Good Neighbor Stories

State Farm® expands Ting fire safety program to 2 million homes

Tue, 02 Apr 2024 09:11:48 -0500

State Farm is pleased to announce the expansion of the Ting fire safety program as part of its longstanding commitment to fostering safer homes and communities, offering eligible customers more than 2 million smart sensors for free. With this program expansion, State Farm continues to lead the industry with the largest free distribution of smart home technology to help predict and prevent losses and ultimately save lives.

With increasing reliance on electronics, devices, and the power grid at large, the occurrence of electrical fires has steadily risen, according to national data from FEMA,¹ resulting in a fire in a U.S. home every ten minutes.² Since 2020, State Farm has collaborated with Whisker Labs to combat this risk with a simple, plug-in sensor that monitors a home for dangerous arcing, the precursor to most electrical fires. Beyond its ability to detect and therefore help prevent electrical fires, Ting also offers additional benefits like power outage and dangerous utility power notifications, frozen pipe prevention, and more.

"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.” says Chris Schell, Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer of State Farm. "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.”

Today, nearly 700,000 homes insured by State Farm have received a Ting sensor, with 50,000 additional sensors reaching homes each month.

"We continue to be humbled by the unwavering commitment of State Farm to customer safety. It has been an honor to work to build a program that has saved nearly 10,000 homes from electrical fire hazards," says Bob Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO of Whisker Labs. "Expanding the offer to 2 million homes is another example of how State Farm always puts their customers first. Ting sensors help protect individual homes and monitor the electric utility grid that we rely on for life every day. Prevention is simply better for everyone."

State Farm homeowners interested in a free Ting sensor and service can check eligibility and enroll online. In addition to the smart plug-in sensor and app, customers receive $1,000 credit for professional remediation of electrical fire hazards when required (provided by Whisker Labs).

_1._{FEMA - Residential Building Electrical Malfunction Fire Trends}
_2._{NFPA report - Home Electrical Fires}

About Whisker Labs:

Whisker Labs develops cutting-edge sensor technology to protect families, homes, and communities by predicting and preventing electrical fires while also monitoring the resiliency and safety of the U.S. electrical grid. Its flagship solution, Ting, draws on decades of electromagnetic and atmospheric sensor expertise combined with AI to detect electrical faults in the home and on the grid. Through a single, DIY sensor plugged into a wall outlet, Ting enables intelligent detection, localization, and mitigation of hazards before they can start a fire. As one of the fastest growing grid IoT networks, Ting is proven to prevent 4 out 5 electrical fires, reducing home fire losses and saving lives across the U.S. every day. For more information visit www.whiskerlabs.com and www.tingfire.com.

State Farm® offers customers more than one million free Ting sensors to help prevent electrical fires

Wed, 15 Feb 2023 03:00:00 -0600

State Farm, the largest insurer of vehicles and homes in the nation, is offering customers more than one million Ting sensors to help detect electrical hazards in their homes.

According to 2021 data from the National Fire Protection Association, electrical failures or malfunctions are the second leading cause of home fires.

To help identify and prevent potential electrical fires, State Farm is offering eligible customers Whisker Labs Ting sensors at no cost.

"State Farm is committed to being a good neighbor and always looks for ways to put our customers first. Ting is an important part of the work we are doing to prevent losses and to help protect more people in more ways. Offering Ting to homeowner customers makes sense,” says Chris Schell, Senior Vice President – Property & Casualty. “Many of our customers who now have Ting in their homes have told us they love it!”

Since 2020, Labs @ State Farm has collaborated with Whisker Labs to offer Ting sensors to eligible homeowner customers across the country. More than 200K homes insured by State Farm are now monitored by a Ting sensor which has resulted in thousands of success stories, and in many cases, imminent fire loss prevention. Electrical fire hazards often start silently and simmer over time – in many cases, over months and years – before a fire ignites. Proactive mitigation removes risks that could otherwise result in a devastating loss in the future.

"Through Ting, Whisker Labs is identifying and mitigating nearly 250 home fire hazards every month, a number that is growing rapidly. It is incredibly gratifying each time Ting helps identify an electrical fault, mitigate the hazard and prevent a fire. We are truly saving lives and homes," says Bob Marshall, Co-Founder & CEO of Whisker Labs.

State Farm homeowners interested in a Ting sensor and three years of free service can check eligibility and enroll online. In addition to the smart plug-in sensor and app access, additional benefits include:

Free Ting sensor with mobile app access
Pay no annual service fees for three years (fees paid by State Farm)
Receive $1,000 credit toward remediation of electrical fire hazards (provided by Whisker Labs)

How does Ting Work?

Ting monitors the electrical network of a home using a smart plug-in sensor to help detect hazards, so they can be fixed before they have a chance to ignite a fire. The main precursors to electrical fires, micro-arcs and sparks that develop, happen in faulty wires, loose connections and faulty appliances or devices. These signs usually develop over weeks and months, so Ting is designed to provide you with advanced warnings to address these hazards prior to the hazard starting an electrical fire.

Whisker Labs on Vimeo: How Ting Works

Ting may also help detect electrical faults in the utility grid that could damage your home and potentially trigger wildfires.

"The vital initiatives in electrification also demand more from electrical systems in the home and on the utility grid. Ting is leading the insurance and electric utility sectors toward a future of predicting and preventing losses and enhancing resiliency. We are very proud to be entrusted to help protect State Farm customers and communities," added Bob Marshall.

About Whisker Labs:

At Whisker Labs, we help protect families, property, homes, and communities by preventing fires and providing incredible visibility into the health of the electric utility grid. Our breakthrough technology, Ting, delivers intelligent detection, localization, and mitigation of potential fire hazards before they can start a fire from a single DIY plug-in sensor. While on the job looking for home electrical fire hazards from faulty wiring, devices, or appliances, Ting also monitors the quality of power delivered to homes by the electric utility. Poor power quality can induce fires, damage appliances, and create electrocution risks inside a home. And across the broader community, the network of Ting sensors also provides expert grid monitoring in real-time, helping grid operators identify and locate incipient faults, which, left unaddressed, can escalate and serve as an ignition source for devastating wildfires in prone communities.

Whisker Labs Funding Led by State Farm Ventures® Oversubscribed

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 13:50:11 -0600

Funding enables Whisker Labs to meet rapidly expanding demand for the Ting

GERMANTOWN, Md. November 16, 2021 -- Whisker Labs, a rapidly growing AI company and developer of Ting, today announced the close of its oversubscribed Series C funding round led by State Farm Ventures, a wholly owned subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company. Whisker Labs is offering a new paradigm in insurtech, bundling proactive safety and consumer simplicity. This funding allows Whisker Labs to accelerate distribution further and scale the business to meet growing demand.

“With over 100,000 homes currently using Ting, this round of funding enables Whisker Labs to serve hundreds of thousands more homes with Ting by the end of next year,” said Bob Marshall, Whisker Labs' Co-Founder and CEO.”

As insurance providers want to complement their homeowner offerings with more proactive solutions to improve safety and prevent claims, Ting identifies and alerts the homeowner through the monitoring service to the precise sources of electrical hazards that, left alone, could result in devastating home fires. Capturing and pinpointing fault signal data from inside the house or from local utility power - and certifying complete remediation of those faults – are key components of Ting’s turnkey service. The origins and types of faults Ting has identified are many.

“Part of our mission statement is to help people manage the risks of everyday life,” said Chris Schell, Senior Vice President-Property & Casualty, State Farm. “Funding for Whisker Labs aligns perfectly with that goal, helping our customers prevent and control losses in their own homes. As evidenced through the many accounts of how Ting has helped identify electrical issues before they cause losses in homes, our customers feel empowered to protect their families and possessions.”

"We appreciate our relationship with State Farm,” continued Marshall, “and we’re excited to continue our work with the insurance industry to accelerate the adoption of Ting's smart sensing and deep learning to deliver safety and peace of mind to customers.”

ABOUT WHISKER LABS

At Whisker Labs, our passion lies in solving hard problems with simple and elegant products that protect our customers and their homes by preventing fires. Winner of 2021 Best of the Smart Home Awards - Best Use of Machine Learning Category, Ting unlocks incredible insights into electrical anomalies in very fine detail, in real-time, from a single intelligent sensor. Ting's simplicity and high performance are born from decades of sensing, electromagnetic, and data science expertise. Ting is a turnkey subscription service to monitor and notify homeowners of electrical fire hazards using a DIY smart plug that takes 2 minutes to install. While on the lookout for electrical fire hazards within a home, Ting also monitors the quality of power delivered by electric utilities, identifying utility grid faults that can induce fires, damage appliances, and create electrocution risks inside the home. These same faults can also serve as an ignition source for devastating wildfires.

About State Farm Ventures, LLC

State Farm Ventures focuses on investing in startups developing technologies and products to fulfill customer needs in ways they may not expect from their insurance company. State Farm Ventures, LLC, is a wholly-owned subsidiary of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company.

Switch on these wildfire protection tech tools

Mon, 10 May 2021 11:24:18 -0500

According to the National Interagency Fire Center (NIFC), there were 57,000 wildfires in the U.S. last year that burned 10 million acres of land. This is an increase of 14% compared to 2019 data and nearly double the number of acres burned. There is little doubt that wildfires have a devastating impact on communities. Preventing, preparing, and recovering from wildfire requires both immediate and long-term solutions.

State Farm® is using technology to help homeowners better prepare and recover from the devastating impact of wildfires. These new tech tools - a sensor, an app, and your smartphone - places the power of preparation in the palm of consumers’ hands. Currently, 4.5 million U.S. homes are identified as being at high risk of wildfire. This makes the technology and wildfire preparation tools even more critical.

Ting

Ting is a plug-in device and smartphone app produced by Whisker Labs, a company specializing in fire safety using advanced technology to monitor electrical systems in the home and on the electrical utility grid.

The device is the size of a plug-in night light and can offer protection from electrical fires. Once plugged into a home electrical outlet, Ting is on the lookout for unique signals that are indicative of an electrical problem that could lead to a home fire. These signals can originate from loose connections, damaged wires or faulty devices and appliances, or from faults on the grid. If Ting detects anything unusual, it sends a notification to the customer’s mobile phone while also notifying the Whisker Labs’ monitoring center.

Electrical fires are responsible for originating 13% of all U.S. home fires, with an annual cost of $1.3 billion (National Fire Protection Association 2019 Survey). That’s an alarming statistic. While Ting can help detect electrical fire hazards in the home, it can also help detect wildfire ignition risks from the grid. The device can detect signals from malfunctions or fluctuations on the grid that indicate the risk of a fault or larger arcing event. A common example is electrical transformers that are typically installed outside the home to reduce the high-voltage supply from the grid into the low-voltage needed for a residence. When transformers work well, we don’t notice them. It’s a different story when they begin to experience issues and fail to operate correctly, or simply fail outright (Ting). These faults can cause safety issues, fire hazards, and damage to devices inside your home or produce sparks that could trigger a wildfire and potentially put other structures at risk.

Last summer, Whisker Labs helped launch a significant distribution program in partnership with State Farm. Eligible State Farm customers in Arizona, California, and Texas received Ting for free by simply enrolling online. In May, Whisker Labs announced 40,000 Ting devices had been distributed. Expansion to more customers in more states is planned in 2021.

IBHS Wildfire Ready App

Living in the era of apps, it is logical that the second new tool in a homeowners’ wildfire mitigation toolbox comes in app form. The Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) is one of the leading sources in the science of catastrophes. Leveraging their latest research, the goal of their new Wildfire Ready Virtual app is to help homeowners prepare their homes for a wildfire. The app uses augmented reality so that once you point your smartphone at your home, you can “see” the weak points. It also walks you through specific do-it-yourself (DIY) projects, including remodeling tips to make your home more fire resistant.

State Farm participated in the development of this app that you can download and try for yourself anytime (download for Apple or Android phones). Motivated to do even more? Check these extra wildfire protection tips in the IBHS Wildfire Ready Guide.

Home inventory

Unfortunately, there will be instances where despite preparation efforts, a wildfire may destroy your home. Recovering from such a devastating event is difficult but technology can help. This is where the third tech tool, your smartphone, takes center stage. A home inventory can show visual proof of what was in your home before it was damaged or destroyed. To this effect, the storytelling capabilities of today’s smartphones are a great ally.

A simple way to do a home inventory is to walk through each room of your home, taking pictures and videos of everything in it. Don’t forget to also step outside and take images of the structure and everything around it.

Let me introduce you to Mary. In this video she tells us the story of losing her home to a wildfire in Santa Barbara. No one better than her and her agent, Irene, to give us a home inventory 101.

So switch on these tech tools and take your wildfire safety to a whole new level.

State Farm Ventures Is on a Hunt for the Top Start-ups

Mon, 11 May 2020 14:00:00 -0500

Armed with intuition and lots of data, State Farm Ventures scouts like Aaron Chan navigate Silicon Valley in search of the start-ups with the greatest disruptive potential. They are looking for tech companies that can help us help you - our customers.

“When startups find out I work for State Farm they’re surprised,” says Chan.

State Farm products insure where we live, how we travel, and cover life and wellness. If companies can help us continue to innovate in any of those strategic areas, Chan wants to speak with them.

“That eureka moment where I make the connection between a State Farm need and a solution from a startup is my favorite part of the job,” he adds.

“We are looking for products and services that we don’t currently have or technology that can enhance the products and services we currently offer,” says Mike Remmes, Innovation Executive in Labs @ State Farm. He’s also the architect of its State Farm Ventures, which focuses on research and development.

“We want to invest in companies that can help streamline our processes and operations or provide better services and products to our customers, now and into the future.”

However, venture capital waters are rough and unpredictable.

“Challenging conventional thinking is the point where innovation occurs,” explains Corey Schieler, Director of State Farm Ventures. What his team seeks is alignment between State Farm and startups.

That connection recently happened with a young firm called HopSkipDrive. The company specializes in transporting children to and from school. State Farm Ventures determined that the idea provides a valued service and peace of mind. In fact, it’s not just for customers facing transportation challenges for their children; there may be future alignment to customers with elderly parents facing similar mobility difficulties.

State Farm Ventures is a wholly owned subsidiary of State Farm. It launched in 2018 with a $100 million investment commitment and has already provided funding to nine companies.

“We try to find companies that are strategic to us. They must benefit our policyholders or advance the interests of State Farm. They must also provide a competitive advantage,” concludes Remmes.

Other investing examples include Cambridge Mobile Telematics. They provide State Farm with the technology behind Drive Safe & Save, our signature discount program. There's also the Whisker Labs' Ting device that can help mitigate or prevent house fire losses.

State Farm has been an innovative company since day one. Then, a farmer named George J. Mecherle decided to create an insurance company that more fairly matched risk to price.

As we approach our 100^th anniversary, the pursuit of innovation to better service customers remains our north star.

Pitching ideas to State Farm Ventures has never been easier thanks to the new State Farm Ventures website. To all entrepreneurs seeking funding: innovation is key, but khakis are not mandatory.