Is DIY lighting covered by insurance?
 

I'm in the process of planning a new canopy for my tank. I'm wondering if my house burns down, and it's blamed on the lighting on the tank if my DIY procedures will null the insurance. Maybe I should get a "professional" to wire it? I know I could just phone the company, and they will probably say it's null if i do it, but what do you guys think?

This is good point. Tagging along.

My wife is an adjuster for State Farm... I just asked her and she stated that "INSURANCE COVERS STUPIDITY", so basically Yes... your insurance should not be void.

However she suggested to phone your insurance company because some are scrupulous... Better to be safe than sorry with a phone call.

as long as all the componants are csa and being used as intended should be no problem. but phone them and ask.

Steve

I agree. As long as all of your components are CSA-certified then your own handy work should be covered. If you want to be really anal about it. Have an electrician have a quick look and "OK" it for you and/or take pics of everything so if something does go wrong you have a record of it all.

BTW, you should have pictures (and receipts) of all of your valuable items for insurance purposes in any event.

sort of good that your considering the what if, but if I was thinking my build might cause my house to burn down doubt I'd go ahead with it.

I didn't think about it that way, very valid point. If you DIY, then maybe as stated prior, have a licensed electrician look it over.

That is fantastic news!! I'm with State Farm.
Be right back guys... gonna try something Ive always wanted to do. :mrgreen:

Really? Our insurance company (wawanesa I think) has pretty much stated that Any "accident" caused by a pet or it's equipment will void the insurance :cry:

I do really hope that's not true because we have a LOT of pets...

Ok thanks guys! I didn't think it would be covered at all. I have to call and add the tank to the insurance anyway so I will confirm then. I'm always freaked out about fires because I'm paranoid about my dog getting hurt. If it was my house (my bf owns it) I would install a couple fire sprinklers above the tank.

PS I'm not worried about my DIY skills. I wouldn't do anything I wasn't comfortable with, and lighting is very basic when you buy the retrofit kits anyway.

Retrofits might be a bit of a grey area. Most ballasts sold on their own are replacement only. I'm an electrician and for example. If I fix a csa approved light with csa approved parts, that's okay. If I take all the parts out of a csa fixture and install them into something that's not csa approved (ie. A wooden box made to hang over a fish tank) the fixture is no longer csa approved. I now have to have an inspector (not an electrical inspector) come in and give it a csa equivalent approval, at a cost of about $500 bucks. I make control cabinets for industrial machinery, all of the timers, relays, buttons and plcs are csa approved, including the cabinet they are going into. However I still need to get a csa equivalent done becuase the combination of all the parts in the cabinet are not csa approved. Csa covers equipment manufacturing and has nothing at all to do with electricians, different set f rules entirely. The only thing that matters to electricians is that we are not allowed to install equipment that isn't csa approved. Why do I say its a grey area? One could argue that a diy light fixture is manufacturing equipment, if that arguement was won by an insurance company, well you get the point. The other point is a lot of our equipment does not have csa approvals, I've yet to see a controller that does. Its expensive, time consuming and a lot of smaller manufacturers won't go through the hassle and cost of getting it. Off the top of my head I'd say the ballast and endcaps are approved, but I highly doubt the combination of those parts as 'manufactured' and use intended is approved.

thats nore like chewing wires, ect.. doesn't apply here as the pet wouldn't cause your lighting to catch on fire.

there was a fire on here a few years ago that was covered by insurance and it was simular. DIY lights.

usaly it will be an individual part that fails not the part we do, so if you insure all your concections are tight and use marretts rated for outdoors you will be fine.

Steve

a retrofit kit isn't DIY. you are using it as it was intended to be used when sold.

Steve

I would think if you build it to code it would be alright......

Personally, I'd be more concerned with the fact that you doubt your wiring skills to the point that you think you might burn your house down. Whether or not your insurance covers the damage is a secondary issue, you still burnt your house down and with everthing you own and possibly yourself too.

There is nothing wrong with retrofit and/or DIY wiring or lighting so long as you know what your doing and do it properly and safely. If you are that doubtful of your skills, either buy prebuilt or hire someone who knows how to do it right. Saving a few bucks doing it yourself then losing everything in a fire is not worthwhile.