HobSensus wins Safety Innovation of the Year award

Prefect Controls has been celebrating a feather in its cap for HobSensus.

The hob safety device was announced winner of the Safety Innovation Award 2023 at the Electrical Safety First annual conference hosted by Katie Prescott, Business Technology Editor at The Times.

The campaigning organisation aims to reduce death and injury caused by electricity. Electrical Safety First works with manufacturers, retailers, and consumer groups to improve safety regulations and standards.

The Safety Innovation Award, in its seventh year, recognises excellence of product safety initiatives within the industry.

The HobSensus idea was born out of a long-established relationship that Prefect has enjoyed with providers of student accommodation. Several customers discussed with Prefect an issue they had with cooking appliances being left switched on when unattended. This causes alarms to trigger, and in some cases, fire!

HobSensus was developed specifically for the student market, but witnessing its performance, and recognition by this award Prefect are hoping kitchen doors will open to a wider market and make kitchens safer for people living with dementia, in hostels, holiday parks and domestic dwellings.

The judges were particularly impressed with the products sensor and time safety features, robust manufacturing, the ease of retrofitting, and its affordability.

Receiving the award from Maarten van der Dussen, Managing Director at ProductIP, Adrian Barber from Prefect, comments, “Recognition from an authority like Electrical Safety First demonstrates the scale of the issue that exists with kitchen fires. It would be reassuring if this type of device became as commonplace as CO2 and smoke monitors.”