Property and Insurance Updates –
Offsetting increasing insurance rates
As we have all noticed, insurance premiums and rates are increasing. Property & Insurance wants to share a few tips to making those rate hikes a little less intense:
(1) Examine your current deductibles. If your deductible is low, consider raising it to offset premium increases. Especially if you have a dedicated building fund, a higher deductible may not be a hardship in the event of a claim.
(2) Examine all current coverages; perhaps some can be changed or removed to offset rates. Consider whether certain coverages, like electronic equipment, data loss and business interruption, provide meaningful protection where the cost of a potential loss is minimal.
(3) Check with your insurer to determine whether they provide incentives for preventative measures such as water leakage monitoring, security and fire alarm systems, and/or cameras.
(4) Make sure that the limits on your policy appropriately reflect the replacement costs of the structures.
PHLYSense Water and Temperature Sensing Devices
For Churches Insured by Brown and Brown/Philadelphia Insurance
(And if you are covered by another provider, check with your insurer for something similar!)
Respond to minor water and temperature issues before they become significant issues. Installation does not affect your premium, but it can significantly decrease claims by hopefully minimizing damage.
These small battery-powered devices can be set up in minutes and placed throughout your property, detecting the presence of water, low or high temperature alerts.
The PHLYSense Sensor, and the related monitoring and support, are provided at no additional cost, if you have Philadelphia property coverage.
You can use it as both a mobile app and online, and alerts are sent via text, email, and/or phone call. You can have multiple contacts receive these alerts, and monitoring is provided 24/7.
Winter Storm Elliot affected 36 states. This “Winter Freeze” event had more impact than the last two hurricane seasons combined. Philadelphia Insurance had over 1500 claims due to Elliot, amounting to over $100,000.
There were over 1200 PHLYSense Alerts during that three-day period, but only six significant claims were filed because of the presence of these sensors.
Natural disasters are increasing in severity and frequency. Protect your property from water damage and extreme temperatures. Get PHLYSense Water and Temperature Sensing Devices.
Energy Use and Carbon Footprint Survey—An invitation from Research Services
All Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) congregations, presbyteries, and synods are invited to participate in the Energy Use and Carbon Footprint Survey. In 2022, the 225th General Assembly called upon the whole of the PC(USA) to reduce our carbon footprint. As part of this, it also directed the Presbyterian Mission Agency to conduct a survey of all PC(USA) buildings to estimate our current carbon footprint.
This survey will require you to gather information from utility bills and should take 10–15 minutes once you have the required information. There is space in the survey to indicate if you have already had an energy audit, made energy efficiency changes, or if you use renewable energy. There are also suggestions of how to reduce energy use, so that when we repeat this churchwide survey in 4 years we can compare how much we have collectively reduced our impact—starting now!
If you have any questions or need any assistance completing the survey, please contact Sean Payne in Research Services. For questions or resources on how to reduce energy use, lower your personal or collective carbon footprint, or join congregational programs that assist you with reducing energy use (such as Interfaith Power and Light’s Cool Congregations Program or the EPA Portfolio Manager tool to be an Energy Star Congregation), check out resources and webinars from Presbyterians for Earth Care or contact Jessica Maudlin in the Presbyterian Hunger Program.
Go to PEC HOME here
Thanks to Lehigh Presbytery:
For congregations, there are many great webinars and websites out there about how to fund and pursue energy efficiency and renewable energy with financial resources, tax incentives, and pathways provided by this year’s legislation passed through the U.S. Congress. In addition to the curated list below, you can find other great webinars from Interfaith Power and Light
https://www.youtube.com/@InterfaithPowerandLightOrg/videos) as well as Presbyterians for Earth Care (PEC).
Go to PEC HOME here
Holy Heat Pumps
Holy Heat Pumps explains how heat pumps work and how to lower the costs for installation at your churches with the new government funds available to congregations for the first time.
Tools & Resources for Green Congregations
The webinar covers the ways houses of worship and religious institutions can update their facilities to become more energy efficient and save on their energy bills. It also offers important information regarding first-time federal funding available to nonprofits to support investment in energy efficiency and renewables.
Solar Financing Webinar
In the Summer Solstice Webinar on Solar Financing learn about the different ways congregations can finance solar from Jerry Bernstein, author of IPL’s Solar Financing for Congregations. Then take a deeper look at power purchase agreements, one of the options allowing a congregation to install solar with no up-front costs.
Presbyterians for Earth Care offers a webinar on Federal Funding Resources for Houses of Worship
Presbyterians for Earth Care offers a webinar on Federal Funding Resources for Houses of Worship
Presbyterians for Earth Care offers a webinar on Federal Funding Resources for Houses of Worship with Tiffany Hartung.
