Progressively…regressive

Wood is flammable.

This post is just a little anecdote about my recent attempt to get home owner’s insurance from Progressive Insurance. We recently bought a home in Ashland, NH. We love it - it’s nicely situated on Squam River. Which - is technically up river (by about 90 miles) from the Merrimack River that I used to cross every day on my commute to UMass Lowell.

To get ready for closing we had to secure home owner’s insurance. I hadn’t had this in about 6 years. When we did have it, it was provided by Progressive. And we had our auto insurance through them and renter’s insurance. It was the natural place to start.

The house we have burns pellets for heat. Not a pellet stove - a pellet burner (which then heats the water that is circulated through the heat pipe system). If you have a home in New England, if you don’t have electric heat, you have a burner (boiler). It either burns oil, gas or in this case - pellets.

Here’s the system - it includes a hopper (in place of an oil tank) that a delivery truck can blow up to 4 tons of pellets into. A system for blowing pellets from the hopper to the burner, a burner and like all systems that use hot water - a circulator that circulates the hot water (like your heart ;)

Here’s the conversation with Progressive Insurance - after about an hour of providing information with them on the phone and then 20 minutes of waiting for an underwriter to make a decision.

Progressive: We cannot insure this house. It uses wood to heat the home.

Me: It uses pellets which are wood, but if you look at the pictures you’ll see it’s a burner system, not a pellet stove or wood burning stove.

Progressive: Yes sir, but wood is flammable. It’s a fire risk.

Me: Yes, anything fueling a “burner” must be flammable.

Progressive: Yes sir, but we can’t provide home owner’s insurance for a home that uses wood for heat because it’s a fire risk, wood is flammable.

Me: I understand that wood is flammable. But you’re considering this a wood stove. It’s not a wood stove, can you see the pictures, it’s a pellet burner.

Progressive: Yes (they eventually lost the sir ;), but wood is flammable?

Me: Indeed it is. It’s sort of a requirement for burner fuel. Do you only provide insurance for burners that burn non flammable fuels? You do realize that oil and gas are flammable. And I would fully expect that you would not insure a house that had an oil stove that burned oil in the living room.

Progressive: We can’t provide insurance, pellets are flammable.

Me: You realize that the government gave a $20k rebate to use a pellet burner because it’s a renewable energy source. And that having such a burner, may be described as being progressive.

Progressive: I understand, but we can’t provide insurance.

Me: Then I think Progressive needs to consider whether they are indeed progressive.

Progressive: Will that be all?

And there you have it. Progressively…regressive.