Just as there are crash tests for automobiles, why should there not be similar testing to see how buildings hold up against a variety of insured exposures? That is the driving question behind the Institute for Business and Home Safety's planned "Insurance Center for Building Safety Research."
The idea is to develop a facility that would do for homes what the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety does for cars, according to IBHS President and Chief Executive Officer Julie Rochman.
"Instead of crashing vehicles," Ms. Rochman said, "we'll be constructing full-scale houses and 'crashing' them."
The facility will be built in Chester County, south of Charlotte, S.C., where full-scale constructed homes–and later light commercial construction–will be subjected to a variety of weather conditions, with the goal of improving strength and safety.
Ms. Rochman said there are other scientific centers that conduct similar research, but she explained they typically only look at one peril. She noted, for example, that one facility in Western Ontario looks only at wind, while another at the University of California at Berkeley looks at wildfires.
No other lab, however, examines the impact of a variety of weather conditions on full-scale houses and commercial property, according to Ms. Rochman–who realizes firsthand the types of damage storms can inflict on property owners and their insurers, as she was once senior vice president of public affairs at the American Insurance Association.
While the facility will include some office space, Ms. Rochman said the main feature will be a huge lab, featuring a turntable to place building "specimens," with an array of fans–between 100 and 160 in total–which will be controlled independently.
The facility will be able to generate rain and winds comparable to a Category 3 hurricane, with gusts up to a Category 4. The rain can be shut off, Ms. Rochman said, to simulate harsh winds away from the coast. She said the plan is to also be able to replicate wind with fire, as well as with hail.
Now is an especially good time to bring such a facility on line, according to Ms. Rochman, with catastrophe-prone states focused on risk reduction and prevention in the wake of Hurricane Ike and other major events this year.
The hard science conducted at the facility could be applied back in the real world through building codes, for example, noted Ms. Rochman, who calls the facility's work "applied science."
The lab is scheduled to be fully functional by 2010, with insurers and reinsurers picking up the costs "This is an insurance industry effort," Ms. Rochman emphasized.
She also pointed out that IBHS did not take money from entities that wanted to use the facility to test products. Everything done in the lab, she explained, will be transparent so there is never the appearance of a conflict of interest.
For more information, go to www.disastersafety.org.
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