Can A Smart Home Alarm System Save Money On Your Home Insurance?

When most people think of saving money with home automation, their ideas usually centre around energy efficiency, which means everything from lights that switch off automatically to solar water heating. 

This week, however, we’re taking a slightly different approach and looking at how you can save money on your home insurance with an automated burglar alarm.

To many of us, home insurance is just another one of those necessary evils that comes with being a homeowner. There are so many factors that influence the cost of home insurance: everything from where you live, to the size of your house and even the type of windows you have.

We did a quick check on the burglary stats for the Thames Valley, where we’re based. The report shows that they were more than 5,000 burglaries from January to June this year. So when it comes to home security, it’s not that surprising that some insurance companies insist that you have an intruder alarm installed in your property.

It goes without saying that the need to install an intruder alarm will depend on the risk level of your property as well as your insurance company’s policy. Previously, we understood that discounts were only available to those with an alarm installed and regularly maintained by an NSI NACOSS Gold or Systems Silver approved company.

However, having done a little research of our own, we’ve discovered that it’s not necessary to be ‘NACOSS’ approved in order to receive a discount. Now we can’t claim all the credit for this revelation, as it was our partner Graeme Harrold who first spotted this -thanks, Graeme!

How Can I Save Money?

Don’t worry, there’s no meerkats involved!

Once again, the amount you can save will depend very much on your individual circumstances and insurer, and our research indicates that savings can be anything from 5% to upwards of 12.5%.

Firstly, speak to your insurer and ask about their specific requirements, and what discounts, if any, are available to you.

For example, with NFU Mutual you can get a 5% discount if the following criteria is met:
– UKAS approved installer.
– Alarm in good working order.
– Alarm regularly maintained (speak to your installer about this)

With Direct Line, having a Loxone alarm system that’s regularly checked and maintained by your Loxone installer can result in a discount of 12.5%!

The key thing to remember here is that in most cases, a discount will only be applied if a service contract has been signed. This means you’ll need to sign a contract with your Loxone partner, or whoever installed the system to ensure that it is checked and maintained at intervals specified by your insurer.

To find out more about using Loxone to protect your home, please click here, or to find your nearest Loxone partner, please use our Partner Search.

If you’re an existing partner and would like to find out more about integrating an alarm or access system with Loxone, why not arrange a free project consultation at our offices in Reading?