For those that want to explain why plugging anything wifi enabled to my house is inviting in the debull and subjecting myself to sneaky surveillance of how many times I run my dishwasher, just move along....

Ting sensor link

State Farm, and I assume other carriers, are offering this up as a free device and service. Apparently they have been for a couple years, finally got around to me.

Basically plug in, download app and connect to wifi. The dramatic stories of it identifying electrical issues before a fire are isolated but I'm sure true. There must be some value to it, or the carriers wouldn't be in this space, let alone expanding it.

For us it's been interesting in that it identifies voltage variances which is nothing other than interesting, but also notifies of brown-out or outage/restoration. Sure if you're there you already know this, but for those that travel or have a second home/cabin/shed, this brings some value. Also get a weekly report that shows details by day.

If you're with State Farm give your agent a call and I'm sure they can get you a link and in the program. Unsure of others, if you know of similar carriers let folks know. No discounts for this in premiums.

I have yet to understand why people “invite” entities who are structured to make money off you to monitor your actions & environment. Anything collected can be used as a denial of claim or termination.

Personally, I seek more and more to limit my exposed foot print. Ie, there is no reason to be in my life.

Andrew

quote:

Originally posted by Georgeair:
If you're with State Farm give your agent a call and I'm sure they can get you a link and in the program.

Here is the Ting program on State Farm's Website and includes a button to enroll.

With larger and larger insurance losses due to natural disasters, I am sure the insurance companies will be implementing more tech to lower their insurance payouts. Whether that is by preventing losses before they happen or terminating polices I am not certain.

I’ve got enough monitoring in my life and I would not add more. Honestly if my house burned down, as long as nobody was inside, it would not bother me. I have nothing that cannot be replaced.

A concern that Insurers may use gained information to deny or reduce any fire related claims.

As is the "vehicle driving monitors" and "discounts" for using them, while having data showing any "reckless operation" and denying/reducing compensation for cause.

Not so much an issue to Safe Driver, but data that might "reveal" reckless/dangerous operation, when that data has no context, and some of the negative "detected metrics" may well be warranted to avoid a hazard.

I would have no issue with such a device that if it is isolated, and requires no connectivity using PLC with HMI.
(Programmable Logic Controller/Human Machine Interface)


Yes. I am a skeptic.

It’s 50 degrees inside and 36 degrees outside my house in MI, all sensors are nominal, the generator ran its semi-monthly self-check and isn’t reporting any issues with our electricity. There’s no ice on the lake and the river appears to be flowing well:

People are already melting down over Smart Meters . This will give them something else to freak out over .

The hone monitoring itself isn’t a bad thing, it is how the information is used that brings in the issues.
Having the info is good, giving the info to your insurance so they can better determine your coverage suitability is a different matter.

I run a separate WiFi net at the house for all of my home automation that isn’t connected to the internet. I only connect the router into the internet when I need to download updates. I don’t use anything that requires the internet to function like google or Amazon.

If you don't want your insurance company involved, you can buy the Ting sensor with 1 year of monitoring for $99. After that it is $50 per year for monitoring. Certainly cheap enough for peace of mind.

Ting's privacy policy says they do not sell or share info with anyone.

I'm as much of a privacy freak as anybody. But think of it this way. What's the worst that can happen? 1.) Your insurance company finds out about a problem and cancels your policy - or makes you fix it (with a $1000 contibution from them), or 2.) You refuse to use it and your house burns down.

My current thinking is that I will just buy it myself. If there are no problems, I can always sign up thru the ins company next year.

Interested in hearing more thoughts.