket outlet, backed by a core safety and communications system, which monitors a range of external factors, and can ultimately prevent the risk of overheating that could otherwise lead to a fire.
The product was invented by Connected Innovations founder Anthony Parfitt, who has more than 30 years' experience developing life-critical safety solutions for the Home Office, police and Network Rail.
Connected Innovations sockets detect heat build-up in the plugs and nearby wiring and turn the appliance off, stopping the fire risk before it starts. The same patented technology can also be deployed within the appliances themselves, helping to prevent appliance malfunction fires, of which there are more than 5,000 each year in the UK.
2021: Aico
Aico wins for its SmartLINK Gateway product, which acts as a gateway between the data that smoke and fire alarms hold and a cloud portal. This allows for homeowners and landlords to stay up-to-date with the status of alarm systems, giving increased confidence in the safety and maintenance of alarms.
More information about SmartLINK Gateway
Runners-up this year were Sami Gabriel and SAO Limited.
2020: E-bulb
E-Bulb is the winner, the smallest fire extinguisher in the world. It can be placed directly at the source of the fire, on an electrical circuit board / power adapter, or a potential hot spot of almost any consumer appliance. If a fire starts, E-Bulb detects it, extinguishes it, and cuts the power to prevent re-ignition.
Runners-up this year were Safe Connect and Smarter Utility Ltd.