Ting (stylized "ting") is a proactive domestic

voltage Voltage, also known as (electrical) potential difference, electric pressure, or electric tension, is the difference in electric potential between two points. In a Electrostatics, static electric field, it corresponds to the Work (electrical), ...

monitor,

alarm ALARM (Air Launched Anti-Radiation Missile) is a British anti-radiation missile designed primarily to destroy enemy radars for the purpose of Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD). It was used by the Royal Air Force, RAF and is still used by ...

, and app. The tall 2.5 oblong off-white device monitors the home's electrical system for micro-arcs (or scintillations) 30 million times per second for the cumulative precursor events of an electrical

house fire A structure fire is a fire involving the structural components of various types of residential, commercial or industrial buildings, such as barn fires. Residential buildings range from single-family detached homes and townhouses to apartments an ...

. Such events, and those of interest to both homeowners and electrical utilities, include degrading electrical insulation,

short circuit A short circuit (sometimes abbreviated to short or s/c) is an electrical circuit that allows a current to travel along an unintended path with no or very low electrical impedance. This results in an excessive current flowing through the circuit ...

s, grid arcing, loose or arcing

transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

connections,

power outage A power outage, also called a blackout, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, a power cut, or a power out is the complete loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user. There are many causes of power failures in an el ...

s, surges, and brown-outs, and

electric motor An electric motor is a machine that converts electrical energy into mechanical energy. Most electric motors operate through the interaction between the motor's magnetic field and electric current in a electromagnetic coil, wire winding to gene ...

s near their end of life (

sump pump A sump pump is a pump used to remove water that has accumulated in a water-collecting sump basin, commonly found in the basements of homes and other buildings, and in other locations where water must be removed, such as construction sites. Th ...

radon Radon is a chemical element; it has symbol Rn and atomic number 86. It is a radioactive noble gas and is colorless and odorless. Of the three naturally occurring radon isotopes, only Rn has a sufficiently long half-life (3.825 days) for it to b ...

mitigation fans, etc.) Ting can also detect failing startup

capacitor In electrical engineering, a capacitor is a device that stores electrical energy by accumulating electric charges on two closely spaced surfaces that are insulated from each other. The capacitor was originally known as the condenser, a term st ...

s used in heating, ventilation and air conditioning (

HVAC Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC ) is the use of various technologies to control the temperature, humidity, and purity of the air in an enclosed space. Its goal is to provide thermal comfort and acceptable indoor air quality. ...

) systems, distribution grid faults and outages, and even

high voltage High voltage electricity refers to electrical potential large enough to cause injury or damage. In certain industries, ''high voltage'' refers to voltage above a certain threshold. Equipment and conductors that carry high voltage warrant sp ...

mains electricity Mains electricity, utility power, grid power, domestic power, wall power, household current, or, in some parts of Canada, hydro, is a general-purpose Alternating current, alternating-current (AC) electric power supply. It is the form of electri ...

grid faults. One week of monitoring provides a baseline for any given household. An

Internet of Things Internet of things (IoT) describes devices with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other communication networks. The IoT encompasse ...

(IOT) device plugged into any three-pronged (preferably seldom used) electrical outlet uploads approximately 160 MB of data per day to its manufacturer, Whisker Labs. ''En toto'' the nationwide fleet of sensors installed in more than 700,000 homes generates approximately 30 GB of data per second. Whisker Labs (founded in 2014 and based in

Germantown, Maryland Germantown is an urbanized census-designated place in Montgomery County, Maryland, United States. With a population of 91,249 as of the 2020 census, it is the third-most populous community in Maryland, after Baltimore and Columbia, Maryland, Col ...

) claims to have detected electrical fire faults in 1 of 150 homes without any false positives. Water and fire hazards combined have been detected on average in 1 of 60 homes annually, and overall 80% (approximately four in five) of electrical fires in its network have been prevented. Prevention being cheaper than replacement, Ting has been offered for free to more than two million policy holders by a large cohort of the U.S.

insurance industry Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect ...

, including but not limited to

State Farm State Farm Insurance is a group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Founded in 1922, it is the largest property and casualty insurance, property, casualty and auto i ...

(albeit not in Alaska, Delaware, North Carolina, South Dakota, and Wyoming), Westfield Insurance, Ohio Mutual,

reinsurer Reinsurance is insurance that an insurance company purchases from another insurance company to insulate itself (at least in part) from the risk of a major claims event. With reinsurance, the company passes on ("cedes") some part of its own ins ...

PURE Insurance Privilege Underwriters Reciprocal Exchange (PURE) is an American property insurance company established in 2006. Business model PURE caters to high-net-worth customers. It offers insurance for homes with a rebuild value of more than one million ...

(albeit not in Idaho, Maine, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming),

Nationwide Insurance Nationwide Mutual Insurance Company and affiliated companies, commonly shortened to Nationwide, is a group of large U.S. insurance and financial services companies based in Columbus, Ohio. The company also operates regional headquarters in Scott ...

Philadelphia Contributionship The Philadelphia Contributionship for the Insurance of Houses from Loss by Fire is the oldest property insurance company in the United States. It was organized by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 and incorporated in 1768. The Contributionship's buil ...

, HSB, Farm Insurance Bureau of Michigan,

Liberty Mutual Liberty Mutual Insurance Company is an American diversified global insurer and the sixth-largest Property insurance, property and Casualty insurance, casualty insurer in the world. It ranks 87th on the Fortune 100, ''Fortune'' 100 list of larges ...

, and

Erie Insurance Erie Insurance Group, based in Erie, Pennsylvania, is a property and casualty insurance company offering auto, home, business and life insurance through a network of independent insurance agents. , Erie Insurance Group is ranked 347th on the 2 ...

. The service, by means of

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of study in artificial intelligence concerned with the development and study of Computational statistics, statistical algorithms that can learn from data and generalise to unseen data, and thus perform Task ( ...

analysis of

big data Big data primarily refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data processing, data-processing application software, software. Data with many entries (rows) offer greater statistical power, while data with ...

from over a million sensors (over 650,000 home years of monitoring data) has detected patterns heretofore not apparent amongst varying

electrical code An electrical code is a term for a set of regulations for the design and installation of electrical wiring in a building. The intention of such regulations is to provide standards to ensure electrical wiring systems are safe for people and propert ...

s, the decade of and type of wiring, etc. Approximately 60% of hazards detected stemmed from faulty (degraded) wiring, and 40% from appliances. One unexpected new danger, flagged in 2024, were rotating

Christmas trees A Christmas tree is a decorated tree, usually an evergreen conifer, such as a spruce, pine or fir, associated with the celebration of Christmas. It may also consist of an artificial tree of similar appearance. The custom was developed in Ce ...

References

{{Reflist Fire prevention

See also

References