With the calendar set to flip over to 2020 and the start of a new decade, people everywhere are making their best guesses as to what the future may hold. For some people, the future may include some small changes or ways of making their life better. For others, the changes may be sweeping, dramatic, or completely revolutionary. However, there’s one thing for certain: nobody can be truly sure of just what might happen over the next ten years.
This is particularly true for the home services industry, including heating and cooling, electrical, and plumbing services. Our industry is constantly changing, so figuring out where things may go over the next several years is an extremely difficult task. However, there are some things we can say with some certainty that we expect to either happen or continue over the next decade. Here are three of these trends.
Energy Efficiency Will Remain King
For decades now, one of the leading goals of the entire home services industry is to help customers save energy. Saving energy is better for the environment, keeps hard-earned money in your pocket, and even puts less strain on our state’s aging electrical grid. All of that means better stability, better cost control, and better quality of life in the long term.
The overwhelming majority of improvements in nearly all aspects of home services over the last decade were made in the name of energy efficiency. Everything from more efficient heating and cooling equipment to tankless water heaters to surge protection and smart microgrids for homeowners are all designed to give you better control over your energy and waste less of it in the process. Over the next ten years, we expect even bigger advancements in energy-efficient technology to continue hitting the market and improving our quality of life.
The Need for Technicians Will Grow
The idea that the home services industry needs more and more technicians isn’t a new one: as more and more homes are built, companies need to be ready to serve more and more customers. However, the industry has a unique challenge in that fewer and fewer young adults are attending trade schools or gaining the experience they need to start a career in a particular trade. The overwhelming majority of students who graduate high school and choose post-secondary education opt to go to college rather than trade schools. As a result, our industry is facing a severe shortage in new technicians.
Toward the end of this decade, the issue has started to become particularly serious. Many of the older generations of trade workers are retiring, and with too few workers coming out of training to replace them, the need for help has only grown larger and larger. This is why we strongly encourage young people who have an interest in the trades or mechanical work to consider trade school as an alternative to college. The skills gained from trade school are an invaluable basis for a rewarding and fulfilling career, and the benefits and starting pay for even recent graduates are outstanding. Not to mention trade school is often exponentially more affordable than a four-year college degree, and many students graduate with little to no debt as well as outstanding job prospects right away.
Smart Home Technology Will Become Central to Daily Life
The 2010s saw the rapid rise of smart home technology. Smart speakers, Wi-Fi controlled thermostats, and internet-operated lights were just a few of the things that homeowners everywhere began to adopt. After all, who wouldn’t want the convenience of being able to turn the lights off after you’ve already left the house or make sure that the temperature at home never becomes entirely unreasonable?
In the 2020s, we fully expect smart home technology to even further integrate into our lives and even become the next must-have thing. Smart technology can do everything from improve your energy efficiency to increase security and even give you peace of mind that’s becoming harder and harder to enjoy these days. Not only will more technology come about that will further advance the industry, but we expect that more and more people will integrate this type of technology into their home in at least one way, and more than likely several ways.
If you have a problem with any of your home’s most important systems, trust the experts from All Pro Plumbing, Heating, Air & Electrical to take care of it properly. Dial (909) 500-8193 now to request an estimate.
