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We consider H(curl;Ω)-elliptic problems that have been discretized by means of Nédélec's edge elements on tetrahedral meshes. Such problems occur in the numerical computation of eddy currents. From the defect equation we derive localized expressions that can be used as a posteriori error estimators to control adaptive refinement. Under certain assumptions on material parameters and computational domains, we derive local lower bounds and a global upper bound for the total error measured in the energy norm. The fundamental tool in the numerical analysis is a Helmholtz-type decomposition of the error into an irrotational part and a weakly solenoidal part.