State Farm’s Ting fire monitor detected and mitigated over 500 fires in 2022
State Farm and Whisker Labs report almost 10,000 homes have been saved from fire hazards using Ting.
No one wants to lose their home or life in a house fire, and no one wants to pay the inflating costs to rebuild. In 2020, State Farm partnered with Whisker Labs in the hopes of lowering rates of house fires by installing a plug-in sensor, Ting, in policyholder’s homes to monitor for dangerous arcing – the precursor to most home fires. The program has largely been a success, detecting and mitigating over 500 potential electrical fires in 2022.
Insurers and insureds unite on fire prevention
Insurers and policyholders are united on fire prevention, which has made the rollout of the Ting program through State Farm easier. Policyholders have jumped at the chance to use the Ting monitor, with 700,000 home installations and an additional 50,000 going in new homes every month. State Farm announced in early April that it is expanding the program to reach two million homes. State Farm policyholders receive the Ting sensor technology for free with easy instructions on installing and using the device. In addition to the predict and prevent benefits of smart fire monitors, Ting notifies homeowners when there is a power outage, when pipes may freeze, and when there’s a dangerous increase in utility power.
“Putting customers first and being a good neighbor is at the heart of the State Farm mission. Ting is part of our ongoing commitment to prevent losses and protect more people in more ways,” said Chris Schell, executive vice president and chief operating officer of State Farm, in an announcement. Hearing from our customers about how Ting has helped them protect their families and homes is extremely powerful. It just makes sense to expand the program to reach even more homeowners with free Ting sensors.”
Detecting fire before it ignites
The plug-in sensor by Whisker Labs identifies fires before they even start by looking for precursors to electrical fires, such as micro-arcs and sparks in faulty wires, faulty devices or appliances, or loose connections. These issues typically build over weeks or months, and Ting is designed to give advanced warnings of these hazards to prevent home fires. Electrical fires are a growing concern, with more devices and electronics in the home, causing a fire in a U.S. home every ten minutes, according to FEMA.
A white paper evaluated Ting data, equating to 65,000 home monitoring years, to find the device’s Electrical Fire Prevention Efficiency (EFPE). The breadth of information provided by the monitors suggested researchers should find about 27 electrical fires in the data, but they found only three incidents, making its EFPE rating go as high as 85%, according to calculations.
The white paper suggests the Ting plug-in system can prevent most electrical fires. Ting mitigated over 500 potential home fires in 2022 and more than 1,000 total, according to the data. These cases occurred when Ting detected a hazard, and steps were taken to stop the fire before it ignited. (Researchers pointed out more research is necessary on homes over 20 years old because they are at a higher risk for electrical fires caused by aging infrastructure, but the data to date is still promising.)
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