Commercial Construction Is Crucial Without a growing commercial construction market, there isn’t much work for electrical contractors; however, the 7% increase in total US construction put in place (CCIP) during 2014, or $62 billion to a total of $972 billion, was a welcome sign for electricians. Electrical contractors revealed their growing confidence in the future when 52% of all construction subcontractors said markets were improving, according to the Q3 2014 Engineering News-Record’s Construction Industry Confidence Index. Subcontractors were even more bullish about 2015, as 62 percent reported in the Confidence Index. They have every reason to be confident since the forecast for total US construction is $1.04 trillion, or another 7% increase.

The Housing Market Surges Although total housing starts for 2014 increased just 3%, or a total of 1.01 million, compared to 21% for 2013, 2015 is expected to be a better year, with a 9% increase forecasted, or a total of 1.1 million units. The multifamily market has fueled the recovery in the housing market, having experienced a 179% increase in new units since 2009. With such a gain, the market is forecast to increase “only” 7% during 2015, to 405,000 new units. According to the US Census Bureau, 2015 started well with an 8.1% increase in privately-owned housing building permits, +18.7% in housing starts and +13.8% in multifamily of 5 units or more, compared to January 2014.

Generating Growth A significant growth indicator for the 70,000 companies in the $105-billion electrical contracting industry is that 20% of them added employees during 2014, which is a 75- percent increase from 2012. During 2014, the commercial/industrial/institutional (CII) sector generated 51% of companies’ revenues; residential, 42%; and non-building, 7%. It’s the largest electrical contractors, with 10–100+ employees that obtained most of their revenue from the CII sector, in the range of 68% to 85%. Most electrical contractors are small businesses: 74% with 1 to 9 employees and 72% generating less that $1 million in annual revenues. As might be expected, during 2014, 60% of these smaller companies’ revenues came from the residential sector and just 40% from CII.

The Bright Glow from Energy-Efficient-Building Projects According to numerous reports, the global market for building-energy-efficient products and services is forecast to increase 102% through 2023, and could come close to tripling in the US, increasing from $6 billion for 2013 to as much as $15 billion by 2020. During 2014, US electrical contractors reported the largest increase from 2012 in green/sustainable building/alternative energy projects, from approximately 48.5% to just shy of 60% of all work performed. Non-LEED energy-efficiency projects and upgrades were the largest percent of electrical contractors’ green projects during 2014, at 37.5%; followed by LEED projects, 22.5%; solar/photovoltaic, 16.5%; electric vehicle charging stations, 14%; energy audits, 13%; and smart or net metering, 8%.

What Has the Industry Amped Up? Electrical contractors can expect home automation to be a growing sector, as approximately 16% of all new homes have structured wiring systems for high-speed Web, home entertainment and other uses. Existing homes can be retrofitted with wireless technology to avoid rewiring. Although funding has been limited for federal and municipal energy-efficient-building projects, this is expected to change as the economy improves. The federal government would like to spend $2 billion to upgrade as many of its 500,000 buildings as possible for more energy-efficiency. The market for the installation and maintenance of electric vehicle charging stations is also forecast to grow despite the current low gasoline prices. Two Southern California utilities are planning to spend a total of $400 million in charging station projects.

Advertising Strategies Suggest a schedule of :10 or :15 spots during early morning news to promote wireless retrofitting of existing homes for smart home technologies. Copy suggestion: “Wouldn’t you like to control your home’s energy use while at work? Call XYZ electrical contractors and we’ll show you how.” Similarly, electrical contractors of any size can also use :10 and :15 spots to invite CII and residential customers to their Websites and social media pages to learn more about making their businesses and homes more energy- efficient and the money that can be saved. Recommend that larger electrical contractors promote their services for the CII sector by placing spots in local evening news, golf, tennis and similar programs to reach business owners, or those with higher income and in the 49–65 demographic.

Social Media Strategies Electrical contractors can create video case studies of recent projects, stating the problem or challenge, the solution provided and the results of providing the solution, in terms of ROI or energy-cost savings. Since lighting, lamps and lighting control were 3 of the 5 top electrical contractors’ projects during 2014; they can share photos or even short videos on social media of the latest lighting products, solutions and their application for customer projects. Electrical contractors can demonstrate their community leadership by providing content, or links to existing content, about electrical safety issues for the home and business.