Home Insurance for Mining

[GMPoison]

For those of you out there that mine at home with a decent amount of equipment and you own your house, did you check with your home insurance provider about mining to let them know what you're doing? I want to mine in the room of a home that one of my relatives owns but he is concerned about the house insurance going up because of the risk of running the miners in the house, or that they would void his insurance if they somehow caught fire and burned the house down, and the fact that I would technically be running a business as a sole proprietor from the house.

Any input on this type of thing? Would be interesting to hear what your experiences have been!

[Steamtyme]

That's an interesting question, I would assume as long as all of your electrical wiring was set up appropriately there would be no issue. They do not require anyone to purchase special insurance for Gaming PC's, or any other electrical devices. I know my home insurance policy doesn't restrict me from say running my Dryer constantly for 24 hours a day. My only advice would be to make sure the electrical codes are followed if you need to set up custom outlets, and that the home is fitted with the appropriate amount of smoke detectors.

This is all just my opinion, it's up to the homeowner, and whatever their insurance policy states.

[GMPoison]

That's an interesting question, I would assume as long as all of your electrical wiring was set up appropriately there would be no issue. They do not require anyone to purchase special insurance for Gaming PC's, or any other electrical devices. I know my home insurance policy doesn't restrict me from say running my Dryer constantly for 24 hours a day. My only advice would be to make sure the electrical codes are followed if you need to set up custom outlets, and that the home is fitted with the appropriate amount of smoke detectors.

This is all just my opinion, it's up to the homeowner, and whatever their insurance policy states.

That makes sense.

[buwaytress]

For those of you out there that mine at home with a decent amount of equipment and you own your house, did you check with your home insurance provider about mining to let them know what you're doing? I want to mine in the room of a home that one of my relatives owns but he is concerned about the house insurance going up because of the risk of running the miners in the house, or that they would void his insurance if they somehow caught fire and burned the house down, and the fact that I would technically be running a business as a sole proprietor from the house.

Any input on this type of thing? Would be interesting to hear what your experiences have been!

Actually, a very good question. If you run a mining business at home, and report this as income or tax, as well as are at home yourself, this might affect your home insurance, at least where I come from. I know this because I have had a home-based business at various times over the years. It doesn't matter if you're running a food delivery or mining rig, it's the activities that happen at home that are associated with increased risk and, therefore, increased premiums through additional cover. In my case, the business (even which involved cooking, so I assumed would be high fire risk) didn't actually increase the cost of insurance. So you should still inform the insurer.

What I did pay more for was additional cover for equipment ... and that wasn't too much more.

[Sr.Urbanist]

My insurance company - and a second one - said my homeowner's insurance will cover the contents up to $10,000 in computer hardware.

Once expanding out of the house and into a warehouse, I'll get bonding and special insurance. 

[GMPoison]

My insurance company - and a second one - said my homeowner's insurance will cover the contents up to $10,000 in computer hardware.

Once expanding out of the house and into a warehouse, I'll get bonding and special insurance. 

Yeah, I just need to get homeowners insurance for the place ill be renting, which is something I wanted to get anyway. I don't believe it's too expensive either, even to cover the expensive price of the miners.

[Sr.Urbanist]

I think renter's insurance is around $10 per month ... depending.

[GMPoison]

I think renter's insurance is around $10 per month ... depending.

I was just doing some reading, and apparently it doesn't cover business equipment which is what miners would be considered if you're using them to turn a profit and not just for hobby, I think you may need more expensive insurance for them to be covered.

[Spikedgiraffe]

Canadian Insurance Broker here:

All depends on how you have it set up at your home:

As a personal venture you have nothing to worry about as far as your insurance goes.  If you have a personal machine mining at home, it will have ZERO impact on your insurance.  The Computer(s) would just be your personal property like everything else.

There is nothing as far as I am aware of any clauses or stipulations that say you can not leave your computer on 24/7 nor what you can use your computer for.  If by chance the computer caused a fire, it would be just a normal fire claim.  

If you are storing something at some one else's place, it is not your insurance that would cover the loss, but the owner of that home.  They computer is under their care, so therefore they would be responsible if it caused a loss.

The problem comes when it moves from personal to more commercial.  

Will you be running this as a Home Based Business?  How much Annual Income?  

From my experience Mining from home would closest to the Data Processing Service.  Which from the companies I work with is acceptable to all of them.  From my experience most will not insure a Home Based Business if the annual revenue is $150,000CAD or higher.

Under home insurance Your Data is not insured(There is limited coverage to rebuild databases and such...but nothing for the Data itself).  So if you have BTC in a Wallet on that computer and it dies...the BTC could be lost forever.

Also there are limits to equipment that will covered under the Home Based Business Insurance.  $20,000CAD is normal, so a few powerful machines and you are already maxed out.

[GMPoison]

Thanks for the reply! After doing a bit more research I did realize that since mining at a large enough scale would be considered a business, so normal home owners insurance wouldn't cover the miners if something were to happen. I don't much care about that because I know nothing should happen given the electrical and whatnot is installed correctly. I'm assuming that if they were to catch fire or something crazy, it would be no different than my gaming computer catching fire, and I wouldn't be liable if it burned the owners house down. I wouldn't care as much about my miners being destroyed as much as the house surrounding them that they would destroy.