Homes fitted out with “smart” technology are lowering the cost of insurance, writes Oliver Ralph in the Financial Times. His article, “Smart homes open the door to growth for insurers,”

Insurers are installing many different kinds of devices, including door sensors, motion sensors, smoke alarms, leak detectors, into homes for free in the hope that they can prevent accidents from happening, and thus reduce the volume and size of insurance claims.

But there is a major problem with “smart” technologies like these: they’re hackable. Connecting your door lock to the Internet is convenient if you need to let couriers, family or friends into your house while you are away, but it also introduces the risk that tech-savvy criminals can hack their way into your house or steal your data. There is also evidence that smart metres can make mistakes or be manipulated, leading to customers being charged too much.

Another problem is that smart homes are still expensive to set up, and not always worth the money – even for insurers who stand to benefit the most.

What will the future of smart homes be? According to some commentators, it will still be some time before smart homes become a way of life.