HVAC

Home Service category shows strong resilience to economic uncertainty, reaching 20 months of positive revenue growth

Jobber, the leading provider of home service management software, today released its latest Home Service Economic Report: 2021 Review. The report features expert insights and proprietary data aggregated from more than 160,000 residential cleaners, landscapers, HVAC technicians, window washers, plumbers, and more, who use Jobber.

“The performance of the Home Service category has made the trades an attractive option for entrepreneurs, those seeking a career change, and young adults entering the workforce,” said Sam Pillar, CEO & co-founder of Jobber. “2021 was a notable year as it demonstrated just how essential the Home Service category is with its high growth and unprecedented consumer demand.”

Raking in the Green: Home Service Outperforms Most Other Categories

Spending on Home Service outperformed most major categories, such as Food and Beverage Stores, Clothing Stores, and Restaurants, throughout 2021, with growth exceeding pre-pandemic levels. Home Service revenue growth has been steadily growing since June 2020. Year-over-year median revenue grew at a faster rate in Q4 2021, even while new work scheduled during Q4 2021 slowed, showing companies were able to make more per job.

• Contracting Segment Prices Climb: Contracting businesses benefited from increasing prices with 12% revenue growth in Q4 2021.
• Contract Jobs Grow Cleaning Segment: Recent growth in the Cleaning segment’s new work scheduled was driven by a 16% year-over-year increase in contract jobs.
• New Work for Green Segment Stands Out: The Green segment, which includes outdoor services such as pressure washing, lawn care, and landscaping, experienced high growth in new work scheduled during 2021, while other segments slowed down.

Housing Dynamics

The active real estate market, further heightened by the desire to purchase homes before mortgage rates increase, continued to create momentum and demand for home services.

• New Homes Can’t Bridge the Gap: The U.S. housing market is nearly four million homes short of buyer demand; the supply of newly built units has been unable to satisfy this ever-increasing demand.
• Shoppers Turning to Older Homes: With limited supply, homebuyers are turning to older homes or choosing to invest in their current home; as such, home improvement and maintenance expenditures are tracking toward double-digit growth in 2022.

Payments Tech: Pay Now or Later?

Home Service businesses have their own unique dynamics related to payment collection. Some businesses like the immediate liquidity of cash, while others prefer to take checks for a large job so they don’t have to pay credit card transaction fees. That said, Jobber’s data does indicate that adoption of payment technology is on the rise.

• Growth of Online Payments: Online payments grew to 39% of all payments processed across all Home Service segments.

• Green Segment Catching Up: Green businesses, which showed the lowest percentage of online payments prior to the pandemic, has seen rapid adoption, climbing over 35%.

Skilled Worker Trends: Retirements Open More Opportunities For Those Starting Their Careers

The challenge to hire skilled trade workers remains widespread, despite a significant opportunity in earning potential for those who choose to enter Home Service.

• Retirement’s Impact: Half of the people who exited the labor market in 2021 were 55+, accelerating the rate of retirement—a macro trend that also impacted Home Service.
• Job Openings Remain Unfilled: The ratio of hires to job openings continued to grow, such that job openings widely outnumbered positions being filled.

“It’s a testament to the resilience of the Home Service category that revenue growth can be sustained even when there’s a drastic shortage of talent,” said Abheek Dhawan, VP, Business Operations at Jobber. “With Home Service demand at a record high, the category remains ripe with opportunity for those willing to enter it.”

To download the Jobber Home Service Economic Report: 2021 Review, visit: https://getjobber.com/home-service-reports/february-2022/

Organization aims to foster innovation and provide consumers with safer, simpler and more interoperable options for HVAC and other long-life appliances and systems in their connected home ecosystem

Trane Residential (Trane) and American Standard Heating & Air Conditioning (American Standard), two leading residential HVAC brands, today announced the launch of the Home Connectivity Alliance (HCA) with global manufacturers Arcelik, The Electrolux Group, Haier, GE Appliances and Samsung Electronics (Samsung) at Samsung’s pre-show Keynote address at the 2022 Consumer Electronics Show (CES). HCA will provide consumers with safer, simpler and more interoperable options for their larger investment, long-life connected appliances and systems, focusing on HVACs, TVs and appliances. Katherine Shin, Secretary at Home Connectivity Alliance and Vice President of Customer Experience for the Residential HVAC and Supply business at Trane Technologies, joined the CES Keynote to discuss Trane’s involvement as a founding alliance member and HCA’s collective commitment to building a more intuitive and seamless smart home experience.

Through HCA, Trane and American Standard along with other founding alliance members will set out to develop guidelines for Cloud-to-Cloud interoperability across long-life appliances and systems like HVAC that consumers use and rely on every day. The alliance’s efforts support compatibility across multiple manufacturers to provide consumers flexibility in purchasing multiple brand appliances and systems that will work together without being locked into a single platform or sacrificing privacy and data protection. HCA also aims to make consumer data more accessible to drive insights consumers can act on immediately that result in real savings and efficiencies.

“At Trane and American Standard, we continue to innovate and design residential HVAC systems and devices that are integral to the home,” says Shin. “For instance, our smart thermostats can automatically adjust temperature settings based on whether homeowners are at home or away or homeowners can adjust the temperature via the convenient app. Alternatively, they can grant our independent dealers access to remotely diagnose HVAC problems and order replacement parts in advance of an on-site visit. These smart home features offer both homeowners and dealers an invaluable layer of convenience and can reduce homeowner energy consumption and utility expenses while saving the homeowner and dealer time. However, our smart products and many other long-life systems on the market today collect a profound amount of data that must be utilized in a secure environment or otherwise risk consumer satisfaction and trust. Forming this alliance allows us to be the collective voice for home electronics data privacy, where we will agree upon industry standards to protect our consumers’ data so that manufacturers like us can provide even more energy-efficient products that build a more sustainable future.”

HCA invites other connected device manufactures to join, as members will have the opportunity to innovate, influence industry trends, share expertise across peers and become leaders in expanding the connected home ecosystem and in delivering simple and elegant consumer experiences. By collaborating with other standards organizations and governing entities, HCA will foster fair competition and drive innovation to provide consumers with the safest, most feature-rich and interoperable options in their connected home.

“Support from Home Connectivity Alliance member companies like Trane Residential and American Standard Heating and Air Conditioning gives us a strong foundation to deliver results,” said Yoon Ho Choi, President of Home Connectivity Alliance. “With first-hand knowledge of appliance manufacturing and an emphasis on consumer data privacy, we are well-equipped to integrate HVACs and other large systems to improve consumers’ experience in the home.”

To learn more about the Home Connectivity Alliance, membership benefits and how to join, visit www.homeconnectivityalliance.org.

Denron Plumbing & HVAC and J. Lawrence Hall a “Merger of Equals”

Two of New Hampshire’s most successful mechanical contractors have combined teams to form a commercial plumbing and HVAC powerhouse in the market.

Denron Plumbing & HVAC LLC, serving commercial and Industrial plumbing and HVAC clients throughout New England since 1974 and J Lawrence Hall, family-owned and operated design-build mechanical contractor in Nashua since 1937 have merged. The merged companies will be known as Denron Hall Plumbing & HVAC.

(From L to R) Steve Bienvenue, Christopher Mitchell, Joel Pickering, Charlie Hall, Elliot Hall, Joe Nash.

“It was important for us to find a partner who could help carry on the legacy that of our family built over 8 decades,” said J Lawrence Hall President Charlie Hall. “Taking care of our employees and customers long term have been our top priorities and the merger with Denron accomplishes both.”

The merged company will maintain both their Manchester and Nashua locations and will have more than 200 employees. Although both companies previously provided both plumbing and HVAC services to general contractors, building owners and facility managers throughout northern and central New England, Denron’s strength was on the plumbing side and J Lawrence Hall had a strong background in HVAC, including their own sheet metal shop.

“It truly is a merger of equals, with each of the companies bringing unique specialties to the table,” said Denron Hall CEO Joel Pickering “Bringing together these two great companies makes us stronger in the marketplace.“

There’s no one in the region now that brings this level of expertise in plumbing,  HVAC construction and building services at this size and scope to a project,” said Pickering. “Additionally, by maintaining the two locations allows us to better serve our service and maintenance customers in southern New Hampshire and northern Massachusetts.”

For more information about Denron Hall Plumbing & HVAC LLC, contact Joel Pickering at 603-627-4186 or jpickering@denronph.com.