How Home Insurance is Affected by Smart Devices

If you’ve spent time and money investing in smart devices for your home, it would be nice to save money wouldn’t it?  One major way you save money of course is through energy efficiency, with smart lighting, heating, and refrigeration controlled to a small degree in each room of your home, meaning you only use what energy you need when you need it.

However there are other areas where money can be saved with smart devices, and first among them is by increasing the security at your home.  This may not only prevent you from financial loss, but also result in cheaper home insurance premiums according to Insure4Retirement.  Insurance companies are slowly adjusting home insurance cover to reduce policies for those who have installed recognised smart security devices to protect the home from intrusion and deter damage and break ins.  Here are some of the devices that your home insurance provider may consider necessary.

Smart Doorbells

Smart Doorbells are becoming more commonplace now, you’ve probably visited a friend or relative where you’ve pressed a space age looking bell, only to find out when they open the door laughing that they’ve heard the whole conversation you had at their front door and even have it recorded on video on their smart phone or tablet to play back to you.  Smart doorbells are an effective way of providing security for your front door. 

Like a digital peephole, when someone presses the bell you can see who is there at your front door so you can make the decision of whether to open it to them or not.  Because they constantly record video footage and stream it live to your smart devices, you can see what’s happening at your property 24/7 even when you’re abroad.  The smart sensor built into the camera will also trigger an alert to you when movement is detected at the doorbell so you can decide how to respond if an unwanted intruder is detected.

Smart Cameras

Like smart doorbells, smart cameras detect movement and stream live video footage to smart devices.  However they can be placed throughout your property, externally to cover entranceways, and internally to cover doors and windows.  With a fully covered video surveillance system which triggers responses such as light and sound when an intruder is detected, and sends alerts to you when movement is detected, your home is fully covered and you can rest assured that intruders will not only be seen but deterred.

Smart Sensors

In addition to smart cameras, smart sensors which are cheaper, can be integrated into your smart security system to cover some entrances and will like the cameras trigger a response and alert if movement is detected.

Clearly the advantages of these smart home security devices are obvious, with home insurance providers also seeing the advantages of them in deterring and preventing security breaches, damage to the property, and ultimately insurance claims.  What’s next you ask?  How about smart water leakage devices, which shut off water when a leak is detected?

Sources

  1. https://www.moneysupermarket.com/home-insurance/connected-homes/
  2. Ofcom Communications Market Report 2019
  3. https://www.abi.org.uk/news/news-articles/2018/12/is-water-damage-covered-by-insurance/
  4. Home Insurance UK, December 2019 Mintel Report

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About Charles Knox 1393 Articles
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